“Very well. But I can’t help being glad you’ve told me, Mrs. Aviolet. It makes it so much easier to help the poor little fellow if one knows where the weak spot is. My husband will find it out, of course, but I promise not to tell him a word beforehand, though—honestly—I think it would be much the best thing if you’d tell him yourself.”
“Perhaps. I don’t know. I’ve been worried to death about the whole thing,” said Rose with violence. “Everybody talking as though Ces was the worst and most wicked child in England, just because his father married me.”
Mrs. Lambert ignored the embarrassing personality. “But heaps of children tell fibs—some of them go on till they’re quite big. I’ve known cases, myself——”
“Yes,” Rose said doubtfully. “It isn’t absolutely an unheard of thing, after all. And they do get cured, don’t they?”
“Oh, but of course. It’s just a fault, like any other. I’m sure it can be overcome, if one’s patient and hopeful. And especially in the case of such a young child as your Cecil.”
“And what do you think about school for him? Have you had boys like that before?”
“Yes,” declared Mrs. Lambert stoutly. “Lots of little boys tell stories, if they’re constitutionally timid, or if they’ve been left to servants too much. And Will—my husband—would never be hard on a boy, you know. He thoroughly disbelieves, and so do I, in frightening children.”
“What would he do, then, with a boy who didn’t speak the truth?”
“Well, I don’t ever interfere in matters of school discipline, you know, but I’m pretty sure he’d do every single thing to try and make it easy for the boy to own up. And if he’d actually told a lie, and Will had to punish him, he’d talk to him and tell him why it was. Even quite untruthful children cure themselves in a very short time if they’re put on their honour, and trusted, we’ve always found. It’s a horrid fault, but they outgrow it fairly young, as a rule.”
There was an almost casual assurance about Mrs. Lambert’s point of view that brought a sense of relief, a conviction of having monstrously exaggerated her problem, to Rose.