She had also her mother's eyes, large and round, and almost blue, full of life and full of courage, eyes which never seemed to quail, and her mother's dark brown hair, never long but very copious in its thickness.

She was, however, taller than her mother, and very much more graceful in her movement.
And she could already assume a personal dignity of manner which had never been within her mother's reach.

She had become aware of a certain brusqueness of speech in her mother, a certain aptitude to say sharp things without thinking whether the sharpness was becoming to the position which she held, and, taking advantage of the example, the girl had already learned that she might gain more than she would lose by controlling her words.
"Papa wants me to go to Lady Cantrip," she said.
"I think he would like it,--just for the present, Lady Mary." Though there had been the closest possible intimacy between the Duchess and Mrs.Finn, this had hardly been so as to the intercourse between Mrs.Finn and the children.

Of Mrs.Finn it must be acknowledged that she was, perhaps fastidiously, afraid of appearing to take advantage of her friendship with the Duke's family.

She would tell herself that though circumstances had compelled her to be the closest and nearest friend of a Duchess, still her natural place was not among dukes and their children, and therefore in her intercourse with the girl she did not at first assume the manner and bearing which her position in the house would have seemed to warrant.