Sentence:  One morning I had been driven to the precarious refuge <WSD>afforded</WSD> by the steps of the inn, after rejecting offers from the Celebrity to join him in a variety of amusements. But even here I was not free from interruption, for he was seated on a horse-block below me, playing with a fox terrier. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  To give, grant, or confer, with a remoter reference to its being the natural result; to provide; to furnish.