— 14 —The missionary’s widow, excited and distracted, placed the potted lobelia on her dressing table and hastened away to Minton Street, becoming hot and flushed from rapid walking through the June afternoon.
The painter was in Kent, executing the wall painting at Lyndbridge House, but Mrs. Sacret felt that she would gain some comfort in her dilemma from gazing at the crayon portrait that showed her as the woman she would like to be. She could not resolve the problem before her. Should she leave the Old Priory and, rested and strengthened as she was, try to make some life of her own, no doubt with the help of a handsome present from Susan; or should she defy Martin Rue and use her hold over his wife to remain in his house? And if she did, on what terms? And how was she to deal with that
