Meaning of “Her father had always defended and excused her,…”

The compact line expresses Mrs Jo’s conviction that maternal attachment persists despite separation, distance and a troubled family history.

Florence imagines family memory being deliberately carried forward, with a child taught affection and respect for the grandfather from whom she had been estranged.

Maggie offers her father an assurance that bankruptcy does not cancel his children’s attachment, separating family love from public or financial failure.

Remembering after long change and suffering is presented as a form of fidelity, showing that grief can alter across time without making the earlier bond unreal.

A book passed from one mother to another generation becomes a symbol of continuing care, linking memory, reading and the idea of maternal presence across absence.

Parenthood is framed as stewardship rather than ownership, leaving room for a child to become an independent person.