And then gradually her mother, who had before seemed like a beautiful, but remote, princess, had begun to make of her an intimate and grown-up friend, to consult her and read with her and arrange happinesses in her life, to win, to, if the truth must be told, reconquer her.

Perhaps even Adelaide would not have succeeded so easily in effacing Severance's image had not he himself so quickly remarried.
Mathilde went several times to stay with the new household after Adelaide in secret, tearful conference with her father had been forced to consent.
To Mathilde these visits had been an unacknowledged torture.

She never knew quite what to mention and what to leave untouched.

There was always a constraint between the three of them.

Her father, when alone with her, would question her, with strange, eager pauses, as to how her mother looked.