The sisters had been properly educated in their religious duties, had been taught the Anglican faith carefully and well by their governess, Fraeulein Mueller, who had become a staunch Anglican before entering the families of the English nobility, and by the kind Vicar of Grasmere, who took a warm interest in the orphan girls.

Their grandmother had given them to understand that they might be as religious as they liked.

She would be no let or hindrance to their piety; but they must ask her no awkward questions.
'I have read a great deal and thought a great deal, and my ideas are still in a state of transition,' she told Lesbia; and Lesbia, who was somewhat automatic in her piety, had no desire to know more.
Lady Maulevrier seldom appeared in the forenoon.

She was an early riser, being too vivid and highly strung a creature, even at sixty-seven years of age, to give way to sloth.

She rose at seven, summer and winter, but she spent the early part of the day in her own rooms, reading, writing, giving orders to her housekeeper, and occasionally interviewing Steadman, who, without any onerous duties, was certainly the most influential person in the house.