The attention, instead of pleasing her, brought an ironic twist to her lips, though she thanked George quite as courteously as if he had been a stranger to her.

At dinner when Mr.Fowler abruptly asked his son why he had not been to the office, she kept her eyes fixed on her plate, in which she seemed to see palely reflected the anxious pleasantness of her mother-in-law's smile.

It hardly occurred to her to wonder where George had spent his day, though, when she met Mr.Fowler's kind and tired look, a pang shot through her heart.

She was sorrier for George's father than she was for herself.

He looked so lonely, yet so patient.