"It's an age . . ."
"What?"
"Since I sat on your knee like this. . . . Do you remember? Do you remember? When you were quite a boy . . . and I felt frightened . . . I used to creep up to your little study and creep into your arms and look into your blue eyes. . . . I never do that now."
He clasped his arms round her:
"Then do it again. There, you're doing it now. . . . My lap's bigger now. . . . My eyes have changed colour. . . ."
"Everything, everything has changed!"
"Has everything changed?"
"Yes . . . I've lost you!"
"Mamma!"
"I have lost you. . . . Hush, dear, it was bound to come! . . . Does a son belong to his parents? . . . Does a son belong to his mother? . . . A son belongs to everybody and everything . . . but not to his parents, not to his mother. . . . It is a cruel law, but it is a law. . . ."
"You're regretting the past . . . and there was not so much peace and quiet in the past, Mummie. . . . Do you remember, do you remember . . . how you used to be . . . you and poor Father? . . . Now everything is much calmer . . . everything has smoothed down so . . . because life has gone on."
"Yes, life has gone on. . . . I had you . . . and I have lost you! . . ."
She was sobbing on his shoulder.
"Mamma!"
"Dear, it was bound to be! Didn't I consider . . . that it would be so . . . years and years ago? . . . When you were a little boy, I often
