It's the excitement and amusement of it." "He promised me," said Marcella, proudly.
"They promise Charles all sorts of things," said Mary, slyly; "but they don't keep to them." Warmly grateful as both she and the Rector had been from the beginning to Marcella for the passionate interest she took in the place and the people, the sister was sometimes now a trifle jealous--divinely jealous--for her brother.

Marcella's unbounded confidence in her own power and right over Mellor, her growing tendency to ignore anybody else's right or power, sometimes set Mary aflame, for Charles's sake, heartily and humbly as she admired her beautiful friend.
"I shall speak to Mr.Raeburn about it," said Marcella.
She never called him "Aldous" to anybody--a stiffness which jarred a little upon the gentle, sentimental Mary.
"I saw you pass," she said, "from one of the top windows.

He was with you, wasn't he ?" A slight colour sprang to her sallow cheek, a light to her eyes.

Most wonderful, most interesting was this engagement to Mary, who--strange to think!--had almost brought it about.

Mr.Raeburn was to her one of the best and noblest of men, and she felt quite simply, and with a sort of Christian trembling for him, the romance of his great position.