'He was quite right, Hubert.'
'Forgive me, Father, but I must know what mama thinks.'
'Papa was right,' said Margaret, and looked down at her hands, which were clasped in her lap.
Hubert gazed at her. 'Tell me the truth, mama.'
'It is the truth.'
'In the name of God, mama.'
'In the name of God and of the Blessed Virgin and of all the saints, it is the truth. The love of men and women is not the highest kind of love and that's the truth.'
'Then why do you say it as if it's a lie?'
'Your mother means that there are—'
'My mother will tell me what my mother means.'
'Hubert, dearest, I can't tell you anything more.'
'But there is more to tell, isn't there? I must know what it is.'
'You could not understand it.'
'Tell me and I'll see whether I do.'
'Very well. The love we speak of is not the highest but it is the strongest and the most wonderful, and it transforms the soul, and nothing else is like it.'
'You talk to the wrong tune again, mama. This time you try to make something very interesting sound silly and heavi-some. But I understand just the same: that's easy enough. You mean that what I shall miss by being altered is so important that it would be quite wrong to alter me.'
Hubert's mother burst into tears faster than he would have believed possible. He was not too agitated at this to notice Father Lyall laying his hand gently on her shoulder, nor to find something in the way she responded that, just for the moment, made him think she was used to being touched in that sort of way. But this was soon driven from his head by puzzlement and concern.
'Why do you cry, mama? Please stop.'
'I tried so hard not to tell you, but I couldn't help it. I wanted you to believe it was right that you should be altered, but then you asked me for the truth and I told it you, God forgive me. I tried to hide it...'
'Why must God forgive you for telling the truth?'
'There are some truths it can be better not to know. You would have been happier if I hadn't spoken.'
'I think not.' Hubert held out his hand and his mother grasped it. 'You mean I might never have known what I shall miss by being altered. But there would be so many other ways for me to hear of it, and other folk to tell me. And after all, mama, I shall never know, shall I?' Getting no answer, he went on, 'It is decided, is it? I must be altered?'
'Yes, Hubert,' said the priest at once. 'Your mother is against it, as you hear, but nothing can—'
'Are you against it, Father?'
'It's better that I don't answer that. But if I were against it ten times over, it would make no difference. Neither of us, nobody at all, has any power to resist what has been decided.'
'I understand.'
'Say nothing of this to your father.'
'I understand that too,' said Hubert, and went on directly, 'I think I should like to be alone now.'
'Pray to God, dearest, and to your saint.'
'Yes, mama, I want to, but I don't know what to pray for.'
'For God's favour.'
'I already have that, as papa said. It might be better to pray for His protection.'
Hubert turned and walked slowly back the way he had come. As soon as he was out of hearing, Lyall said, 'Don't blame yourself, Margaret. You could have done nothing else.'
'If only Tobias hadn't talked of love to the boy. Why did he? There was no need.'
'Your husband is a very fair-minded man in his way.'
'Yes, he is. You did better than I, my love, not to raise Hubert's hopes that we might still prevent this from happening.'
'His hopes? I wonder what they are.'
Margaret waited until Hubert had disappeared into the parlour; then, reaching furtively behind her, she took Lyall's hand. 'It was strange, his saying that he already had God's favour. Was that irony, do you think?'
'No. Only a man could be ironical in such a case, and Hubert is wise enough for his years, but he isn't a man yet. Now I must go and pray too.'
'For Hubert.'
'For Hubert first.'
