She accepted this seclusion at the Dunsters' mansion as in a hermitage, and lived there, watched over by a group of old people, with the lofty endurance of a condescending and strong-headed goddess.

It was impossible to say if she suffered from anything in the world, and whether this was the insensibility of a great passion concentrated on itself, or a perfect restraint of manner, or the indifference of superiority so complete as to be sufficient to itself.

But it was visible to Renouard that she took some pleasure in talking to him at times.

Was it because he was the only person near her age?
Was this, then, the secret of his admission to the circle?
He admired her voice as well poised as her movements, as her attitudes.
He himself had always been a man of tranquil tones.

But the power of fascination had torn him out of his very nature so completely that to preserve his habitual calmness from going to pieces had become a terrible effort.
He used to go from her on board the schooner exhausted, broken, shaken up, as though he had been put to the most exquisite torture.