Her visits usually occurred about twice a year, and possessed something of the nature of a Royal favour.

This was Lady Caryl, the Lady of the Manor, in whose gift the living lay.
This lady had always shown a marked preference for the vicar's second daughter.
"Mary Neville," she would remark to her friends, "is severely handicapped by circumstance, but she will make her mark in spite of it.

Her beauty is extraordinary, and I cannot believe that Providence has destined her for a farmer's wife." It was on a foggy afternoon at the end of November that Lady Caryl's carriage turned in at the Vicarage gates for the second state call of the year.
Molly received the visitor alone.

Her mother was upstairs with a bronchial attack.
Lady Caryl, handsome, elderly, and aristocratic, entered the shabby drawing-room with her most gracious air.

She sat and talked for a while upon various casual subjects.