"When your mother brought you into the world she was listening to one outside calling to her, and it opened the way for you." At night Hector MacNairn and his mother and I sat on the terrace under stars which seemed listening things, and we three drew nearer to one another, and nearer and nearer.
"When the poor mother stumbled into the train that day," was one of the things Hector told me, "I was thinking of The Fear and of my own mother.
You looked so slight and small as you sat in your corner that I thought at first you were almost a child.

Then a far look in your eyes made me begin to watch you.

You were so sorry for the poor woman that you could not look away from her, and something in your face touched and puzzled me.

You leaned forward suddenly and put out your hand protectingly as she stepped down on to the platform.
"That night when you spoke quite naturally of the child, never doubting that I had seen it, I suddenly began to suspect.

Because of The Fear"-- he hesitated--"I had been reading and thinking many things new to me.