"Very well, then; I will see James the first thing in the morning. I don't say it will come to anything, but there is a great deal to be gone through before she is even approached. We must do something. Living here alone, with their father...."
"Out of the question, of course." The conversation having, as it were, completed one lap of its course and arrived again at its starting point, might have perambulated gently along till bedtime, had it not been abruptly interrupted by the entrance of James, junior, come to say good-night.
A few days after the funeral, after they had gone to bed of an evening, Harry through the darkness apostrophized his brother thus:
"I tell you, James, Aunt Selina is all right; did you know it?"
"Oh," was the reply, "she gave you five dollars, too, did she?"
"Yes, but that's not what I mean. She's given me five dollars plenty of times before this."
"Well, what do you mean, then?"
"Well, she found me in the garden one morning.... Tuesday, I guess—" Tuesday had been the day of the funeral—"and I had been crying a good deal, and I suppose she knew it. At any rate, she took me by the hand and talked to me for a while...."
"What did she say to you?" This question was not prompted by vulgar curiosity; James knew that his brother wished to be pumped.