But they were going to get on well together, Paul saw.
Mrs.Morel measured herself against the younger woman, and found herself easily stronger.

Clara was deferential.

She knew Paul's surprising regard for his mother, and she had dreaded the meeting, expecting someone rather hard and cold.

She was surprised to find this little interested woman chatting with such readiness; and then she felt, as she felt with Paul, that she would not care to stand in Mrs.Morel's way.
There was something so hard and certain in his mother, as if she never had a misgiving in her life.
Presently Morel came down, ruffled and yawning, from his afternoon sleep.

He scratched his grizzled head, he plodded in his stocking feet, his waistcoat hung open over his shirt.