Douglas struggled heavily with the strangling sobs and after a moment sat erect and embarrassed.
"Douglas, what happened? How did you come to do it?"
"Something he said to Jude last night scared me," mumbled Doug.
Mary tightened her hold on the boy's arm. "I've been so afraid! So afraid! And no one to talk to!"
"Haven't you ever warned Jude about it?" demanded Douglas, with a sudden sensing of a debt mothers owed to daughters that Mary might not be discharging.
Mary shrank. "O, I couldn't, Doug!"
Douglas looked at her scornfully. "I don't see why that isn't your job."
Mary rose from her knees. She twisted her work-scarred hands together and looked at the boy with pathetic wistfulness.
"Don't you see, Doug, that I couldn't make her understand? She's still such a child she'd just laugh at me."
"Child!" scoffed Douglas, forgetting his own previous estimate of Judith.
"She knows a whole lot more than you do!"