When she first became a resident was uncertain: some
said more, some less than twenty years ago. Certain it was, at all
events, that she had grown, during her sojourn there, from a young and
comely, though sober-faced woman, to considerably more than middle age;
though time had perhaps used her less kindly than most women in her
situation in life, which is saying a good deal. No one could tell where
she came from, or what her previous life had been. She had first made
her appearance as purchaser of the house in which she had ever since
lived, and kept boarders. She was uncommunicative, without seeming
offensively reserved; quietly tenacious of her rights, though far from
grasping or aggressive, and was endowed with decided executive ability.
She had made a most unexceptionable landlady; one or two of her
boarders had been with her almost since the inception of her enterprise;
while all the better class of transient visitors to the village, which
had a moderate popularity as a summer resort, made their first
application for rooms to her.
Some ten or twelve years after her establishment, Professor Valeyon and
his family had moved into town. They had not taken up their quarters at
Abbie's, though she could easily have accommodated them, as far as room
went; a circumstance which caused all the more surprise in some
quarters, because there seemed to have been some previous acquaintance
between herself and the professor.
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