Be kind to her, Edie." Edie was very kind.

But she said to herself that if Anne was a ruin that was not at all a bad thing.
Edith Majendie was a loving but shrewd observer of the people of her world.

Lying on her back she saw them at an unusual angle, almost as if they moved on a plane invisible to persons who go about upright on their legs.

The four walls of her room concentrated her vision in bounding it.
She saw few women and fewer men, but she saw them apart from those superficial activities which distract and darken judgment.

Faces that she was obliged to see bending over her had another aspect for Edith than that which they presented to the world at large.