She had felt since she came to Billingsfield that from the very first she had put herself upon a footing of safety by telling her story to the vicar.

But the vicar would, not without her permission repeat that story to Mr.Juxon.Was she herself called upon to do so?
She was a very sensitive woman, and her impressionable nature had been strongly affected by what she had suffered.

An almost morbid fear of seeming to make false pretences possessed her.

She was more than thirty years of age, it is true, but she saw plainly enough in her glass that she was more than passably good-looking still.

There were one or two grey threads in her brown waving hair and she took no trouble to remove them; no one ever noticed them.