The mention of his son always shook him to the very centre of his soul; yet he had not been able to resist uttering the words that had passed his lips during this painful interview with Roland's young wife.

Unshed tears were burning under his eyelids.

But if it had not been for that death-like hand he might have imagined her almost unmoved.
Felicita was down-stairs before Madame the next morning, and had ordered the carriage to be ready to take her and the children to Upfold Farm directly after breakfast.

It was so rare an incident for their mother to be present at the breakfast-table that Felix and Hilda felt as if it were a holiday.

Madame was pale and sad, and for the first time Felicita thought of her as being a sufferer by Roland's crime.