`` I 'm not perfectly sure of that , '' he said , with a half sigh . II . Old Lady Lloyd I . The May Chapter Spencervale gossip always said that `` Old Lady Lloyd '' was rich and mean and proud . Gossip , as usual , was one-third right and two-thirds wrong . Old Lady Lloyd was neither rich nor mean ; in reality she was pitifully poor -- so poor that `` Crooked Jack '' Spencer , who dug her garden and chopped her wood for her , was opulent by contrast , for he , at least , never lacked three meals a day , and the Old Lady could sometimes achieve no more than one . But she WAS very proud -- so proud that she would have died rather than let the Spencervale people , among whom she had queened it in her youth , suspect how poor she was and to what straits was sometimes reduced . She much preferred to have them think her miserly and odd -- a queer old recluse who never went anywhere , even to church , and who paid the smallest subscription to the minister 's salary of anyone in the congregation . `` And her just rolling in wealth ! '' they said indignantly . `` Well , she did n't get her miserly ways from her parents . THEY were real generous and neighbourly . There never was a finer gentleman than old Doctor Lloyd . He was always doing kindnesses to everybody ; and he had a way of doing them that made you feel as if you was doing the favour , not him . Well , well , let Old Lady Lloyd keep herself and her money to herself if she wants to . If she does n't want our company , she does n't have to suffer it , that 's all . Reckon she is n't none too happy for all her money and pride . '' No , the Old Lady was none too happy , that was unfortunately true . It is not easy to be happy when your life is eaten up with loneliness and emptiness on the spiritual side , and when , on the material side , all you have between you and starvation is the little money your hens bring you in . The Old Lady lived `` away back at the old Lloyd place , '' as it was always called .
It was a quaint , low-eaved house , XXXXX big chimneys and square windows and with spruces growing thickly all around it .
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