She had to like either the person or the person's home where she worked.
-- Narrator (chapter 1)

Importance: Mrs. Harris works tirelessly as a charwoman for clients throughout London. While she finds pleasure in her work, she also desires beauty and friendship. This quotation exemplifies that Mrs. Harris’s particular need to find joy in her work is anomalous in her vocation. While other charwomen are satisfied to take on any client in order to make money, Mrs. Harris chooses her clients based on emotion and aesthetics.

Drab and colorless as her existence would seem to have been, Mrs. Harris had always felt a craving for beauty and color which up to this moment had manifested itself in a love for flowers.
-- Narrator (chapter 2)

Importance: Mrs. Harris actively seeks beauty throughout the novel despite the economic and social barrier she faces. At the beginning of the novel, she uses flowers to satisfy her craving for aesthetics but...