instantly followed by a
betrayal. For when he had lifted his lips from her cheek and had turned
to greet Roger with courtesy that was at once kind and insincere, he had
left one hand resting on her shoulder as it had been when they embraced,
and his thumb stretched out to press on the pulse that beat at the base
of her throat. If she had been completely loyal she would have moved;
but she had stood quite still, letting him mark how she was not calm and
rejoicing at all, but shaken as by a storm with her disgust at this
loathsome presence. His hand had relaxed and he had passed it
caressingly up her neck. She had let herself sigh deeply; she might as
well have said, "I am so glad you understand I hate him." That was the
first of a thousand such betrayals. The words said between souls are not
heard by the eavesdropping ear, but the soul also can eavesdrop, and
tells in its time. That morning there must have come a moment to the
poor pale boy, as he worked at his silly present in the little shed,
when it was plain to him that the mother and the brother whom he had
thought so kind were vulpine with love of each other, vulpine with hate
of him.

There was no disputing his discovery, since it was true. The only thing
to do was to try to arrange some way of life for him in which he would
have a chance to become an independent person who could form new and
unspoiled relationships. It was, of course, out of the question to send
him back to the shop, but the problem of disposing of him was one that
raised innumerable difficulties which Marion was the less able to face
because her bad dreams had begun again. He had so little schooling that
it was impossible to send him in for any profession. He, himself, who
was touchingly grateful because they were not sending him back to the
shop, chose to be trained as a veterinary surgeon, and he was
apprenticed to old Mr. Taylor at Canewdon. But it turned out that though
he had a passionate love for animals he had no power over them. After he
had been chased round a field three times and severely bitten by a
stallion with whom he had sat up for two nights, Mr. Taylor pronounced
that it was hopeless and sent him home. They tried him as a chemist's
assistant next, and he did well for ten months, until there was that
awful trouble about the prescription. There had been nothing to do after
that save to put him to work as a clerk and give him an allowance that
with his wages would enable him to li