“Well——” Her mother’s voice suggested that if she were put to it she could live without Mrs. Hancock.
And Harriett thought: She does want to go to Sidmouth then.
“It would be very nice to be near Aunt Harriett.”
She was afraid to say more than that lest she should show her own wish before she knew her mother’s.
“Aunt Harriett. Yes.... But it’s very far away, Hatty. We should be cut off from everything. Lectures and concerts. We couldn’t afford to come up and down.”
“No. We couldn’t.”
She could see that Mamma did not really want to live in Sidmouth; she didn’t want to be near Aunt Harriett; she wanted the cottage at Hampstead and all the things of their familiar, intellectual life going on and on. After all, that was the way to keep near to Papa, to go on doing the things they had done together.
Her mother agreed that it was the way.
“I can’t help feeling,” Harriett said, “it’s what he would have wished.”
Her mother’s face was quiet and content. She hadn’t guessed.