“Everybody has called on us,” she added with reflective pride.
“Principally since Mr. Crozier came,” added Kitty. “It’s funny, isn’t it, how he made people respect him before they knew who he was?”
“He would make Satan stand up and take off his hat, if he paid Hades a visit,” said Mrs. Tynan admiringly. “Anybody’d do anything for him.”
Kitty eyed her mother closely. There was a strange, far-away, brooding look in Mrs. Tynan’s eyes, and she seemed for a moment lost in thought.
“You’re in love with him,” said Kitty sharply.
“I was, in a way,” answered her mother frankly. “I was, in a way, a kind of way, till I knew he was married. But it didn’t mean anything. I never thought of it except as a thing that couldn’t be.”
“Why couldn’t it be?” asked Kitty, smothering an agitation rising in her breast.
“Because I always knew he belonged to where we didn’t, and because if he was going to be in love himself, it would be with some girl like you. He’s young enough for that, and it’s natural he should get as his profit the years of youth that a young woman has yet to live.”
“As though it was a choice between you and me, for instance!”
Mrs. Tynan started, but recovered herself. “Yes. If there had been any choosing, he’d not have hesitated a minute. He’d have taken you, of course. But he never gave either of us a thought that way.”