For Dinah was intensely sensitive, keenly susceptible to rebuke and coldness, and her warm heart shrank from unkindness with a shrinking that was actual pain.
She knew that the little social world of Perrythorpe looked down upon her mother though not actually refusing to associate with her.

Bathurst had married a circus-girl in his green Oxford days; so the story went,--a hard, handsome woman older than himself, and fiercely, intensely ambitious.

Lack of funds had prevented her climbing very high, and bitterly she resented her failure.

He had never done a day's work in his life, but, unlike his wife, he had plenty of friends.

He was well-bred, a good rider, a straight shot, and an entertaining guest.