p
blazed up with sudden fire.

"No," said John Tatham; "I think Philip's right. We'll take her home to
be coddled by her maid, and we'll go off, two wild young fellows, to the
play by ourselves."

"No," said Philip, "I'll leave her to be coddled by no maid. I can take
care of my mother myself."

"My dear boy," said Elinor, "I want no coddling. But I doubt whether I
could stand the play. I like you to go with Uncle John."

And then it began to dawn upon Philip that his mother had never meant
to be of the party, and that this was what had been settled all along.
He was more angry; more wounded and hurt in his spirit than he had of
course the least occasion to be. He was of opinion that his mother
had never had any secrets from him, that she had taken him into her
confidence since he was a small boy, even things that Granny did not
know! And here all at once there was rising between them a cloud, a
mist, which there was no reason for. If he had done anything to make him
less worthy he would have understood; had there been a bad report from
school, had he failed in his work and disappointed her, there might have
been some reason for it. But he had done nothing of the kind! Never
before had he been so deserving of confidence; he had got his scholarship,
he had finished the first phase of his education in triumph, and
fulfilled all her expectations. And now just at this point of all
others, just when he was most fit to understand, most worthy of trust,
she turned from him. His heart swelled as if it would burst, with anger
first, almost too strong to be repressed, and with that sense of injured
merit which is of all things the most hard to bear. It is hard enough
even when one is aware one deserves no better. But to be conscious of
your worth and to feel that you are not appreciated, that is indeed too
much for any one. There was not even the satisfaction of giving up the
play which he had looked forward to, making a sacrifice of it to his
mother, in which there would have been a severe pleasure. But she did
not want him! She preferred that he should leave her by herself to be
coddled by her maid, as Uncle John (vulgarly) said. Or perhaps was there
somebody else coming, some old friend whom he knew nothing of, somebody,
some one or other like that old witch in the carriage whom Pippo was not
meant to know?

It ended, however, in the carrying out of the plan settled beforehand by
those old conspirators. The old conspirat