I don’t know what she said to Mrs. Sebright, or Mrs. Sebright to her, but she was not displeased.
She said:
‘A good woman, I think, but a fool; he must get his brains from his father. Stupid women often have clever sons; perhaps the clever men marry them. She will not trouble you, Helen, she won’t interfere, but you must be kind to her, and attentive.’
I said that I would try. I was grateful to Grandmother for being pleased at all.
XXIV
Guy and Hugo were not at Yearsly that week-end; they were sorry they could not come, Cousin Delia said.
She welcomed Walter, giving him both her hands, and looked at him hard, as his mother had looked at me; but she did not ask him questions. Some people said that Cousin Delia was hard to talk to, for she never asked you the ordinary things; she did not ask people how their relations were, as some women always do. She took people as they were, and left them alone; and she talked, when she did talk, about anything that was in her mind, or yours, at the moment.
She showed Walter some gems, Greek gems, in the library; he told her about them, their dates, and where they were made. He did not say they were decadent, or ‘too late,’ as I expected. He was polite to Cousin Delia, and treated her with respect.
He said:
‘She is not at all like her sons.’