“Her dead child?”
“Yes. She had a boy who died some years ago, and she has never got over it. That is why she is so reserved.”
“Oh! How long ago did this boy die?” asked he, in a curiously incredulous tone.
“About five years ago, I think Mr. Rayner said.”
“Oh, then it was Mr. Rayner who told you?”
“Yes.”
“And Mrs. Rayner has never got over it?”
“No. It seems difficult to believe, doesn’t it, that a brilliant woman who wrote books and was much admired should fade like that into a kind of shadow? I wonder she doesn’t write more books to divert her thoughts from brooding over the past.”
“Oh, she wrote books! Did she tell you so herself?”
“No—Mr. Rayner.”