s in the face of a common danger gave
them a sort of equality. But she was good to him, and her faithfulness
was the one sure thing in his convulsed and rocking world. He clung to
her as a drowning man clings to a floating spar, and his father's, "I
wish to God, Christine, you'd get out and leave us alone," or, "I won't
have you in my house. You're poisoning my son's mind against me,"
reiterated regularly at the climax of one of the hideous rows which
devastated the household, was like a blow in the pit of the stomach,
turning him sick and faint with fear.

But Christine never went. Or if she went she came back again. As
James Stonehouse said in a burst of savage humour, "Kick Christine out
of the front door and she'll come in at the back." Every morning, no
matter what had happened the night before, there was the quiet,
resolute scratch of her latch-key in the lock, and when James
Stonehouse, sullen and menacing, brushed rudely against her in the
hall, she went on steadily up the stairs to where Robert waited for
her, and they fell into each other's arms like two sorrowful comrades.
Ever afterwards he could conjure her up at will as he saw her then.
She was like a porcelain marquise over whom an intangible permanent
shadow had been thrown.

He knew dimly that she had "people" who disapproved of her devotion,
and that over and over again, by some new mysterious sacrifice, she had
staved off disaster. He knew that she had been his father's friend all
her life and that his mother and she had loved one another. There was
some bond between these three that could not be broken, and he, too,
was involved--fastened on as an afterthought, as it were, but so firmly
that there could be no escape. Because of it Christine loved him. He
knew that he was not always a very lovable little boy. Even with her
he could be obstinate and cruel--cruel because she was so much less
than his mother had become--and there were times when, with a queer
unchildish power of self-visualization, he saw himself as a small
fair-haired monster growing black and blacker with the dark and evil
spirit that was in him. But Christine never seemed to see him like
that. There was some borrowed halo about his head that blinded her.
It did not matter how bad he was, she had always love and excuses ready
for him. And she was literally all he had in the world.

But even she had not been able to make his birthday a success. Indeed,
ever since that