I would like to respond to the query about Anna's comment to Clarissa:

you found _me_ out in a moment. You challenged me. I owned directly, that there was only my pride between the man and me; for I could not endure, I told you, to think it in the power of any fellow living to give me a moment's uneasiness (Everyman I:188)

I had supposed perhaps wrongly that Anna was not referring to Hickman, but to some previous suitor. At the opening of the book there are broad hints that James Harlowe Junior paid court to Anna and she rebuffed him in a way that wounded his pride; thus like Clary Anna has had more than one suitor before the present one.

I do agree that there is something definitely chilling throughout this novel, perhaps especially in Anna's attitude towards Hickman. Anna seems to dislike him because he is kind, gentle, and moral. I would agree it's probably not enough to make someone fall in love with you, but that it should be a demerit is chilling in its implications.

Ellen Moody