Sentence:  She was forty-nine at this time , a lanky woman of breeding with an austere , narrow face which had the distinction of a <WSD>steeple</WSD> or some architecture that had been designed long ago for a stubborn sort of prayer . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  a tall tower that forms the superstructure of a building (usually a church or temple) and that tapers to a point at the top