think is most deserving. Don't pretend you haven't thought about it. I won't have it."
"Well," he answered with sudden determination and even a look of severity on his lips, "I should say, since you ask me, that there's only one person who really deserves to have it!"
"Yes? Which one?"
"Renny!"
"Renny, eh? That's because he's your favourite."
"Not at all. I was putting myself in your place, as you told me to."
"Then because he's head of the house?"
"No, not that. If you can't see, I can't tell you."
"Of course you can. Why?"
"Very well. You'll be annoyed with me, though."
"No, I shan't. Out with it!"
"Well, Renny's always hard up. He's brought up the lot of us. He's had Uncle Nick and Uncle Ernie living here for years. Ever since I can remember. You've always made your home with him. He likes having you. It wouldn't be like home to him if you weren't here. And he likes having the uncles and Aunt Augusta. But, just the same, he's at his wits' end sometimes to know where to dig up money enough to pay wages, and butcher bills, and the vet, and all that."
She was regarding him steadfastly. "You can be plain-spoken," she said, "when you like. You've got a good forthright way with you, too. I can't see eye to eye with you on every point, but I'm glad to know what you think. And I'm not angry with you." She began to talk of something else.
She did not bring up the subject again, but talked to him of her past, recalling the days when she and her Philip were young together, and even went back to the days of her girlhood in County Meath. Finch learned to pour out to her his thoughts, as he had never done to anyone before, and probably never would again with such unrestraint. When at last he would steal up to his room, something of her would be still with him in the figure of Kuan Yin, standing on his desk.
