"So I am. So was mother."

"Not when I knew her."

"Afterwards then." A sudden thought came to Barbara. "Mrs. Waddington,
if mother was your dearest friend why haven't you known me all this
time?"

"Your mother and I lost sight of each other before you were born."

"Mother didn't want to."

"Nor I."

"Mother would have hated you to think she did."

"I never thought it. She must have known I didn't."

"Then why--"

"Did we lose sight?"

"Yes, why? People don't, if they can help it, if they care enough. And
mother cared."

"You're a persistent little thing, aren't you? Are you trying to make
out that I didn't care?"

"I'm trying to make you see that mother did."