“Very good, sir.”
She edged towards the door.
“Mrs. Hubble! Stop a moment. Say this, too. I am not ashamed of my son. I reckon you all think I am ashamed of him, and you are putting your heads together and clacking, and pitying me for it. But I am not ashamed. He died for England. Mr. Archie himself says it. These are his very words: Wait!”—for Mrs. Hubble was going to bolt.
“I’m waiting, Mus’ Sumption.”
“He says, ‘Think of your son as having died so that other men should take warning by him and not desert the ranks, and, therefore, in that sense he has died for his country.’ Do you understand?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Then you can go.”
Mrs. Hubble fled.