"Very clearly."
"I didn't know that. What do you remember about her?"
"I remember a good many things--how she looked--the way she talked--the
things she did."
"What sort of things were they?"
"That's what I want to tell you about. It's what I think you ought to
know."
She allowed her eyes to rest on his calmly. "If you think knowing would
make any difference to me--"
"I think it might. It's what I want to find out."
"Then I can tell you now that it wouldn't."
"Oh, but you haven't heard."
"I don't want to hear, unless you'd rather--"
"That you did. That's just what I do. I don't think we can go any
farther--I mean with our--" the word was difficult to find--"I mean
with our--friendship--unless you do hear."
"Oh, very well! I want you to do what's easiest for you, and if it does
make a difference I'll tell you honestly."
"Thank you." For a second, not more, he laid his hand on her muff, the
nearest he had ever come to touching her. "We were talking about the
things my mother did. Well, they weren't good things. The only excuse
for her was that she did them for me, because she was fond of me."
"And you were fond of her?"
"Very; I'm fond of her still. It's one of the reasons--but I must tell
you the whole story."
He told as much of the story as he thought she needed to know.
Beginning with the stealing of the book from which he had learned to
read, he touched only the points essential to bringing him to the
Christmas Eve which saw the end; but he touched on enough.
"Oh, you poor darling little boy! My heart aches for you--all the way
back from now."
"So you see why I became a State ward. There was nothing else to do
with me. I hadn't anybody."
"Of course you hadn't anybody if...."
"If my mother stole me. But you see she didn't. I was her son. I don't
want to be anybody else's."
"Only--" she smiled faintly--"you can't always choose whose son you
want to be."
"I can choose whose son I don't want to be. That's as far as I go."
"Oh, but still--" She dismissed what she was going to say so as not
to drive him to decisions. "At any rate we know what to do about Tad,
don't we? And you must work as well as I."
"I will if he gives me a look-in, but very likely he won't."
And yet he got his look-in, or began to get it, no later than that very
afternoon.
He had gone to Westmorley Court to give Guy a hand with some work he
was doing for his mid-years. On coming out again, a little scene before
the main door induced him to hang back amid the shadows of the hall.
Thorne Carstairs was there with his machine, a touring car that had
seen service. In spite of his residence in Tuxedo Park, and what Guy
had called his stacks of dough, he was a seedy, weedy youth, with the
marks of the cheap sport. Tad was there also, insisting on being taken
somewhere in the car. Spit Castle being on the spot as a witness to a
refusal accompanied by epithets of primitive significance, Tad waxed
into a rage. Even to Tom, who knew nothing of the cause of the breach,
it was clear that a breach there was. Tad sprang to the step of the
car. Thorne Carstairs pushed him off, and made spurts at driving away.
Before he could swing the wheel, Tad was on him like a cat. Curses
and maulings were exchanged without actual blows, when a shove from
Carstairs sent Tad sprawling backward. Before he could recover himself
to rush the car again its owner had got off.
There was a roar of laughter from Spit, as well as some hoots from
spectators who had viewed the scuffle from their windows. Tad's
self-esteem was hurt. Not only had his intimate friend refused to
do what he wanted, but he was being laughed at by a good part of
Westmorley Court.
He turned to Spit, his face purple. "By God, I'll make that piker pay
for this before the afternoon's out."
Hatless as he was, without waiting for comment, he started off on the
run. Where he was running nobody knew, and Tom least of all. By the
time he had reached the street Tad was nowhere to be seen.
For the rest of the day the incident had no sequel. Tom had almost
dismissed it from his mind, when on the next day, while crossing the
Yard, he ran into Guy Ansley.