“It’s the best fact that ever was, Herbert,” said the old lady.
“Yes... it will make a bit of a difference,” said Herbert thoughtfully.
Mrs. Heywood clasped her son’s arm. There was a tremulous light in her eyes and a great emotion in her voice.
“Herbert, I am an old woman and your mother. Sit down and let me talk to you as I did in the old days when you were my small boy before a nursery fire.”
Herbert smiled at her; all the gloom had left his face.
“All right, mother.... By Jove, and I never guessed. And yet I ought to have guessed. Things have been—different—lately.”
He sat down on a hassock near the old lady with his knees tucked up. She sat down, too, and stretched out a trembling hand to touch his hair.
“Once upon a time, Herbert, there was a young man and a young woman who loved each other very dearly.”
Herbert looked up and smiled at her.
“Are you sure, mother?”