"I don't listen--I bury myself as far away as I can."
"So I have understood. Then what are you thanking me for?"
"For what you are doing for--." his hesitation was barely
perceptible--"my mother."
"Oh!" Eileen looked blank. "I thought you meant for my music."
His face showed vast relief. "Oh, you were talking of your music! Of
course, of course, how stupid of me! That is what has drawn me from my
hole, like a rat to the Pied Piper, and I do thank you most sincerely.
But being drawn, what I most wished to thank the Piper for was--"
"Your mother pays the Piper for that," she broke in.