CHAPTER 23Mrs. Yates was setting out the breakfast things for herself and her daughter on the morning following Harbord's remarkable recovery in the dentist's waiting-room, and grumbling to herself as she did it.
Devoted mother as she was, she was growing tired of doing the work while Miss Tottie Delauney reaped the benefit, lolling in idle self-indulgence while her mother washed up or swept the floors. At the moment she was still lying in bed in the room above, while Mrs. Yates had already been up and about for an hour or two; as she set teacups and saucers on the kitchen table, neatly covered for the meal by a red and white checked cloth, she was conscious that even a mother's devotion might peter out, and had a curious sense of futility and a wish to sit down and cry her eyes out.
The
