She had a habit of sitting silent with dropped eyes, which Jane could not bear.

As she drank her tea she watched her in spite of herself.
After a few minutes had passed, her appetite for bread and butter deserted her.

She got up and left the hall, looking pale.
The mental phases through which she went during the afternoon ended in her determination to go down the avenue and to the water's side this evening.

It could be done while her ladyship and her guests were at dinner.

This evening the Vicar and his wife and daughter were dining at the Manor.
Jane took in emotionally all the mysterious silence and dimness of the long tree-pillared aisle, and felt a tremor as she walked down it, trying to hold herself in hand by practical reflections half whispered.
"I'm just going to have a look, to make sure," she said, "silly or not.
I've got upset through not being able to help watching that woman, and the way to steady my nerves is to make sure I'm just giving in to foolishness." She walked as fast as she could towards the water.