David, cheerily.

His mother did not hesitate, provocation or no provocation, to
sting and reproach him in this way.

She had never thought very highly of her son; her disappointment,
therefore, over his failure at college had not been keen. Besides,
tragical suffering is the sublime privilege of deep natures: she
escaped by smallness. Nothing would have made her very miserable
but hunger and bodily pains. Against hunger she exercised ceaseless
precautions; bodily pains she had none. The one other thing that
could have agitated her profoundly was the idea that she would be
compelled to leave Kentucky. It was hard for her to move about her
house, much less move to Missouri. Not in months perhaps did she
even go upstairs to bestow care upon, the closets, the bed, the
comforts of her son. As might be expected, she considered herself
the superior person of the family; and as often happens, she
imposed this estimate of herself upon her husband. The terrifying
vanity and self-sufficiency of the little-minded! Nature must set
great store upon this type of human being, since it is regularly
allowed to rule its betters.

But his father! David had been at home two months now, for this was
the last of February, and not once during that long ordeal of daily
living together had his father opened his lips either to reproach
or question him.

Letters had been received from the faculty, from the pastor; of
that David was aware; but any conversation as to these or as to the
events of which they were the sad consummation, his father would