-or
perhaps unfittingly--was rebuked.

IV

In due season, Albert went off to school, according to his father's
plans; and it was not the school which Adele McComas had hoped to see
Albert enter a little before her own boys should leave it. Raymond,
after another year of daily attentions to Albert's small daily concerns,
was glad to have him away. He did not see his boy's mother a frequent
visitor at this school, nor did he purpose being a frequent visitor
himself. The establishment was approved, well-recommended: let it do its
work unaided, unhindered.

No, Adele McComas never saw Albert at the school of her predilection;
indeed, it was not long after the choice had been made that she lost all
opportunity of seeing anything at all. She withered out, like a
high-colored, hardy-seeming flower that belies all promise, and died
when her little girl was months short of four.

Her name was on the new monument within six weeks. It was the third
name. That of Johnny's father had lately been placed above that of his
mother, and that of his wife was now clearly legible upon the opposite
side of the shaft's base. Some of Johnny's friends saw in this
promptitude a high mark of respect and affection; others felt a haste,
almost undue, to turn the new erection into a bulletin of "actualities";
and a few surmised that had the work not been done with promptitude it
might have come to be done in a leisurely fashion that spelled neglect:
if it were to be done, 't were well it were done quickly--a formal token
of regard checked off and disposed of.

During Albert's first year at his school his mother made two or three
appearances. She was exigent, and she showed herself to the school
authorities as fertile in blandishments. The last of her visits was made
in a high-powered touring-car. Raymond heard of this, and warned the
school head against a possible attempt at abduction.

The second year opened more quietly. One visit--a visit without
eagerness and obviously lacking in any fell intent, and that was all.
It was fair to surmise that this once-urgent, once-vehement mother had
developed a newer and more compelling interest.

She had made herself a figure at Adele McComas's funeral--or, at least,
others had made her a figure at it. She began to be seen here and there
in the company of the widower, and it was reported privately to me that
she had been perceived standing side by side with him in decorous
contemplation, as it were