"I doubt if my son is happy."
"Oh, really, really? Do you think he's ever noticed anything? Isn't he devoted to Harry de Freyne?"
"Of course he hates him like poison," replied the mother.
Miss Westbury started in delighted horror, and replied sharply, "How do you know that? Did he tell you?"
"Tell me! He would never tell me. Besides, he couldn't tell me—he doesn't know it."
"And how do you know it?"
"Mothers know everything," she replied.
After a minute's pause, Miss Westbury said—
"But if you feel sure that Romer isn't happy, and that he, almost unconsciously perhaps, doesn't really like this young man being always about, mightn't it some day end in some trouble—some explosion?"
"It's quite possible."