To Mrs.Bolton this position of godmother implied much of the old sacred responsibility which was formerly attached to it, and which Robert Bolton, like other godfathers and godmothers of the day, had altogether ignored.

She had been already partly brought round, nearly persuaded, in regard to the acceptance of John Caldigate as her son-in-law.

It did not occur to her to do other than hate him.

How was it possible that such a woman should do other than hate the man who had altogether got the better of her as to the very marrow of her life, the very apple of her eye?
But she was alive to her duty towards her daughter; and when she was told that the man was honest in his dealings, well-to-do in the world, a professing Christian who was constant in his parish church, she did not know how to maintain her opinion, that in spite of all this, he was an unregenerate castaway.

Therefore, although she was determined still to hate him, she had almost made up her mind to enter his house.