He studied her face and spoke with tender reproach.
"Mommie, something troubles you. Am I not to know it?"
She had no recourse but to speak truth.
CHAPTER XIX
ALONE
She laid a tender motherly hand on his arm as she said:—
"Something has been troubling me, Erskine, something that I cannot explain, because there is a sense in which it is not my trouble at all, but has to do with others. For a time I was very much perplexed, but I have settled it now, what my share in it should be, so that it need not perplex me any more."
She knew that the truth was deceiving him, but it satisfied him. He believed that Mamie Parker's troubles, whatever they were, had been brought for his mother to share. His face cleared a little, but he felt it his duty to administer a loving admonition.