Page:A Good Woman (1927).pdf/402

 He ain't no ordinary town boy, Em. He's different. I've found that out. I don't know how we produced 'im. But if you don't want to lose him, you'll let him alone."

She didn't want to lose him. There were times when she hardened her heart toward him, thinking he was ungrateful and hard to allow a hussy like Mary Conyngham to stand between him and his mother; and again she would think of him as her little boy, her Philip, for whom she would work her fingers to the bone. But she was hurt by the way he looked at her, coldly, out of hard blue eyes, as if she were only a stranger to him. She felt him slipping, slipping from her, and at times she grew cold with fear. She "let him alone," but she could not overlook her duty toward him and his children. They were, after all, her grandchildren, and a man like Philip wasn't capable of bringing them up properly, especially since he had lost his faith. And with a mother like theirs, who had such bad blood, they would need special care and training. . . she resolved not to speak of it for the moment, but, later on, when they were a little older. . ..

But it was Mabelle who was the most regular visitor at the flat. She came with a passion for always being in the center of things; she clung to the tragedy, and came every day to break in upon Philip's brooding solitude, to chatter on and on, whether he listened or not. She brought little Jimmy's old toys for the twins, and she dandled them on her knee as if they were her own. There were times when Philip suspected her of being driven by a relentless curiosity to discover more of what had happened on the terrible day, but he endured her; he even began to have an affection for