She thought also that Catherine had improved in appearance

They seemed only to make him more determined--more terrible," said poor Catherine.
"I shall never bring him round, and I expect nothing now."
She went on talking, showing a good deal of excitement as she proceeded.
Her aunt had never seen her with just this manner, and Mrs. Penniman, observing her, set it down to foreign travel, which had made her more positive, more mature.
She thought also that Catherine had improved in appearance; she looked rather handsome.
Mrs. Penniman wondered whether Morris Townsend would be struck with that.
While she was engaged in this speculation, Catherine broke out, with a certain sharpness, "Why are you so contradictory, Aunt Penniman?
You seem to think one thing at one time, and another at another.
A year ago, before I went away, you wished me not to mind about displeasing father; and now you seem to recommend me to take another line.
This attack was unexpected, for Mrs. Penniman was not used, in any discussion, to seeing the war carried into her own country--possibly because the enemy generally had doubts of finding subsistence there. To her own consciousness, the flowery fields of her reason had rarely been ravaged by a hostile force.
That ought to please you, unless you have taken up some new idea; you are so strange.
You may do as you please; but you must never speak to me again about pleading with father.
This was a more authoritative speech than she had ever heard on her niece's lips, and Mrs. Penniman was proportionately startled.
She was indeed a little awestruck, and the force of the girl's emotion and resolution left her nothing to reply.
She was easily frightened, and she always carried off her discomfiture by a concession; a concession which was often accompanied, as in the present case, by a little nervous laugh.