Here he was in the flesh; and she was called upon to live with him, and not only to talk about him.

Under circumstances of peculiar responsibility too.

For it was very clear that upon the owner of Mellor depended, and had always depended, the labourer of Mellor.
Well, she had tried to live with them ever since she came--had gone in and out of their cottages in flat horror and amazement at them and their lives and their surroundings; alternately pleased and repelled by their cringing; now enjoying her position among them with the natural aristocratic instinct of women, now grinding her teeth over her father's and uncle's behaviour and the little good she saw any prospect of doing for her new subjects.
What, _their_ friend and champion, and ultimately their redeemer too?
Well, and why not?
Weak women have done greater things in the world.

As she stood on the chancel step, vowing herself to these great things, she was conscious of a dramatic moment--would not have been sorry, perhaps, if some admiring eye could have seen and understood her.
But there was a saving sincerity at the root of her, and her strained mood sank naturally into a girlish excitement.
"We shall see!--We shall see!" she said aloud, and was startled to hear her words quite plainly in the silent church.

As she spoke she stooped to separate her flowers and see what quantities she had of each.
But while she did so a sound of distant voices made her raise herself again.