And the little house on the hills was built with walls a yard thick, and well lined with good oak wainscoting; she could keep it warm for herself and the old man.

The scheme had as much interest and charm for her as if she had been a peeress looking out for an eligible alliance for her son.
But it had always proved difficult to take the first steps toward so delicate a negotiation.

She was not a ready writer; and even if she had been, Mrs.Nixey felt that it would be almost impossible to write her day-dream in bold and plain words upon old Marlowe's slate.

If Marlowe was deaf, Phebe was singularly blind and dull.

Simon Nixey had played with her when she was a child, but it had been always as a big, grown-up boy, doing man's work; and it was only of late that she had realized that he was not almost an old man.