Mother and Son Read Online Free PDF Page B

ourselves.”
    â€œI was thinking it,” said Francis, “and it will indeed be easy.”
    â€œI am not sure I have not missed something in being placed beyond, or shall we say apart from such necessity. It might bring out qualities now unsuspected.”
    â€œHas nothing aroused your own suspicions?” said Julius.
    â€œHow mean of people not to suspect them!” said Alice. “It is not a thing we should be left to do for ourselves.”
    â€œPeople’s qualities are clear,” said Miranda, looking from her son to her nephews, as if she saw an illustration of this. “There is no occasion to suspect them.”
    â€œBut I think my mother does suspect them in my case,” said Rosebery, smiling. “And I feel it is a natural situation between a mother and a son. If you three had had a mother, which I know not to have been the case, I should not have to suggest that.”
    â€œWe have not had one, whom we can remember,” said Francis.
    â€œYou have not, Francis. And often have I found my heart bleed for you on that ground. I think the little beliefs and blindnesses between two people so near to each other, are not the least of the things that we may have, and that you have missed.”
    â€œEverything must be forgiven us,” said Alice. “We can never be to blame. Pettigrew ought to know about it.”
    â€œFather,” said Rosebery, “I have often meant to askyou if you remember my cousins’ mother, and if you see any resemblance in them to her. It is a matter of interest to me. I do not know why it has hitherto escaped my memory.”
    â€œBecause it was not of enough interest to you. I remember her well. We were intimate with each other. Adrian and Alice remind me of her, though they are all more like their father.”
    â€œAnd so like you, Father, a thing I cannot claim to be.”
    â€œPerhaps my face is my fortune,” said Adrian, “as I have no other.”
    â€œThe first can hardly be said of me,” said Rosebery, with his slow laugh. “Perhaps it is as well that the second cannot either.”
    â€œYour appearance does us credit,” said Francis, looking at his cousin’s evening clothes. “You know what is due to yourself.”
    â€œRather do I know, Francis, what is due to my mother’s presence. As I have said, I am protected from the imputation of personal vanity.”
    â€œAppearance has not much to do with that,” said Julius.
    â€œWell, well, you know your own reasons for dressing, Father.”
    â€œWhy should they not be the same as yours?”
    â€œFather, I am sure they are,” said Rosebery, with grave compunction. “I must plead guilty to speaking with levity. The companionship of my young cousins may dispose me to it.”
    â€œIt does not have any great success,” said Alice.
    â€œDoes it not?” said Rosebery. “I sometimes find an idle note creeping into my talk, that is not natural to it.”
    â€œI suppose Miss Burke is at home by now?” said Miranda. “I don’t know where she lives.”
    â€œThen how can you assume she has arrived there?” said Julius.
    â€œI understood her to say she had no home,” said Rosebery, on a faintly reproachful note. “And she was to visit another house in the neighbourhood before ending her day.”
    â€œTo apply for another post?” said Miranda.
    â€œThat is the presumption, Mother. Our acquaintance did not warrant my putting the question. But she had, if I may so express it, the light of battle in her eye.”
    â€œIt was very late to go anywhere. What will the people think?”
    â€œIf they think what I do, they will estimate the spirit that carries her on in the face of convention and discouragement,” said Rosebery, with the light also appearing in his.
    â€œShe ought to have been your companion,” said Alice.
    â€œWell, she was so for a suitable