But, nevertheless, the living, breathing Peter was a daily and hourly disappointment to the mother who loved him.

His ways were not her ways, nor his thoughts her thoughts; and often she felt that she could have found more to say to a complete stranger, and that a stranger would have understood her better.
The old ladies, returning from their drive, generally took a little turn upon the terrace.

This constituted half their daily exercise, since their morning walk consisted of a stroll round the kitchen garden.
"It prevents cramp after sitting so long," one would say to the other.
"And it is only right to show the gardener that we take an interest," the other would reply.
The gardener translated the interest they took into a habit of fault-finding, which nearly drove him mad.
"It du spile the vine weather vor I," he would frequently grumble to his greatest crony, James Coachman, who, for his part, bitterly resented the abnormal length of the daily drives.

"Zure as vate, when I zits down tu my tea, cumes a message from one are t'other on 'em, an' oop I goes.

'Yu bain't been lukin' round zo careful as 'ee shude; there be a bit o' magnolia as want nailding oop, my gude man.' 'Oh, be there, mum ?' zays I.'Yiss, there be; an' thart I'd carl yure attention tu it,' zess she, are zum zuch.