From this time she led a life of which Claude, in his dreams upon the hearth, exaggerated neither the tragedy nor the beauty.

The load had been heavy before.

Now to fear was added contumely, and to vague apprehensions the immediate prospect of discovery and peril.

The grip of the big scholar, subtle, cruel, tightening day by day and hour by hour, was on her youth; slowly it paralysed in her all joy, all spirit, all the impulses of life and hope, that were natural to her age.
That through all she showed an indomitable spirit, we know.

We have seen how she bore herself when threatened from an unexpected quarter on the morning when Claude Mercier, after overhearing her mother's ravings, had his doubts confirmed by the sight of her depression on the stairs.