STRONG JUON Henrietta's married life was not a happy one.

Her husband was polite, complaisant, and conventionally correct in his behaviour towards her, and that was all.

And then she saw so little of him.

He was frequently absent from Hidvar for weeks at a time, and when he returned he regularly brought in his train a merry company of comrades, in whose pastimes Henrietta could take no sort of pleasure.
During those long days when she had Hidvar all to herself and was left entirely to the company of her sad thoughts, she would sometimes walk about till late in the evening in the shady alleys of the home park, listening to the songs of the girls working in the fields.

At the end of the park was a church, and in front of it a small clearing fenced around with stakes and looking like a cabbage garden.