’Yes; all her life.  The house belonged to her father and to her grandfather before her, and I think she says she has never slept out of it a dozen times in her life.  Her husband is dead, and her daughters are married away, and she has the great grief and trouble of a ne’er-do-well son.  He’s away now, and she’s all alone.’  Then after a pause, she continued; ’I dare say it seems odd to you, Mrs Trevelyan, that we should speak of the innkeeper as a dear friend; but you must remember that we have been poor among the poorest and are so indeed now.  We only came into our present house to receive you.  That is where we used to live,’ and she pointed to the tiny cottage, which now that it was dismantled and desolate, looked to be doubly poor.  ’There have been times when we should have gone to bed very hungry if it had not been for Mrs Crocket.’

Later in the day Mrs Trevelyan, finding Priscilla alone, had apologized for what she had said about the old woman.  ’I was very thoughtless and forgetful, but I hope you will not be angry with me.  I will be ever so fond of her if you will forgive me.’

‘Very well,’ said Priscilla, smiling; ’on those conditions I will forgive you.’  And from that time there sprang up something like a feeling of friendship between Priscilla and Mrs Trevelyan.  Nevertheless Priscilla was still of opinion that the Clock House arrangement was dangerous, and should never have been made; and Mrs Stanbury, always timid of her own nature, began to fear that it must be so, as soon as she was removed from the influence of her son.  She did not see much even of the few neighbours who lived around her, but she fancied that people looked at her in church as though she had done that which she ought not to have done, in taking herself to a big and comfortable house for the sake of lending her protection to a lady who was separated from her husband.  It was not that she believed that Mrs Trevelyan had been wrong; but that, knowing herself to be weak, she fancied that she and her daughter would be enveloped in the danger and suspicion which could not but attach themselves to the lady’s condition, instead of raising the lady out of the cloud as would have been the case had she herself been strong.  Mrs Trevelyan, who was sharpsighted and clear-witted, soon saw that it was so, and spoke to Priscilla on the subject before she had been a fortnight in the house.  ‘I am afraid your mother does not like our being here,’ she said.

‘How am I to answer that?’ Priscilla replied.

‘Just tell the truth.’

’The truth is so uncivil.  At first I did not like it.  I disliked it very much.’

‘Why did you give way?’

’I didn’t give way.  Hugh talked my mother over.  Mamma does what I tell her, except when Hugh tells her something else.  I was afraid, because, down here, knowing nothing of the world, I didn’t wish that we, little people, should be mixed up in the quarrels and disagreements of those who are so much bigger.’