"You forget," she repeated. "And she doesn't."
Involuntarily Tanqueray looked at Jane and Jane at Tanqueray. There were moments when his wife's penetration was terrible.
Rose was brooding so profoundly that she failed to see the passing of that look.
"If it was me," she murmured in a thick voice, a voice soft as her dream, "if it was my child——"
Tanqueray's nerves gave way. "But it isn't." He positively roared at her. "And it never will be."
Rose shrank back as if he had struck her. Jane's heart leaped to her help.
"If it was," she said, "it would have the dearest, sweetest little mother."
At that, at the sudden tenderness of it coming after Tanqueray's blow, Rose gave a half-audible moan and got up quickly and left the room. They heard her faltering steps up-stairs in the room above them.
It was then that Tanqueray asked Jane if she would stay and dine with them. She could send a note to Brodrick by the nurse.
She stayed. She felt that if she did not Tanqueray would bully Rose.