She had heard of Tom's death through "The
Firefly," which had a kind, extravagant article about him, but
she had not once thought of his widow--and there she was, a hedge
across the path she wanted to go! If the house of Durnmelling had
but been one story higher, that she might see all round
Thornwick!
For some time now, as I have already more than hinted, Sepia had
been fashioning a man to her thrall--Mewks, namely, the body-
servant of Mr. Redmain. It was a very gradual process she had
adopted, and it had been the more successful. It had got so far
with him that whatever Sepia showed the least wish to understand,
Mewks would take endless trouble to learn for her. The rest of
the servants, both at Durnmelling and in London, were none of
them very friendly with her--least of all Jemima, who was now
with her mistress as lady's-maid, the accomplished attendant whom
Hesper had procured in place of Mary being away for a holiday.
The more Sepia realized, or thought she realized, the position
she was in, the more desirous was she to get out of it, and the
only feasible and safe way, in her eyes, was marriage: there was
nothing between that and a return to what she counted slavery.
Rather than lift again such a hideous load of irksomeness, she
would find her way out of a world in which it was not possible,
she said, to be both good and comfortable: she had, in truth,
tried only the latter.
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