It looked as if Osborn had consented to a cruel plot; a landlord ought to help his tenants and not take advantage of their need.

She tried not to blame him; he had a bad agent, who used a dangerous influence.

She must try to protect him from the fellow and, in a way, from his own carelessness.
After all, it was, for the most part, carelessness, because he did not know Hayes as she knew him.

Still, she had not undertaken an easy thing and she braced herself as she went up the steps of the new terrace.

Grace hated the terrace.