Whatever Mrs.Clacy was asked to do she could perform with a rough efficiency.

But she always undertook it with reluctance.

It was not, she took care to mention, what she was accustomed to, but she would do it to oblige.

Her charge was eighteen-pence a day with her dinner, and (she made the addition with a raised eyebrow, and the resigned sigh of one who takes her meals as a duty toward those dependent on her) a bit of tea at the end of the day.
It was on a Wednesday that Dormer Colville met Captain Clubbe face to face in the street, and was forced to curb his friendly smile and half-formed nod of salutation.

For Captain Clubbe went past him with a rigid face and steadily averted eyes, like a walking monument.