— XI —MR. LUDLOW VISITS
HIS MOTHER
One evening Mr. Smithers took Miss Ludlow to the theatre. During their absence Mrs. Ludlow had a visitor – no less a person than her son. He did not seem to be in very good humour on his arrival; not in that pleasant humour in which a son should be who only pays an occasional visit to his widowed mother. What little he came with vanished when he heard of his sister’s absence.
“Where’s Netta?”
“She’s gone with Mr. Smithers to the theatre.”
He could not have seemed more startled if his mother had struck him.
“What!”
Mrs. Ludlow repeated her observation, a little tremulously. She stood in awe of her son, who had always domineered over her, as if he had been the parent and she the child.
“Do you mean to say that you’ve allowed Netta to go with that –
