The others had suffered him at closer quarters the greater part of their lives.

It was to them a mighty relief to be boarded off from him, and to feel free at last from his unwelcome incursions.
He never spoke to any of them, and when they passed one another on their various farm duties a black look and a muttered curse was his only greeting.
By means of what fairy tales concerning himself, or his position, or Sark, he had induced the lively-eyed Julie to marry him, we may not know.

But Mrs.Tom very soon let it be known that she considered herself woefully misled, and quite thrown away upon such a place as Sark, and still more so upon this _ultima thule_ of Little Sark, which she volubly asserted was the very last place le bon Dieu had made, and the condition in which it was left did Him little credit.
She, at all events, showed no disinclination to chat with her neighbours.

Very much the contrary.

None of them could pass within range of her eyes and tongue without a greeting and an invitation to talk.
"Tiens donc, Nancie, ma petite!" she would cry, at sight of Nance.