Mrs. Lister paid no heed to Richard's protests. She went to the kitchen and filled a tray and carried it upstairs. When he came from his bath, he found it there and ate, like a criminal in his cell. Then with a long sigh, he lay down. He threw his arm round the unused pillow beside his own on his broad bed and smiled. He heard for an instant heavenly harmonies, then he was asleep.
Even now that Richard had come home, Mrs. Lister would not lie down. She changed her dress for her usual morning apparel and put away the remains of his breakfast which he had placed on a chair outside his door, so that 'Manda might not suspect the strange doings of the night, then she went into the study. Dr. Lister lay on the couch. When she entered, he opened his eyes for a second, then closed them again, and she sat down and waited. In a little while, as though the tremendous disturbance of her mind was transferred through the still air to his sleepy brain, he opened his eyes wide and sat bolt upright.
"Yes, yes, my dear! What is it?"
Mrs. Lister made no apology for any telepathic means by which she might have awakened him. It was his business to be awake.
"This thing must be settled, Thomas."
From the vague borderland of sleep, Dr. Lister tried honestly and vainly to understand just what must be settled.
"What thing, mother?"
Mrs. Lister gave him a look in which astonishment and impatience were mingled.
"Richard can't have anything to do with this girl; he can't play with her, or see her, or talk to her; it isn't decent or right."
"You mean he must be told about Basil?" Dr. Lister remembered now the events and revelations of the night.