An Autobiography

Companionship is not a thing that one needs every day–it is a thing that grows upon one, and sometimes becomes as destroying as ivy growing round you

overcame her misgivings

Don’t let the child go. Her own home, her own people, love, and the security of belonging–what does the best education in the world mean against that?

To the anxious young widow, working desperately with her needle to support and educate four children, the offer was not to be refused.

flitting about between

She was an enigmatic and arresting personality–more forceful than my father–startlingly original in her ideas, shy and miserably diffident about herself, and at bottom, I think, with a natural melancholy.

which abutted on the road.

Anything I don’t want mother to know, I don’t even think of, if she’s in the room.’

mother hated living near the sea, disliked all social gatherings

was an enigmatic and arresting personality–more forceful than my father–startlingly original in her ideas, shy and miserably diffident about herself, and at bottom, I think, with a natural melancholy.