Adela was already on affectionate terms with many of the little ones, though others regarded her with awe rather than warmth of confidence.

This was strange, when we remember how childlike she had formerly been with children.

But herein, too, there was a change; she could not now have caught up Letty's little sister and trotted with her about the garden as she was used to do.

She could no longer smile in the old simple, endearing way; it took some time before a child got accustomed to her eyes and lips.

Her movements, though graceful as ever, were subdued to matronly gravity; never again would Adela turn and run down the hill, as after that meeting with Hubert Eldon.