Sentence:  "[...] at last, he proceeded from staring to touching; he put out his hand and stroked one curl, as gently as if it were a bird. He might have stuck a knife into her neck, she started round in such a <WSD>taking</WSD>.<br />"'Get away, this moment! How dare you touch me? Why are you stopping there?' she cried, in a tone of disgust. [...] 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  A state of mental distress, resulting in excited or erratic behavior (in the expression "in a taking").