He might ignore her presence, but yet he sought it.
Moreover, she, upon her side, was conscious of one point of superiority.
Beside this rather dismal, rather effeminate man, who recoiled from a worm, who grew giddy on the castle wall, who bore so helplessly the weight of his misfortunes, she felt herself a head and shoulders taller in cheerful and sterling courage.

She could walk head in air along the most precarious rafter; her hand feared neither the grossness nor the harshness of life's web, but was thrust cheerfully, if need were, into the briar bush, and could take hold of any crawling horror.

Ruin was mining the walls of her cottage, as already it had mined and subverted Mr.Archer's palace.

Well, she faced it with a bright countenance and a busy hand.

She had got some washing, some rough seamstress work from the 'Green Dragon,' and from another neighbour ten miles away across the moor.