Mrs. Lambert looked slightly perplexed.

“Won’t you ask me anything you like?” she said at last. “Please don’t think I shan’t understand. I shall, really. It always seems to me so hard for the mothers.”

Rose roused herself suddenly, her decision taken at the same moment.

“You are kind. I never imagined you’d be in the least like this. The fact is I’ve always been dead against school for Cecil, at all. He’s not like other children, in a way. I don’t mean that he’s wanting, you know,” she added hastily.

“I never supposed you did! But what is it, exactly?”

“He doesn’t speak the truth,” said Rose curtly.

There was a pause.

Then Mrs. Lambert nodded her head. Her expression, though graver, still remained sympathetic and full of optimistic cheerfulness.

“Well, that’s a bad fault, of course, and one’s always sorry to see it. But, of course, we’ve had boys like that before. It’s quite a common thing, in fact.”

“You won’t tell your husband, will you? It doesn’t seem fair to Cecil, somehow.”