'I'm afraid I have.'

'Will you buy me a green gown with yellow roses on?'

'If you like.' He spoke doubtfully, wondering what his mother would
think of it.

'And shall we sit down to our dinners at a table with a cloth on like
at--' She stopped. She could not tell him about Undern. 'Like the
gentry?' she finished.

'Yes, dear.'

'And will you tell that sleepy old lady as lives along, of you--'

('Oh, poor mother!' thought Edward.)

'--Not to stare and stare at me over the top of her spectacles like a
cow at a cornfield over the fence?'

'Yes--yes,' said Edward hastily, feeling that his mother must wait to
be reinstated until he had made sure of Hazel.

'All right, then; I'll come.'

Edward took her hand; then he kissed her cheek gently. She accepted the
kiss placidly. There was nothing in it to remind her of Reddin's.

'And you'll do always as you like,' Edward went on, 'and be my little