"We dine at half-past seven, you know, so as to be early for Miss Nellie," he said, as he went out.
Mrs.Goddard was glad he was gone, though she felt that he was not unsympathetic.

The story of the dog had frightened her, and her own mention of her husband had made her nervous and sad.

More than ever she felt that fear of being in a false position, which had assailed her when she had first met the squire on the previous evening.

He had at once opened relations with her in a way which showed that he intended to be intimate; he had offered to improve her cottage, had insisted upon making frames in her garden, had asked her to dinner with the Ambroses and had established the right to talk to her whenever he got a chance.

He interested her, too, which was worse.