Meaning no wrong, and therefore stooping to no concealment, she never thought of taking any measures to keep Mr.Meeke out of the way when he happened to be with her at the time of her husband's coming home, whether it was only from a riding excursion in the neighborhood or from a cruise in the schooner.

In this way it so turned out that whenever my master came home, after a long or short absence, in nine cases out of ten he found the parson at the Hall.
At first he used to laugh at this circumstance, and to amuse himself with some coarse jokes at the expense of his wife and her companion.
But, after a while, his variable temper changed, as usual.

He grew sulky, rude, angry, and, at last, downright jealous of Mr.Meeke.

Though too proud to confess it in so many words, he still showed the state of his mind clearly enough to my mistress to excite her indignation.

She was a woman who could be led anywhere by any one for whom she had a regard, but there was a firm spirit within her that rose at the slightest show of injustice or oppression, and that resented tyrannical usage of any sort perhaps a little too warmly.