Madam

ingly have cast it away. She argued it with Mouse (it had been Chris's name for him, and Mona kept it)?but she could not argue; she had the wit in plenty, but not the wisdom, or the words. He was long-suffering with her, used to being treated as a boy, which was Mona's invariable treatment?her ail-but invariable treatment?of Mousie. He had been that, contemptibly, when she first knew him. Nowadays, there were lapses: consequent, no doubt, on her being unable to help kissing him when he looked like Chris. She really had loved Chris, passionately and long (for Mona); but he was becoming a end, as things for such women,?whose whole power of thought must be spoken, to be thought at all,?will do. She had never been unfaithful to Chris, nor let her thoughts wander from him, in his life-time; Chris had been unfaithful to her, but that was another story. But brothers,? their looks and movements,?are confusing to a weakened intellect. It was becoming easier to remember Chris, when Chris's brother was about: that was all. Mona's intellect had not always been feeble, or Chris would never have chosen her: it had been weakened by worry and want, during the war-years; and such want and worry were a true indication of her exact standing, in the "layers" of society Fred Foote had mentioned. There were "kind ladies" galore, during the war-years, most eager to help Mona, and Mona's child; but she loathed kind ladies: she would none of them: her eyes were wicked when they ...