What it would bring with it was as yet extremely indefinite; but Isabel was in a situation that gave a value to any change.

She had a desire to leave the past behind her and, as she said to herself, to begin afresh.

This desire indeed was not a birth of the present occasion; it was as familiar as the sound of the rain upon the window and it had led to her beginning afresh a great many times.

She closed her eyes as she sat in one of the dusky corners of the quiet parlour; but it was not with a desire for dozing forgetfulness.

It was on the contrary because she felt too wide-eyed and wished to check the sense of seeing too many things at once.