Rarely, after Susan was sixteen, did any of the boys venture to ask her to dance and so give himself the joy of encircling that lovely form of hers; yet from babyhood her fascination for the male sex, regardless of age or temperament, had been uncanny--"naturally, she being a love-child," said the old women.

And from fourteen on, it grew steadily.
It would be difficult for one who has not lived in a small town to understand exactly the kind of isolation to which Sutherland consigned the girl without her realizing it, without their fully realizing it themselves.

Everyone was friendly with her.

A stranger would not have noticed any difference in the treatment of her and of her cousin Ruth.

Yet not one of the young men would have thought of marrying her, would have regarded her as his equal or the equal of his sisters.