Yet, in face of the stony front he presented she could not continue to proffer her friendship.

He seemed to have no use for it.

He seemed, in fact, to avoid her, and the old shyness that had oppressed her in the beginning returned upon her fourfold.

She admitted to herself that she was becoming afraid of the man.

The very sound of his voice made her heart beat thick and hard, and each succeeding day witnessed a diminishing of her confidence.
Under these circumstances she withdrew more and more into her solitude, and it was with something like dismay that she received the news from Granny Grimshaw at the beginning of Christmas week that it was Jeff's custom to entertain two or three of his farmer friends at supper on Christmas Eve.
"Only the menkind, my dear," said Granny Grimshaw consolingly.