What she was not yet used to--there was still a charm in it--was her
mother's extraordinary tact. During the years they lived together
they never had a discussion; a circumstance all the more remarkable
since if the girl had a reason for sparing her companion (that of
being sorry for her) Mrs. Tramore had none for sparing her child.
She only showed in doing so a happy instinct--the happiest thing
about her. She took in perfection a course which represented
everything and covered everything; she utterly abjured all authority.
She testified to her abjuration in hourly ingenious, touching ways.
In this manner nothing had to be talked over, which was a mercy all
round. The tears on Easter Monday were merely a nervous gust, to
help show she was not a Christmas doll from the Burlington Arcade;
and there was no lifting up of the repentant Magdalen, no uttered
remorse for the former abandonment of children. Of the way she could
treat her children her demeanour to this one was an example; it was
an uninterrupted appeal to her eldest daughter for direction. She
took the law from Rose in every circumstance, and if you had noticed
these ladies without knowing their history you would have wondered
what tie was fine enough to make maturity so respectful to youth.
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