She used it well.

Though not a highly-educated woman, she read constantly, and books of a solid kind.

Society in Dunfield had its book club, and Mrs.
Baxendale enjoyed the advantage of choosing literature which her fellow-members were very willing to let her keep as long as she liked.
Beatrice derived much amusement from her aunt's method of reading.
Beatrice, with the run of Mr.Mudie's catalogues, would have half-a-dozen volumes in her lap at the same time, and as often as not get through them--_tant bien que mal_--in the same day.

But to the provincial lady a book was a solid and serious affair.

To read a chapter was to have provided matter for a day's reflection; the marker was put at the place where reading had ceased, and the book was not re-opened till previous matter had been thoroughly digested and assimilated.