He shook hands and left her, and half an hour later he called at her son's office. The office boy showed him in and he held out his hand. Darwen grasped it with a warm friendly smile.
"In the presence of other people," Carstairs said, as the door closed behind the office boy, "we are friends, because your mother is one of the best women on this earth. How she came to have such a whelp as you, Lord only knows. Do you agree?"
"My dear chap, I am honoured and delighted. It is not often one gets an opportunity of shaking an honest man by the hand, even though the excuse for doing so is a lie." He smiled his most charming smile. "You're putting on weight, Carstairs."
"Yes, but I'm in the pink of condition."
"So am I."
"That's good. Your mother isn't looking so well."
"No, I've noticed it myself." A shade of real anxiety passed across Darwen's face.
Carstairs noted it, and his opinion of Darwen went up; he stepped up close. "Look here," he said, "she was worried because she thought her son was a damned rogue. I've told her—at least given her to understand, that he is not, and you'll find her looking a different woman. Do you see?" He turned and went out.
Darwen sat back in his chair lost in thought. "That man always makes me think. Wonderful man, wonderful man. Damn him!" He sat up suddenly and went on with his work.
That night Carstairs reached Southville; he got out and put up at a hotel for the night. Before going to bed he went out and strolled round the town in the silence of the late evening. Old memories crowded back on him, and although they were not always of pleasant happenings, the taste of them was sweet; he had progressed since then, and he felt, in the bones of him, he knew, that he was going forward. His steps turned mechanically towards the electric lighting works, and before he quite realized where he was going, he found himself facing the old familiar big gates with the little wicket at the side. He looked at his watch. "Eleven o'clock! Wonder who's on." He paused a minute, then opened the wicket and went in. "Probably some of the men who knew me are still here," he thought.