From the moment that Miss Farrel appeared in the village, although she had the best of references, not a woman would admit her into her house as a boarder, and the hotel, with its feather-beds and poor table, was her only resource.

Women said of her that she was made up, that no woman of her age ever looked as she did and had a perfectly irreproachable moral character.
As for the men, they admired her timidly, sheepishly, and also a trifle contemptuously.

They did not admit openly the same opinion as the women with regard to the legitimacy of her charms, but they did maintain it secretly.

It did not seem possible to many of them that a woman could look just as Eliza Farrel did and be altogether natural.
As for her character, they also agreed with the feminine element secretly, although they openly declared the women were jealous of such beauty.

It did not seem that such a type could be anything except a dangerous one.
Miss Eliza Farrel was a pure blonde, as blond as a baby.