Mrs.Medlock had said his father's back had begun to show its crookedness in that way when he was a child.

He had never told any one but Mary that most of his "tantrums" as they called them grew out of his hysterical hidden fear.

Mary had been sorry for him when he had told her.
"He always began to think about it when he was cross or tired," she said to herself.

"And he has been cross to-day.

Perhaps--perhaps he has been thinking about it all afternoon." She stood still, looking down at the carpet and thinking.
"I said I would never go back again--" she hesitated, knitting her brows--"but perhaps, just perhaps, I will go and see--if he wants me--in the morning.