“Criminal, Granny! Yes, and puppyish! I've learned all that.”
The sound of his voice was utterly unlike his own, and Kirsteen, starting forward, put her arm round him.
“It's all right, Mother. They've chucked me.”
At that moment, when all, save his mother, wanted so to express their satisfaction, Frances Freeland alone succeeded.
“I'm so glad, darling!”
Then John rose and, holding out his hand to his nephew, said:
“That's the end of the trouble, then, Derek?”
“Yes. And I beg your pardon, Uncle John; and all—Uncle Stanley, Uncle Felix; you, Dad; Granny.”
They had all risen now. The boy's face gave them—even John, even Stanley—a choke in the throat. Frances Freeland suddenly took their arms and went to the door; her other two sons followed. And quietly they all went out.
Derek, who had stayed perfectly still, staring past Nedda into a corner of the room, said: