Metaphorically speaking

Down by the lake the waterfall fell with an even sharper, thinner sound in the ice-covered lake. The duck had not returned and the ice was empty of all life, growing darker every moment. Little patches of new black ice and frozen snow cracked under her feet as she panted up the path, beyond the lake towards the rectory.

The waterfall as metaphor

A metaphor is a figure of speech. It is an image which stands for something else. In this passage, H.E. Bates is, on one level, describing a very realistic winter's scene. The details that he uses make the scene come to life. He not only describes what you can see, but also what you can hear ('the frozen snow cracked').

On another level, the description mirrors the mood of the central character, Miss Vaughan. The waterfall is a metaphor for her emotions. This passage comes early in the story. She has gone to see Abrahams, a local landowner and rich man, to call the doctor to visit her sick father who is dying. Like the waterfall, her emotional state is frozen, her feelings just a thin trickle of water.

This is partly because of her sadness at her father's illness, but more because she lives alone in this remote rectory with her aged father. She does not have any normal, easy social contact with people. When her father dies, she is alone and quickly accepts an offer of marriage from Abrahams. It is a marriage of convenience for two lonely people rather than a marriage of love:

She reasoned that it was not a question of love, but of duty, and she was secure in that.