tells me everything," she had remembered
certain things which made her stiffen in her chair and keep her chin up
and use her eyes as if there still flashed in them the pride which had
utterly vanished. "Oh, yes," she asserted, in that forced voice, but
very loudly and deliberately. "I have another son. He's a good boy. His
name is Roger Peacey. You must meet him one day. I hope you will like
him." She paused and recollected why they were speaking of this other
son, and continued, "But, you see, I had nothing to do with him when he
was a boy."

This struck Ellen as very strange. She went on eating her ice pudding,
but she cogitated on this matter. Why had this second son been brought
up away from his mother? Surely that hardly ever happened except when
there had been a divorce, and a husband whose wife had run away with
another man was awarded by the courts "the custody of the child." Had
she not talked of this son in the over-bluff tone in which people talk
of those to whom they have done a wrong? She was possessed of the fierce
monogamous passion which accompanies first and unachieved love, that
loathing of all who are not content with the single sacramental draught
which is the blood of God, but go heating the body with unblessed
fermented wines; and she glared sharply under her brows at this woman,
who after losing Richard's father married another man and then, as it
appeared, had loved yet another man, as she might at someone whom she
suspected of being drunk. It was true that Richard adored her, but then
no doubt this kind of woman knew well how to deceive men. Softly she
made to herself the Scottish manifestation of incredulity, "Mhm...." And
Marion, for thirty years vigilant for sounds of scorn, heard and
perfectly understood.

She remained, however, massively and unattractively immobile. There came
to her neither word nor expression to remove the girl's dubiety. Since
she had heard such sounds of scorn over so lengthy a period they no
longer came to her as trumpet calls to action, but rather as imperatives
to silence, for above all things she desired that evil things should
come to an end, and she had learned that an ugly speech ricochetting
from the hard wall of a just answer may fly further and do worse. She
knew it was necessary that she should dispel Ellen's suspicion, because
they must work together to make a serene home for Richard, and she
desired to do so for her son's sake, because she herself was pos