Mother and Son Read Free Page A

companion of any kind, when you have two able and willing men at your disposal.”
    â€œThat is why I want one. I am old and weak, and able men do not meet my need. I am twelve years older than your father, and I have resolved never to be a burden on him. The time has come to avoid it. I want someone who will adapt herself to me and accept my words and ways. It is not much to ask in return for what she will be given.”
    â€œCan Aunt Miranda mean what she says?” said Francis.
    â€œShe should advertise for a martyr,” said his sister. “But I suppose she has done so. She wants a companion, and the two things are known to be the same.”
    â€œWhat are you whispering about?” said Miranda. “You are too old to get into corners and snigger like stable boys. When you are given a home like this, the least you can do is to deserve it.”
    â€œPeople seem to have to do a good deal for a home,”said Alice. “And it does not seem an unnatural thing to have.”
    â€œYou have a right to this one,” said Julius. “You are my brother’s children.”
    â€œBut not your own,” said Miranda. “They tend to forget that.”
    â€œIt is the last thing I want them to remember.”
    â€œI did not know that stable boys sniggered,” said Alice. “They always seem so grave.”
    â€œThey certainly swear very earnestly,” said her brother.
    â€œFrancis, I have never heard it,” said Rosebery, on a note of consternation.
    â€œThey know what is fit for your ears,” said Julius.
    â€œI do not disclaim the suggestion that I should be discountenanced by it, Father. Swearing and the like are no part of manliness to me.”
    â€œWe have seen they are the part of stable boys.”
    â€œIt seems that several things are,” said Francis.
    Miranda did not look disturbed. She did not grudge the children their affinity with her husband, or resent its being greater than her son’s. It was the meaning of her life that Rosebery should belong to herself. Between the mother and son there vibrated an active emotion, that the children took for granted, and Julius met with dry acceptance. Rosebery poured out on Miranda all his feeling for womanhood, which was the thing that chiefly occupied his thoughts.
    The last person to share them thanked him at the door, received his half-sorrowful disclaimer and wentinto the library. She was received by Bates in a manner equally suggestive of attendant and hostess.
    â€œSo you did not come to an understanding, miss?”
    â€œYes, we did and soon. Mrs. Hume said I should not suit her.”
    â€œIt is not everyone who would suit the mistress,” said Bates, standing with her rising nose and beetling brow seeming to glow with self-complacence, while her small, honest, black eyes actually did so. “It is not for me to judge, and what is not for me is omitted in my case. But having suited her since the year eighteen sixty, my words speak.”
    â€œI did not suit her for as many minutes. And she did not suit me as long. I do not envy the thirty-seven years.”
    â€œOh, you will secure a position, miss,” said Bates, in recognition of this spirit. “I entertain no doubt. And if it was ordained, it was to be.”
    â€œI wish I had known it was ordained, in time to be spared the interview. Happily it was short.”
    â€œShort and sharp,” agreed Bates, as if she visualised it. “It was not prolonged.”
    â€œMrs. Hume thought I should profit by it. I think she even hoped I should. She seemed to wish me well in her way.”
    â€œThere is her bell,” said Bates. “I am used to exactions. I must leave you for the moment.”
    She did so, and Miss Burke looked about her without curiosity. She seldom felt it, as she attached no importance to what she saw. She had learned that the setting of human experience was no key to itself.
    Bates returned and