Let Love Come Last by Caldwell Taylor;

Author:Caldwell, Taylor;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2018-10-10T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER XXX

Ursula jumped quickly to her feet, flushed, and grim of lip. But her voice was controlled when she said to her son: “Tommy, I did not give you permission to come in here today, when I have a guest. Go back to your rooms immediately, and stay there until dinner.”

The boy spread his legs far apart, put his big square hands akimbo, and glared derisively at his mother. His narrow brown eyes squinted at Ursula, radiated hatred. “Pa said we can come down here any time we want to. He said, and you know he said it, that the whole house belongs to us, and that he built it for us, not for you or him. It’s mine. It’s ours. We can do what we want to, any time and you can’t stop us. You and your old silly statue!”

Mrs. Bassett gasped with happy enjoyment, though she was careful to put a horrified expression on her features. She disliked, and with excellent reason, all the Prescott children, but she disliked Thomas the most. She always referred to him to her husband as “that loutish boy.” Certainly, the adjective was not too unjust. Thomas was very tall now, much taller than other boys of nine. The massive thickness of his rough brown hair made him look even larger than he was. Moreover, because he was broad and muscular and active, he gave the appearance of a maturity beyond his years. Mrs. Bassett considered him very ugly. His features, though so blunt and broad, that thick and heavy mouth, were not in themselves ugly. It was their brutality, their arrogance, and his physical lack of grace, which made Thomas appear unattractive, even to those who did not dislike children. His ruddy cheeks, coarse and sown with freckles, testified to a natural boyish health.

He looked at his mother now, and laughed with crude insolence. He repeated goadingly: “Silly old statue. Anyway, I can stay if I want to.” He looked at Mrs. Bassett with an evil glint in his eye. “That’s an awful hat. Why do you wear such awful hats? That’s a girl’s hat, not an old lady’s.”

“Let them be honest and without hypocrisy,” William had said. “Let them express their real convictions, without fear.”

Ursula said in a quiet and level tone: “Thomas, apologize immediately to Mrs. Bassett.” She stood near the boy. Her first flush had faded; she was very pale. He stared back at her, mockingly. Then, as she did not look aside, as she fixed him with her eyes, as she betrayed no shock and no uncertainty, he glanced away, thrust out his lower lip sullenly.

“You wouldn’t dare tell me to do that if Pa was here,” he said, in his loud, grating voice. “But Pa’s in Michigan, and you think you can do what you want. I’ll tell him when he gets back.”

“Thomas,” repeated Ursula, “we are waiting for your apology.”

He lifted his great heavy boot and kicked viciously at the leg of a table. He looked at Mrs.

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