A lethargic feeling crept over me; my thoughts wandered; I never spoke nor stirred till she pulled my sleeve violently. "If you touch me it will rouse me. Did a child of yours ever inflict a blow upon you?" She turned purple with rage, looming up before my vision like a peony. "When are you going home?" I counted aloud, "Sunday--Monday," and stopped at Wednesday. "Ben is going back with me." "_He_ may go." "And not Desmond?" "Do you know Desmond?" "Not entirely." "He has played with such toys as you are, and broken them." "Alas, he is hereditarily cruel! Could _I_ expect not to be broken?" She caught up a glass goblet as if to throw it, but only grasped it so tight that it shivered. "There goes one of the Pickersgill treasures, I am sure," I thought. "I am already scarred, you see. I have been 'nurtured in convulsions.'" The action seemed to loosen her speech; but she had to nerve herself to say what she intended; for some reason or other, she could not remain as angry as she wished. What she said I will not repeat. "Madam, I have no plans. If I have a Purpose, it is formless yet. If God saves us what can you do?" She made a gesture of contempt. "You have no soul to thank me for what may be my work," and I opened the door. Ben stood on the threshhold. "In God's name, what is this?" I pointed to his mother. She looked uneasy, and stepping forward put her hand on his arm; but he shook her off. "You may call me a fool, Cassandra, for bringing you here," he said in a bitter voice, "besides calling me cruel for subjecting you to these ordeals. I knew how it would be with mother. What is it, madam?" he asked imperiously, looking so much like her that I shuddered. "It is not you she is after," she hotly exclaimed. "No, I should think not." And he led her out swiftly. I heard Mrs. Somers say at breakfast, as I went in, "We are to lose Miss Cassandra on Wednesday." I looked at Desmond, who was munching toast abstractedly. He made a motion for me to take the chair beside him, which I obeyed. Ben saw this movement, and an expression of pain passed over his face. At that instant I remembered that Desmond's being seen in the evening and in the morning was a rare occurrence. Mr. Somers took up the remark of Mrs. Somers where she had left it, and expatiated on it till breakfast was over, so courteously and so ramblingly that I was convinced the affair Ben had at heart had been revealed. He invited me to go to church, and he spent the whole of the evening in the parlor; and although Desmond hovered near me all day and all the evening, we had no opportunity of speaking to each other. CHAPTER XXXII.