This was the first time she had heard him utter his dead wife's name.

She had never heard anyone speak it.

Audrey had evidently not been a much-beloved or regretted person.

But she had had a son.
Her primitive soul had scarcely dared to approach, even with awe, the thought of such a possibility for herself.

As in the past she had not had the temerity to dream of herself as a woman who possessed attractions likely to lead to marriage, so she was mentally restrained in these days.