But to-night he felt he must have a talk with this dear woman, a close talk, that he might find a little comfort. He was glad enough when Mr. Burns had come to ask him to dine.
Mrs. Barrimore saw and understood the look in the Colonel’s eyes, and she answered by a kindly, comprehending glance. She would give him a chance to unburden his mind.
The chance came without her making it.
After dinner Uncle Robert suggested that he, Dan and Phyllis should go down to the Parade and listen to the band, and that Mrs. Barrimore should entertain the Colonel, who was tired.
Uncle Robert’s eyes twinkled with delight as he departed with the young folks in tow. He felt himself an arch plotter.
“‘And what a noble plot was crossed!
And what a brave design was lost!’”
he quoted later on, when he found that his dear Annie had no secret to confide.
Uncle Robert, who was quite sure that his sister’s heart was in the Colonel’s keeping, wondered exceedingly that she should not take the chance to change her mind, which he felt sure would be offered to her on this evening. He was very irate with that nephew of his for domineering over his mother. Was not Annie Barrimore still young and beautiful?—and had she not been defrauded of love?
Even Philip, whom she had worshiped, had given her but little return. She had been a devoted mother, unselfish beyond belief, and Philip, of course, loved her. But he was “down” on her. He resented her extreme youthfulness of appearance, and though no art helped the illusion, still in some unexplainable way he seemed to consider it her fault.
He had a fixed idea that it was indecent for the mother of a grown-up son to be other than soberly middle-aged, and that romance at her time of life was a levity to be firmly put down.