I think--I think you will like it." She saw at once that he was speaking of no tangible material gift.
"Yes, dear ?" she said.
"Madge and me," said Morris.

"Just that." And Mrs.Assheton did like this second present, and though it made her cry a little, her tears were the sweetest that can be shed.
* * * * * Mother and son dined alone together, and since Morris had determined to forget, to put out of his mind the hideous injury that Mills had attempted to do him, he judged it to be more consistent with this resolve to tell his mother nothing about it, since to mention it to another, even to her, implied that he was not doing his best to bury what he determined should be dead to him.

As usual, they played backgammon together, and it was not till Mrs.Assheton rose to go to bed that she remembered Mr.
Taynton's note, asking her and Morris to dine with him on their earliest unoccupied day.

This, as is the way in the country, happened to be the next evening, and since the last post had already gone out, she asked Morris if Martin might take the note round for her tonight, since it ought to have been answered before.
That, of course, was easily done, and Morris told his servant to call also at the house where Mr.Mills's flat was situated, and ask the porter if he had come home.

The note dispatched his mother went to bed, and Morris went down to the billiard room to practise spot-strokes, a form of hazard at which he was singularly inefficient, and wait for news.