HOME LIFE AT THE CASTLE The life of that quaint old country-house was something very strange and odd to Nina Kostalergi.

It was not merely its quiet monotony, its unbroken sameness of topics as of events, and its small economies, always appearing on the surface; but that a young girl like Kate, full of life and spirits, gay, handsome, and high-hearted--that she should go her mill-round of these tiresome daily cares, listening to the same complaints, remedying the same evils, meeting the same difficulties, and yet never seem to resent an existence so ignoble and unworthy! This was, indeed, scarcely credible.
As for Nina herself--like one saved from shipwreck--her first sense of security was full of gratitude.

It was only as this wore off that she began to see the desolation of the rock on which she had clambered.

Not that her former life had been rose-tinted.

It had been of all things the most harassing and wearing--a life of dreary necessitude--a perpetual struggle with debt.