And yet there was a vital difference. Then she was icy and
defiant; now, with all and more than the old sadness, there was
an aspect of humility and gentleness which had never been seen in
former times, but the woman who should have been so glad to cheer
her and remove all misunderstandings found that she was absolutely
unapproachable except by a sort of social violence of which Jennie
Burton was not capable. Ida's effort--which was but partially
successful--to be brave and even cheerful for her father's sake,
caused Mr. Mayhew more than once to go away by himself in order
to hide his feelings. Mrs. Mayhew became more and more mystified
and uncomfortable. She had enjoyed, in her cold-blooded way, a
tranquil, gossipy week during her daughter's and husband's absence,
but now she felt as if some kind of a domestic convulsion might
occur any moment.
"I don't see why people have to make such a fuss over life," she
complained. "If they would only do what was stylish, proper and
religious they wouldn't have any trouble," and the strong and not
wholly repressed feeling of Ida and her father, of which she was
uncomfortably conscious, seemed to her absurd and uncalled for.
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