None of these three had ever seen her; the squire had been to London but once in his life, his two guests never.
Yet they talked of her, of her state-craft, of her romanticism; they told little tales, one to the other, as if she lived in the county town.
All this, then, was harmless enough.

Religion was not mentioned in the hearing of the servants, neither the old nor the new; they talked, all three of them, and the squire loudest of all, though with pauses of pregnant silence, of such things as children might have heard without dismay.
Yet to the servants who came and went, it was as if their master were another man altogether, and his hall some unknown place.

There was no blessing of himself before meat; he said something, indeed, before he sat down, but it was unintelligible, and he made no movement with his hand.

But it was deeper than this ...

and his men who had served him for ten or fifteen years looked on him as upon a stranger or a changeling..