“It seems so to me.”
“What is wrong about it?”
She seemed to think over the possibilities for an instant, and then she shook her head.
“I don’t think I could make you understand,” she answered. She said it very gently, but it was cruel, and he turned white under the pain, suffering all the more that she was so entirely without malice. She turned to her son. “I’m going, Pete. Don’t you think you might as well come, too?”
Mathilde sprang up and caught Mrs. Wayne’s hand.
“Oh, don’t go!” she cried. “Don’t take him away! You know they are trying to separate us. Oh, Mrs. Wayne, won’t you take me in? Can’t I stay with you while we are waiting?”
At this every one focused their eyes on Mrs. Wayne. Pete felt sorry for his mother, knowing how she hated to make a sudden decision, knowing how she hated to do anything disagreeable to those about her; but he never for an instant doubted what her decision would be. Therefore he could hardly believe his eyes when he saw her shaking her head.
“I couldn’t do that, my dear.”
“Mother!”
“Of course you couldn’t,” said Mr. Lanley, blowing his nose immediately after under the tremendous emotion of finding that she was not an enemy, after all. Adelaide smiled to herself. She was thinking, “You could and would, if I hadn’t put in that sting about his failures.”