t the merest pleasant thought, not to mention a smile, portions of
two or three white teeth were uncovered whether she would or not. Some
people said that this was very attractive. She was graceful and slender,
and, though but little above five feet in height, could draw herself up
to look tall. In her manner, in her comings and goings, in her 'I'll do
this,' or 'I'll do that,' she combined dignity with sweetness as no other
girl could do; and any impressionable stranger youths who passed by were
led to yearn for a windfall of speech from her, and to see at the same
time that they would not get it. In short, beneath all that was charming
and simple in this young woman there lurked a real firmness, unperceived
at first, as the speck of colour lurks unperceived in the heart of the
palest parsley flower.

She wore a white handkerchief to cover her white neck, and a cap on her
head with a pink ribbon round it, tied in a bow at the front. She had a
great variety of these cap-ribbons, the young men being fond of sending
them to her as presents until they fell definitely in love with a special
sweetheart elsewhere, when they left off doing so. Between the border of
her cap and her forehead were ranged a row of round brown curls, like
swallows' nests under eaves.

She lived with her widowed mother in a portion of an ancient building
formerly a manor-house, but now a mill, which, being too large for his
own requirements, the miller had found it convenient to divide and
appropriate in part to these highly respectable tenants. In this
dwelling Mrs. Garland's and Anne's ears were soothed morning, noon, and
night by the music of the mill, the wheels and cogs of which, being of
wood, produced notes that might have borne in their minds a remote
resemblance to the wooden tones of the stopped diapason in an organ.
Occasionally, when the miller was bolting, there was added to these
continuous sounds the cheerful clicking of the hopper, which did not
deprive them of rest except when it was kept going all night; and over
and above all this they had the pleasure of knowing that there crept in
through every crevice, door, and window of their dwelling, however
tightly closed, a subtle mist of superfine flour from the grinding room,
quite invisible, but making its presence known in the course of time by
giving a pallid and ghostly look to the best furniture. The miller
frequently apologized to his tenants for the intrusion of this insi