's deafness. The
result was the same, since his demise left her with a handle to her
name, but no one to turn it (to quote the _mot_ of a well-known wit),
and she looked, at the very least, like a peeress in her own right.
Indeed, she was the incarnation of what the romantic lower middle
classes imagine a great lady;--a dressmaker's ideal of a duchess. She
had the same high forehead, without much thought behind it, so
noticeable in her son Percy, and the same clearly cut features; and it
was true, as Bertha had said, that she firmly believed the whole of the
world, of the slightest importance, consisted of her late husband,
herself, her married son Percy, and her boy Clifford at school; the rest
of the universe was merely an audience, or a background, for this unique
family.

* * * * *

If anyone spoke of a European crisis that was interesting the general
public, she would reply by saying what Percy thought about it; if a more
frivolous subject (such as _You Shut Up_, or some other popular Revue)
was mentioned, she would answer, reassuringly, that she knew Clifford
had a picture post-card of one of the performers, implying thereby that
it _must_ be all right. She loved Bertha mildly, and with reservations,
because Percy loved her, and because Bertha wished her to; but she
really thought it would have been more suitable if Bertha had been a
little more colourless, a little plainer, a little stupider and more
ordinary; not that her attractions would ever cause any trouble to
Percy, but because it seemed as if a son of hers ought to have a wife to
throw him up more. Percy, however, had no idea that Bertha was anything
but a good foil to him, intellectually--and, as I have said, he regarded
her (or believed he regarded her) a good deal like a pet canary.

"Percy will soon be home, I suppose? To-day is not the day he goes to
the Queen's Hall, is it?" asked Lady Kellynch, who thought any hall was
highly honoured by Percy's presence, and very lucky to get it. She gave
a graceful but rather unrecognising bow to Madeline, whom she never knew
by sight. She really knew hardly anyone by sight except her sons; and
this was the more odd as she had a particularly large circle of
acquaintances, and made a point of accepting and returning every
invitation she received, invariably being amongst those present at every
possible form of entertainment, and punctiliously calling on people
afterwards. She was