And a few moments later he

“Wake up, Catherine!” he yelled, “Mama says wake up! Right away!” “Stobbit,” she bawled, her round, red face glaring. “Well Mama said so, Mama said so, wake up!” And a few moments later he hurried back ahead of her and hollered breathlessly, “She’s coming!” and she trailed in, two-thirds asleep, snuffling with anger, her lower lip stuck out. “Take off that cap!” his Aunt Hannah snapped with frightening sternness, and his hands only just caught it against her snatching. He was appalled by this inexplicable betrayal, and the hardness of her mouth as she struggled with self-astonishment and repentance was even more ominous. “Oh, Hannah, no, let him,” his mother said in her strange voice, “he was so crazy for Jay to see it,” and even as she said it he was surprised all over again for his aunt, whispering something inaudible, touched his cheek very gently. And now as she had done before, his mother lifted forward her hands and her kind arms. “Children, come close,” she said. Aunt Hannah went silently out of the room. “Come close”; and she touched each of them. “I want to tell you about Daddy.” But upon his name her voice shook and her whole dry-looking mouth trembled like the ash of burned paper in a draft. “Can you hear me, Catherine?” she asked, when she had recovered her voice. Catherine peered at her earnestly as if through a thick fog. “Are you waked up enough yet, my darling?” And because of her voice, in sympathy and for her protection, they both came now much nearer, and she put her arms around both of them, and they could smell her breath, a little like sauerkraut but more like a dried-up mouse. And now even more small lines like cracked china branched all over her face.