"Jerrold won't, ever, then."
"Oh yes he will. _He'll_ get on all right, because he _doesn't_ care;
because work comes so jolly easy to him. He hasn't got to break his
heart over it.... The trouble with Colin is that he cares, awfully, for
such a lot of other things. Us, for instance. He'll leave off in the
middle of a movement if he hears Jerrold yelling for him. He ought to be
able to chuck us all; we're all of us in his way. He ought to hate us.
He ought to hate Jerrold worst of all."
Adeline and John Severn came round the corner of the terrace.
"What's all this about hating?" he said.
"What do you mean, Eliot?" said she.
Eliot raised himself wearily. "I mean," he said, "you'll never be any
good at anything if you're not prepared to commit a crime for it."
"I know what I'd commit a crime for," said Anne. "But I shan't tell."
"You needn't. _You'd_ do it for anybody you were gone on."
"Well, I would. I'd tell any old lie to make them happy. I'd steal for
them if they were hungry. I'd kill anybody who hurt them."
"I believe you would," said Eliot.
"We know who Anne would commit her crimes for."
"We don't. We don't know anything she doesn't want us to," said Eliot,
shielding her from his mother's mischief.
"That's right, Eliot, stick up for her," said John. He knew what she was
thinking of. "Would Jerrold commit a crime?" he said.
"Sooner than any of us. But not for the Indian Civil. He'd rob, butcher,
lie himself black in the face for anything he really cared for."
"He would for Colin," said Anne.
"Rob? Butcher and lie?" Her father meditated.
"It sounds like Jerrold, doesn't it?" said Adeline. "Absurd children.
Thank goodness they don't any of them know what they're talking
about.... And here's tea."
Indoors the music stopped suddenly and Colin came out, ready.
"What's Jerrold doing?" he said.
It was, as Eliot remarked, a positive obsession.
"What time is it?" said Anne.
"Twenty past five."
Anne started up. "And I'm going to ride with Jerrold at half-past."
"Are you? I thought you were going to stay with me."
Anne turned. "Do you want me to, Auntie?"
"What do you think?"
"If you really want me to, of _course_ I'll stay. Jerry won't mind."
"You darling... And I used to think you were never going to like me. Do
you remember?"
"I remember I was a perfect little beast to you."