Mrs. Evans. Yes; he had gotten older, and he wanted his way, and he was a teenager then, and like all teenagers, he was very difficult. Of course, I guess all teenagers are that way, because they are not yet grown and they are not a child either. The best of them are very trying, and it is hard to keep them in line. In that respect Lee wasn't any different than any other teenaged boy, I guess.
Mr. Jenner. Now, this was the period after which Lee returned from New York; is that right?
Mrs. Evans. Yes; after they came here from New York.
Mr. Jenner. With his mother?
Mrs. Evans. Yes.
Mr. Jenner. What did they say to you as to why they returned from New York and came to New Orleans?
Mrs. Evans. Well, I don't know that they said anything, but it seems to me now that they came right from Texas over to New Orleans then, not right from New York. I could be mistaken there, but I think they went back to Texas from New York.
Maybe they did come right from New York, but I can't remember that far back. I know that they had divorced, and although no one told me, I just put two and two together, and it was my opinion that Lee evidently was just so spoiled and demanded so much of his mother's attention that they didn't get along—I mean, her and Ekdahl, because of Lee. Now, that's my opinion. She never told me why.
Mr. Jenner. That's just your surmise?
Mrs. Evans. Yes, sir; I can't help feeling that if she had put Lee in a boarding school, she might have hung onto her meal ticket, and considering Mr. Ekdahl's condition and everything, if all that hadn't happened, she would have been sitting on top of the world. She wouldn't have had another worry in her life, as far as money goes, but instead her children came first, I mean, Lee. She just poured out all her love on him, it seemed like.