Beneath her self-confidence was a shyness, an immovable reserve that had always prevented her from expressing her emotions.

She had inherited it, doubtless enough, from him.

Perhaps one day, between them, they would break down the barrier, the strength of which seemed to lie in its very flimsiness, its impalpability.
And then during college vacations, returning home with growing notions and views of her own, she had found herself so often in antagonism with him.

His fierce puritanism, so opposed to all her enthusiasms.

Arguing with him, she might almost have been listening to one of his Cromwellian ancestors risen from the dead.