And she counted upon them so.

Without them, she felt bereft of her mainstay.

Without them, the almost daily, nerve-shattering scenes which her step-mother somehow managed to enact, however discreet her attitude, became an infliction hardly to be borne.

She might have left her home for a visit among friends, but something held her back from this.

Something warned her that if she went her place would be instantly filled up, and she would never return.
And very bitterly she realized the fact that for the next two years she was dependent.