She could not see her own happiness reflected.
"Like that?" John asked roughly.
"No, better, better. Always in bed, perhaps, but able to speak and understand."
He lifted his big shoulders; Uncle Alfred flicked something from his knee and, in the silence, Helen felt forlorn; her brightness faded.
"And you'll be left here with her, alone!" Miriam wailed, at last.
"Alone?" asked John.
"Uncle Alfred's going to take me away," Miriam said, yet she was not sure of that, and she looked curiously at him.
"I want her to go," Helen said quickly.
John was still glowering at Miriam. "Take you away! You talk as if you were a parcel!"
"I knew you would be angry," she said. "You've always been hard on me, and you don't understand."