"I want to understand about your son," I said by way of making an opening.
She looked at me quickly. "You know, 'e 'ardly ever speaks to me, sir," she said.
I was staggered for a moment. "But you understand him?" I said.
"In some ways, sir," was her answer.
I recognised the direction of the limitation. "Ah! we none of us understand him in all ways," I said, with a touch of patronage.
"No, sir," replied Ellen Mary. She evidently agreed to that statement without qualification.
"But what is he going to do?" I asked. "When he grows up, I mean?"
"I can't say, sir. We must leave that to 'im."
I accepted the rebuke more mildly than I should have done on the previous day. "He never speaks of his future?" I said feebly.
"No, sir."