Mr. Enderby only
remained with them two or three days at a time, business requiring
his frequent presence in town. Maud would have been glad to spend
her holidays at some far quieter place, but her mother enjoyed
Brighton, and threw herself into its amusements of the place with
spirits which seemed to grow younger. They occupied handsome rooms,
and altogether lived in a more expensive way than when at home.
Maud was glad to see her mother happy, but could not be at ease
herself in this kind of life. It was soon arranged that she should
live in her own way, withholding from the social riot which she
dreaded, and seeking rest in out-of-the-way parts of the shore,
where more of nature was to be found and less of fashion. Maud
feared lest her mother should feel this as an unkind desertion, but
Mrs. Enderby was far from any such trouble; it relieved her from the
occasional disadvantage of having by her side a grown-up daughter,
whose beauty so strongly contrasted with her own. So Maud spent her
days very frequently in exploring the Downs, or in seeking out
retired nooks beneath the cliffs, where there was no sound in her
ears but that of the waves. She would sit for hours with no
companion save her thoughts, which were unconsciously led from phase
to phase by the moving lights and shadows upon the sea, and the soft
beauty of unstable clouds.
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