He was pale and pasty, and suffered from indigestion.

Mrs.Flint was tall, thin and severe, and a great helper at St.Matthew's, the church round the corner.

She gave up all her time to church work and the care of the poor, and it wasn't her fault that the poor hated her.

Between the Scylla of politics and the Charybdis of religion there was very little left for poor Barbara; she faded away under the care of an elderly governess who suffered from a perfect cascade of ill-fated love affairs; it seemed that gentlemen were always "playing with her feelings." But in all probability a too vivid imagination led her astray in this matter; at any rate, she cried so often during Barbara's lessons that the title of the lesson-book, "Reading without Tears," was sadly belied.

It might be expected that, under these unfavourable circumstances, Barbara was growing into a depressed and melancholy childhood.
Barbara, happily, was saved by her imagination.