"He," Tietjens said, "has got a French woman near Euston station. He's lived with her for over fifteen years, of afternoons, when there were no race meetings. She'll never let him marry and she's past the child-bearing stage. So there's no one else. . . ."
Sylvia said:
"You mean that I may bring the child up as a Catholic."
Tietjens said:
"A Roman Catholic. . . . You'll teach him, please, to use that term before myself if I ever see him again. . . ."
Sylvia said:
"Oh, I thank God that he has softened your heart. This will take the curse off this house."
Tietjens shook his head:
"I think not," he said, "off you, perhaps. Off Groby very likely. It was, perhaps, time that there should be a Papist owner of Groby again. You've read Spelden on sacrilege about Groby? . . ."
She said: