She then would "lose her temper" so much to her own surprise that she at once decided that some one else must be responsible.A few days after her return she decided that she "must not let these things go," so she told Maggie that she would attend the Committee of Old Women's Comforts and be responsible for the Choir practice.
But on her return to these functions she found that she was bored and tired and cross; they were really intolerable, she had been doing them for years and years and years.It was too bad that Maggie should suffer her to take them on her shoulders.What did Maggie think she was a clergyman's wife for? Did Maggie imagine that there were no responsibilities attached to her position?
Grace did not say these things, but she thought them.She did not of course admit to herself that she wanted Maggie both to go and not to go.She simply knew that there was a "grievance" and Maggie was responsible for it.But at present she was silent...
The next factor in the rapidly developing situation was Mr.Toms.
One day early in April Maggie went for a little walk by herself along the lane that led to Marsden Wood.Marsden Wood was the most sinister of all the woods; there had once been a murder there, but even had there not, the grim bleakness of the trees and bushes, the absence of all clear paths through its tangles and thickets made it a sinister place.She turned at the very edge of the wood and set her face back towards Skeaton.
The day had been wild and windy with recurrent showers of rain, but now there was a break, the chilly April sun broke through the clouds and scattered the hedges and fields with primrose light.