“Well, dear, we’ve been thinking that you really ought to be settling something definite about yourself and April.”
“But we didn’t want to be engaged, mother.”
“I wasn’t thinking of that, dear. I know about that. It’s a modern idea, I suppose, though I think myself that it would have been better some time ago, but it’s not an engagement so much we’re thinking of as of your marriage.”
It was more sudden than Roland had expected.
“Oh, but--oh, surely Mrs. Curtis would never agree. She’d say we were much too young.”
“Well, that’s what we thought, but I went round and saw her the other day, and she quite agreed with us that it was really no good waiting any longer. You are making a lot of money, and it’s quite likely that Mr. Marston will raise your salary when he hears you’re going to be married; and after all, why should you wait? As I said to your father: ‘They’ve known each other for a long time, and if they don’t know their minds now they never will.’”
Roland did not know what to say. He was unarmed by a sympathy and kindness against which he could not fight.
“It’s awfully decent of you.” Those were the only words that occurred to him, and he knew, even as he uttered them, that they were not only completely inadequate, but pitifully inexpressive of his state of mind.
“We only want to do what will make you happy, and it is happier to marry young, really it is!”
“But, mother, don’t you think that for April’s sake--she’s so young. Isn’t it rather hard on her to be loaded with responsibilities so early?”
“It’s nice of you to think that, Roland. It shows you really care for her; but I think that in the end, when she’s an old woman like I am, she’ll be glad she married young.”
And then, because Roland looked still doubtful, she offered him the benefit of what wisdom the narrow experiences of her life had brought her. She had never unlocked her heart before; it hurt her to do it now and her eyes welled with tears. But she felt that, at this great crisis of his life, she must be prepared to lay before her son everything that might help him in it. It might be of assistance to him to know how these things touched a woman, and so she told him how she too had once thought it cruel that responsibilities should have been laid on her so soon.