the knocking and I came down and lit the gas in the lobby. `Who's
there?' I said. There wasn't any answer, but I made sure I heard some
one crying. And when I opened the door, there was your father. `Oh!'
he said. `Happen you've gone to bed, Clara?' `No,' I said. `Come in,
do!' But he wouldn't. And he looked so queer. I never saw him look
like that before. He's such a strong self-controlled man. I knew he'd
been to poor Mr Shushions's funeral. `I suppose you've been to the
funeral, Darius,' I said. And as soon as I said that he burst out
crying, and half tumbled down the steps, and off he went! I couldn't go
after him, as I was. I didn't know what to do. If anything happened to
your father, I don't know what I should do."

"What time was that?" Edwin asked, wondering what on earth she
meant--"if anything happened to your father!"

"Half-past ten or hardly. What time did he come home? Very, very late,
wasn't it?"

"A little after twelve," he said carelessly. He was sorry that he had
inquired as to the hour of the visit to his aunt. Obviously she was
ready to build vast and terrible conjectures upon the mysterious
interval between half-past ten and midnight.

"You've cut yourself, my dear," she said, indicating with her gloved
hand Edwin's chin. "And I'm not surprised. How upsetting it is for
you! Of course Maggie's the eldest, and we think a great deal of her,
but you're the son--the only son!"

"I know," he said, meaning that he knew he had cut himself, and he
pressed his handkerchief to his chin. Within, he was blasphemously
fuming. The sentimental accent with which she had finally murmured `the
only son' irritated him extremely, What in the name of God was she
driving at? The fact was that, enjoying a domestic crisis with positive
sensuality, she was trying to manufacture one! That was it! He knew
her. There were times when he could share all Maggie's hatred of Mrs
Hamps, and this was one of those times. The infernal woman, with her
shaking plumes and her odour of black kid, was enjoying herself! In the
thousandth part of a second he invented horrible and grotesque
punishments for her, as that all the clothes should suddenly fall off
that prim, widowed, odious modesty. Yet, amid the multitude of his
sensations--the smarting of his chin, the tingling of all his body after
the bath, the fresh vivacity of the morning, the increased consciousness
of his own ego, due to insufficient