Mrs. Wylie ceased speaking and leant back comfortably. Brenda was sitting forward now with her two hands clasped around her knees. She was looking towards her companion, and her eyes glowed in the ruddy light.
'I think,' she said, 'we should respect his secret. Naturally he would prefer that we were silent.'
'We are neither of us talkative.... Then ... then my fable was true?'
Brenda nodded her head.
'I am glad,' murmured the widow after a short silence, 'that he has brought matters to an understanding at last. It is probable that he will turn out a fine fellow when he has found his level. He is finding it now. His walk was different as he returned home. All young men are objectionable until they have failed signally in something or other. Then they begin to settle down into manhood.'
'He misrepresents himself,' said Brenda gently. 'When he lays aside his artistic affectation he is very nice.'
'But,' added Mrs. Wylie with conviction, 'he is not half good enough for you.'
Brenda smiled a little wistfully and rose to preside at the tea-tray, which the maid brought in at that moment.
And so William Hicks was tacitly laid aside. People who live together—husband and wife, brother and sister, woman and woman—soon learn the art of deferring a subject which can gain nothing by discussion. There are perforce many such topics in our daily life—subjects which are best ignored, explanations which are best withheld, details best suppressed.
During their simple tea and the evening that followed there were other things to talk of, and it was only after dinner, when they were left alone with their work and their books, that Mrs. Wylie made reference to the afternoon's proceedings.