As a girl she had played the piano well, and, though the power had gone from long disuse, music was still her chief passion.

Graceful ease, delicacy in her surroundings, freedom from domestic cares, the bloom of flowers, sweet scents--such things made up her existence.

She loved her husband, and had once worshipped him; she loved her recovered daughter; but both affections were in her, so to speak, of aesthetic rather than of moral quality.
Intercourse between Maud and her parents, now that they lived together, was, as might have been expected, not altogether natural or easy.

She came to them with boundless longings, ready to expend in a moment the love of a lifetime; they, on their side, were scarcely less full of warm anticipation; yet something prevented the complete expression of this mutual yearning.

The fault was not in the father and mother if they hung back somewhat; in very truth, Maud's pure, noble countenance abashed them.