The rector's widow glanced after her thoughtfully.

Apollonie was intimately connected with the earliest impressions of her childhood, as well as with the experiences of her youth, with all the people whom she had loved most and who had stood nearest to her.

Her appearance therefore always brought up many memories in Mrs.Maxa's heart.

Since her husband's death, when she had left the rectory in the valley and had come back to her old home, all her friends called her Mrs.Maxa to distinguish her from the present rector's wife of the village.

She had been used to see Apollonie in her parents' house.