They were natural to herself, and once or twice as the April days went by, she ventured to kiss the girl's fresh cheek, or to slip an arm round her waist.

But Lucy took it awkwardly.

When she was kissed she flushed, and stood passive; and all her personal ways were a little stiff and austere.

After one of these demonstrations indeed Mrs.Burgoyne generally found herself repaid in some other form, by some small thoughtfulness on Lucy's part--the placing of a stool, the fetching of a cloak--or merely perhaps by a new softness in the girl's open look.
And Eleanor never once thought of resenting her lack of response.

There was even a kind of charm in it.