In London, certainly, this temperate attitude toward her own marriage had seemed to her just.

Why had she now changed?
Why did it now depress her?
It never occurred to her that her own conduct could be anything of a puzzle to her mother, or that elder people are as much affected by the young as the young are by them.

And yet it was true that love--passion--whatever one chose to call it, had played far less part in Mrs.Hilbery's life than might have seemed likely, judging from her enthusiastic and imaginative temperament.

She had always been more interested by other things.

Lady Otway, strange though it seemed, guessed more accurately at Katharine's state of mind than her mother did.
"Why don't we all live in the country ?" exclaimed Mrs.Hilbery, once more looking out of the window.