Hordle was in attendance, too, so she knew his comfort in small material matters to be secure.

She could think of him without any shadow of anxiety, her mind for once at rest.

And this she enjoyed.
For it is possible to miss a person badly, long for their return ardently, yet feel by no means averse to a holiday from more active expenditure of love on their account.
And Theresa Bilson--pleasing thought!--was, for the moment, absent also, having gone to tea with the Miss Minetts.

Two maiden ladies, these, of uncertain age, modest fortune and unimpeachable refinement, once like Theresa herself, members of the scholastic profession; but now, thanks to the timely death of a relative--with consequent annuities and life interest in a ten-roomed, stone-built house of rather mournful aspect in Deadham village--able to rest from their ineffectual labours, support the Church, patronize their poorer and adulate their richer neighbours to their guileless hearts' content.
Gentility exuded from the Miss Minetts, and--if it is permissible slightly to labour the simile--their pores were permanently open.

Owing both to her antecedent and existing situation, it may be added, Theresa Bilson was precious in their sight.