There was a coffee house business in the Old Bailey going cheap, the twenty pounds would enable her to buy it.
As for her daughter, she had no scruple about letting her go with a man who was quite a stranger.

The girl's future didn't trouble her.

Since Lavinia had entered her teens, mother and daughter had wrangled incessantly.

Lavinia was amiable enough, but constant snubbing had roused a spirit which guided her according to her moods.

Sometimes she was full of defiance, at others she would run out of the house, and ramble about the streets until she was dead tired.
Lavinia was shrewd enough to discover why her mother did not want her at home.