He and his mother had been living from hand to mouth, so to speak, for years, and they had also been obliged to keep up appearances, which is sometimes embittering even to persons of amiable tempers.

Lady Anstruthers, it is true, had lived in the country in as niggardly a manner as possible.

She had narrowed her existence to absolute privation, presenting at the same time a stern, bold front to the persons who saw her, to the insufficient staff of servants, to the village to the vicar and his wife, and the few far-distant neighbours who perhaps once a year drove miles to call or leave a card.

She was an old woman sufficiently unattractive to find no difficulty in the way of limiting her acquaintances.

The unprepossessing wardrobe she had gathered in the passing years was remade again and again by the village dressmaker.