was lying on the bed, which she had just made. She sat down beside him and put her hand upon him.
'Is this true, Roddie?'
A big sob jerked his hunched shoulders and he tried to burrow his head further out of sight. It was sufficient acknowledgment.
Silently Sheilah gazed upon him. He was curled up as tight as a fallen caterpillar—his knees drawn up to meet his chin, his hands tucked out of sight, his face completely hidden. Only the back of his head was visible—a bit of dark thick hair rumpled and clotted. Roddie's hair never lay straight because of the two cowlicks like Felix's. Sheilah sighed. Another Felix. Yes, another Felix. And inside as well as out!
Oh, how useless it had been all these years to combat a law so much stronger than herself. Well, she wouldn't combat it any longer. She would accept it. Perhaps she would be happier. An animal in captivity suffers less when it has at last learned the wisdom of not attempting to break bars.
'Get up and wash your face,' she said quietly to Roddie. 'I must get dinner.' And she went out into the kitchen, and knelt down before the gas stove, and mechanically set to basting the roast beef again.
Laetitia and Phillip would be home a few minutes
