She was fair and fragile, and had been exceedingly beautiful; but care had stamped his mark deeply in her brow.
Neither care nor time, however, could mar the noble outline of her fine features, or equal the love that beamed in her gentle eyes.
The widow was a great mystery to the gossips of Sandy Cove; for there are gossips even in the most distant isles of the sea.

Some men (we refer, of course, to white men) thought that she must have been the wife of an admiral at least, and had fallen into distressed circumstances, and gone to these islands to hide her poverty.

Others said she was a female Jesuit in disguise, sent there to counteract the preaching of the gospel by the missionary.

A few even ventured to hint their opinion that she was an outlaw, "or something of that sort," and shrewdly suspected that Mr.Mason knew more about her than he was pleased to tell.

But no one, either by word or look, had ever ventured to express an opinion of any kind to herself, or in the hearing of her son.