Here also on closer inspection, was a woman with the seal of some terrible past suffering set on her for the rest of her life.

You felt it, rather than saw it, in the look of immovable endurance which underlain her expression--in the deathlike tranquillity which never disappeared from her manner.

Her story was a sad one--so far as it was known.

She had entered Lady Lundie's service at the period of Lady Lundie's marriage to Sir Thomas.
Her character (given by the clergyman of her parish) described her as having been married to an inveterate drunkard, and as having suffered unutterably during her husband's lifetime.

There were drawbacks to engaging her, now that she was a widow.