vagrant tendrils escaped

Ashley had made no attempt to join the circle about her, in fact she had not had a word alonewith him since arriving, or even spoken to him since their first greeting. He had come forward towelcome her when she came into the back garden, but Melanie had been on his arm then, Melaniewho hardly came up to his  with her, he would sanction everything
at oncehe answered.shoulder.
She was a tiny, frailly built girl, who gave the appearance of a child masquerading in hermother’s enormous hoop skirts—an illusion that was heightened by the shy, almost frightened lookin her too large brown eyes. She had a cloud of curly dark hair which was so sternly repressedbeneath its net that no , and this dark mass, with its long widow’s peak,accentuated the heart shape of her face. Too wide across the cheek bones, too pointed at the chin, itwas a sweet, timid face but a plain face, and she had no feminine tricks of allure to make observersforget its plainness. She looked—and was—as simple as earth, as good as bread, as transparent asspring water. But for all her plainness of feature and smallness of stature, there was a sedate dignityabout her movements that was oddly touching and far older than her seventeen years.