It had accumulated, considerably, by this time, round Mrs.Assingham's ample presence, and it made, even to our young woman's own sense, a medium in which she could at last take a deeper breath.

"I've affected you, these months--and these last weeks in especial--as quiet and natural and easy ?" But it was a question that took, not imperceptibly, some answering.
"You've never affected me, from the first hour I beheld you, as anything but--in a way all your own--absolutely good and sweet and beautiful.

In a way, as I say," Mrs.Assingham almost caressingly repeated, "just all your very own--nobody else's at all.

I've never thought of you but as OUTSIDE of ugly things, so ignorant of any falsity or cruelty or vulgarity as never to have to be touched by them or to touch them.

I've never mixed you up with them; there would have been time enough for that if they had seemed to be near you.