It wasn't like beginning a journey, after all it was like ending one and not wanting to get out of the train.
-- Narrator (Chapter 1 paragraph 5)

Importance: Frances is waiting for Lilian and Leonard to arrive. She has decided to rent out the rooms in order to help meet the household bills. She knows there will be major changes ahead and dreads them, though she sees them as necessary.

She remembered him once on the beach at Eastbourne, crying because a wave had gone over his head; she had jered at his faint heart. She would give anything to be able to take that jeer back.
-- Frances (Chapter 3 paragraph 13)

Importance: Frances is remembering a time at the ocean with her brother, Noel. She made fun of him for being afraid in the water but looks back on that moment with shame that is heightened because Noel died at sea.

You don't think about all these colours when everything's going...
-- Lilian (Chapter 4 paragraph 38)