He was conscious also of the shallowness and vanity of his mother's nature, and in that saw infinite peril for Sibyl and Sibyl's happiness.
Children begin by loving their parents; as they grow older they judge them; sometimes they forgive them.
His mother! He had something on his mind to ask of her, something that he had brooded on for many months of silence.

A chance phrase that he had heard at the theatre, a whispered sneer that had reached his ears one night as he waited at the stage-door, had set loose a train of horrible thoughts.

He remembered it as if it had been the lash of a hunting-crop across his face.

His brows knit together into a wedge-like furrow, and with a twitch of pain he bit his underlip.
"You are not listening to a word I am saying, Jim," cried Sibyl, "and I am making the most delightful plans for your future.

Do say something." "What do you want me to say ?" "Oh! that you will be a good boy and not forget us," she answered, smiling at him.
He shrugged his shoulders.