It was a noticeable fact, that though the Beachborough folk were, as they would themselves have expressed it, "main curous" about Mrs. Stothard and her position in the Derinzy household, none of them devoted much time to speculating about Miss Annette, or Miss Netty as she was generally called by them. That she was a "dreadful in-vallid" all knew; that she was sometimes confined to the house for weeks together when labouring under a severe attack of her illness--which was ascribed by some to nerves, by some to weakness, and by others to a curious disorder known as "ricketts"--was also well known. It was understood, moreover, that she did not like her indisposition alluded to; and consequently, when she occasionally appeared in the village, accompanied by her aunt Mrs. Derinzy, it was a point of politeness on the part of the villagers to ignore the fact of their not having seen her for weeks past and the cause of her absence, and to entertain her with gossip about Bessy Fairlight's levity, Giles Croggin's drunkenness, Farmer Hawkers' harvest-home, or such kindred topics. No one ever mentioned illness or doctors before Miss Netty; if they had, Mrs. Derinzy, a woman of strong mind and, when necessary, sharp tongue, would speedily have cut in and changed the conversation. But although the Beachborough people saw little of Annette Derinzy, that little they liked. Amongst simple folk of this kind a person labouring under illness, more especially chronic illness--not any of your common fevers or anything low of that kind, which nearly everybody has had in their time, and which are for the most part curable by very simple remedies--but mysterious illness, which "comes on when you don't expect it," as though most disorders were heralded and the exact time of their arrival announced by infallible symptoms, and which lasts for weeks together--such a person takes brevet rank with their acquaintance, and is looked up to with the greatest respect. Moreover, Miss Netty had a very pleasant way with her, being always courteous and friendly, sometimes, indeed, a little too friendly; for she would want to go into the fishermen's cottages, and into the lacemakers' rooms, and would ask questions which were not very pertinent, or indeed very wise; until she was brought up very short by her aunt, who would take her by the elbow, and haul her away with scant ceremony. And another great thing in her favour was, that she was very pretty.