But she had spent several weeks in close
companionship with Stella Westlake, and Stella's influence was
subtle. Mrs. Westlake had come here to regain strength after a
confinement; the fact drew her near to Adela, whose time for giving
birth to a child was not far off.
Adela at first regarded this friend with much the same feeling of
awe as mingled with Letty's affection for Adela herself. Stella
Westlake was not only possessed of intellectual riches which Adela
had had no opportunity of gaining; her character was so full of
imaginative force, of dreamy splendours, that it addressed itself to
a mind like Adela's with magic irresistible and permanent. No rules
of the polite world applied to Stella; she spoke and acted with an
independence so spontaneous that it did not suggest conscious
opposition to the received ways of thought to which ordinary women
are confined, but rather a complete ignorance of. them. Adela felt
herself startled, but never shocked, even when the originality went.
most counter to her own prejudices; it was as though she had drunk a
draught of most unexpected flavour, the effect of which was to set
her nerves delightfully trembling, and make her long to taste it
again. It. was not an occasional effect, the result of an effort on
Stella's part to surprise or charm; the commonest words had novel
meanings when uttered in her voice; a profound sincerity seemed to
inspire every lightest question or remark.
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