TEW.'
'Good little girl!' he said to himself, smiling sadly. 'I feel sure
she did her best.'
But his pride was asserting itself, always restive under
provocation. To rival with a man like Mutimer! Better that the
severance with old days should be complete.
He talked it all over very frankly with his mother, who felt that
her son's destiny was not easily foreseen.
'And what do you propose to do, Hubert?' she asked, when they spoke
of the future. i88 Demos
'To study, principally art. In a fortnight I go to Rome.'
Mrs. Eldon had gone thither thirty years ago.
'Think of me in. my chair sometimes,' she said, touching his hands
with her wan fingers.
CHAPTER XVI
Alice reached home again on Christmas Eve. It was snowing; she came
in chilled and looking miserable. Mrs. Mutimer met her in the hall,
passed her, and looked out at the open door, then turned with a few
white flecks on her gown.
'Where's Dick?
'He couldn't come,' replied the girl briefly, and ran up to her
room.
'Arry was spending the evening with friends. Since tea-time the old
woman had never ceased moving from room to room, up and down stairs.
She had got out an old pair of Richard's slippers, and had put them
before the dining-room fire to warm. She had made a bed for Richard,
and had a fire burning in the chamber.
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