"He is a brute! Think of a man quarrelling with his mother! Why--!" He went into a reverie in which his face grew very soft, while Mrs. Lancaster watched him silently. Presently he started. "I have nothing against her except a sort of general animosity from boyhood, which I am sorry to have."
"Oh, well, then, come. As people grow older they outgrow their animosities and wish to make friends."
"You being so old as to have experienced it?" said Keith.
"I am nearly thirty years old," she said. "Isn't it dreadful?"
"Aurora is much older than that," said Keith.
"Ah, Sir Flatterer, I have a mirror." But her eyes filled with a pleasant light as Keith said:
"Then it will corroborate what needs no proof."
She knew it was flattery, but she enjoyed it and dimpled.
"Now, you will come? I want you to come." She looked at him with a soft glow in her face.
"Yes. On your invitation."