I had not been inside the walls since I was a child, when it used to be let to strangers, before Mrs.Charmond's late husband bought the property.

She is SO nice!" And Grace fell into such an abstracted gaze at the imaginary image of Mrs.Charmond and her niceness that it almost conjured up a vision of that lady in mid-air before them.
"She has only been here a month or two, it seems, and cannot stay much longer, because she finds it so lonely and damp in winter.

She is going abroad.

Only think, she would like me to go with her." Giles's features stiffened a little at the news.

"Indeed; what for?
But I won't keep you standing here.