Aunt Lily did not see the omitted sentence till the two sisters were
alone together later in the afternoon. It filled her eyes with tears.
'Poor Maurice,' she said; 'he wrote something of the same kind to me.'
'I expect we shall see him wonderfully shaken up and brightened when he
comes home. The numbness he talks of was half of it Mary's dislike to
us all, only I never would let her keep me aloof from him.'
'I almost wish he had taken Dolores out to Phyllis. I am not in the
least fulfilling his ideal towards her.'
'Nor would Phyllis, unless the voyage had had as much effect on her as
it seems to have had upon Maurice. So you don't get on any better?'
'Not a bit. It is a case of parallel lines. We don't often have
collisions--unless Wilfred gets an opportunity of provoking her.'
'Why don't you send that boy to school?'
'I shall after Christmas. He is quite well now, and to have him at
home is bad both for himself and the others. He needs licking into
shape as only boys can do to one another, and he is not a model for
Fergus, especially since Harry has been away.'
'What does he do?'
'Nothing very brilliant, nor of the kind one half forgives for the
drollery of it. Putting mustard into the custard was the worst, I
think; inciting the dogs to bring the cattle down on the girls when
they cross the paddock; shutting up their books when the places are
found--those are the sort of things; putting that very life-like wild
cat chauffe-pied with glaring eyes in Dolly's bed.
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