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show a new son to Father on his return.’
    Graham glanced at Regan in imagination of her feeling.
    â€˜I shall not live six months many more times,’ she said.
    â€˜Yes, you will, Grandma,’ said Luce, in an even tone. ‘Probably a good many more.’
    â€˜What about me in exile?’ said Fulbert.
    â€˜Poor Father! You did not expect to have to ask that question.’
    â€˜I would go myself if I were younger by a few years,’ said Sir Jesse, with an undernote of inflexibility that revealed his true relation with his son. ‘And it is not only for that reason that I wish I were.’
    â€˜I cannot imagine you in a stage more becoming, Grandpa,’ said Luce.
    â€˜I have liked others better, my dear,’ said Sir Jesse, smiling to himself as he recalled these.
    â€˜Perhaps I ought to pay Grandpa an occasional compliment,’ murmured Graham.
    Regan made an emotional sound, and Luce came and stood behind her, stroking her shoulders as she continued to talk.
    â€˜A great part of Father’s duty must devolve on Mother.’
    â€˜And she will be equal to it,’ said Fulbert, in a tone of paying the fullest tribute.
    â€˜She will have but little support in one of her sons,’ said Daniel.
    â€˜I wish the time were behind us,’ said Eleanor. ‘And I may make other people wish it more.’
    â€˜A mother’s life is not all sacrifice,’ said Fulbert.
    â€˜It is not indeed,’ said Regan, in allusion to her own lot.
    Luce gave Regan’s shoulder a final caress, and left her as if her attendance had done its work, as it appeared it had.
    â€˜Father, perhaps a word from you would touch Graham at this time,’ said Daniel.
    â€˜Nothing is asked of either of you, but that you shall consider your future,’ said Sir Jesse.
    â€˜Grandpa, that is rather hard,’ said Luce. ‘More than that must be expected of everyone. And long months spent over books may not strike young men in that light.’
    â€˜Then they are not what you call them.’
    â€˜Well, they scarcely are as yet,’ said Eleanor.
    â€˜Mother, that is even harder,’ said Luce, with a laugh.
    â€˜The mot abandoned youth is a child to his mother,’ murmured Graham.
    â€˜Mother, you are setting a gallant example,’ said Luce. ‘Father has not a wife who will make things harder for him.’
    â€˜We are none of us taking the line of showing him how much we are affected.’
    â€˜No, we are not engaging in that competition, Mother. But we might not follow the other course with so much success.’
    â€˜Those who show the least, feel the most,’ stated Fulbert.
    â€˜That is not the line to take with me,’ said Regan, with smiling reference to her swift emotions.
    â€˜You are a self-satisfied old woman,’ said her son.
    â€˜Grandma has no need to wear a disguise,’ said Luce.
    â€˜And have the rest of us?’ said Eleanor.
    â€˜Well, Mother, many people do wear one. That is all I meant.’
    â€˜â€œThis above all, to thine own self be true;
   And it must follow, as the night the day,
   Thou canst not then be false to any man,”’
    quoted Fulbert, in conclusion of the matter.
    â€˜Why is that so?’ said Graham. ‘It might be true to ourselves to do all manner of wrong to other people.’
    â€˜The only thing is to conquer that self, Graham,’ said Daniel.
    â€˜It depends on the sense of the word, true,’ said Eleanor. ‘It means it would be dealing falsely with our own natures to do what degrades them.’
    â€˜I expect it does mean that, Mother,’ said Luce, in a tone of receiving light and giving her mother the credit. ‘No doubt it should be taken so.’
    Sir Jesse broke into a song of his youth, a habit he had when he was not attentive to the talk, and sang in muffled reminiscent tones, which seemed at once to croon with