Another consideration forbade my return to Clochegourde, -Madeleine's hostility. That hard young girl was not disposed to modify her hatred beside her mother's coffin.
She looked up the hall toward the sitting room and saw India and Aunt Pitty standing speechless, holding each other's hands and, for once, India had lost her stiff-necked look.
But beneath that soft gentleness there was something stubborn in her, and no matter how conscientiously he studied it all out, he could not understand the gentle stubbornness in his wife.