"You take my breath away. Remember—there's only me, Harry, to look after you."
"I know. But you're not like other mothers," said the youth impatiently. "You want me to be happy and please myself. At least if you'd wanted the usual thing, you should have brought me up differently!" He smiled upon her again, patting her hand.
"What do you mean by the 'usual thing'?"
"Well, family and money, I suppose. As if we hadn't got enough for ten!"
Lady Tatham hesitated.
"One talks in the air," she said, frowning a little. "I can't promise you, Harry, exactly how I should behave, if—"
"If what?"
"If you put me to the test."
"Oh, yes, you can," he said, affectionately. Then he got up restlessly from the table. "But don't let's talk about it. Somehow I can't stand it—yet. I just wanted you to know that I liked them—and I'd be glad if you'd be civil to them—that's all. Hullo—here they are!" For as he moved across the room he caught sight, through a side window commanding the park, of a pony-carriage just driving into the wide gravel space before the house.
"Already? Their pony must have seven-leagued boots, to have caught you up in this time."