"I thought he was not behaving well—I mean not behaving as if he were well."
"He hath much to try him."
" That is hard to believe, in this beautiful home and with thee for a mother."
Elizabeth tapped the floor with her slipper.
"'Twere well for young men if a mother's love sufficed them."
"Ho! ho!" laughed Humphrey, roused from his abstraction by the tilt between the two women. "Faith, good wife, I felt the need of another love than my mother's, and I look not to see Romney more filial than I."
"Oh, you may make a jest of me," began Elizabeth, stiffly; but there was a catch in her voice which led Peggy to throw down her netting, and run across the room to kneel beside her. "I need a mother's love more than any," she whispered.
Elizabeth's anger weakened.
"Tell me where Romney has gone and I will follow and strive to make my peace."