She was a woman who remembered dates with intensity, and could tell at a moment's notice whether the drawing-room curtains had been renewed before or after Mr.Peniston's last illness.
Mrs.Peniston thought the country lonely and trees damp, and cherished a vague fear of meeting a bull.

To guard against such contingencies she frequented the more populous watering-places, where she installed herself impersonally in a hired house and looked on at life through the matting screen of her verandah.

In the care of such a guardian, it soon became clear to Lily that she was to enjoy only the material advantages of good food and expensive clothing; and, though far from underrating these, she would gladly have exchanged them for what Mrs.Bart had taught her to regard as opportunities.

She sighed to think what her mother's fierce energies would have accomplished, had they been coupled with Mrs.
Peniston's resources.

Lily had abundant energy of her own, but it was restricted by the necessity of adapting herself to her aunt's habits.