But we must remember, my love, that Aunt Susan was most lax in all her views, and we must make allowance for Hester, who lived with her till last year.

It is only natural that Hester, bred up from childhood in that worldly circle--dinner-parties all through Lent, and Sunday luncheons--should have fallen through want of solid church teaching into freethinking and ideas of her own upon religion." Mr.Gresley's voice was of that peculiar metallic note which carries farther than the owner is aware.

It rose, if contradicted, into a sort of continuous trumpet-blast which drowned all other lesser voices.
Hester's little garret was two stories above Mr.Gresley's study on the ground floor, but, nevertheless, she often heard confused, anxious parochial buzzings overwhelmed by that sustained high note which knew no cessation until objection or opposition ceased.

As she came towards them, she heard with perfect distinctness what he was saying, but it did not trouble her.

Hester was gifted with imagination, and imagination does not find it difficult to read by the shorthand of the expressions and habitual opinions and repressions of others what they occasionally say at full length, and to which they fondly believe they are giving utterance for the first time.