When Hester was not a cultivated woman of the world she was a child.

There was, alas! no medium in her character.

Rachel noticed how thin her face and hands had become, and the strained look in the eyes.

The faint color in her cheek had a violet tinge.
She did not waste words on the cookery question.

She saw plainly enough that Hester's weak health was slipping further down the hill.
"And all this time you have been working ?" "If you call it working.