Val’s hands, slack behind him, became fists. What business had that Judge to make things human suddenly? To make his mother speak out of her heart, and say what, perhaps, she didn’t know herself, before all these people! It wasn’t decent. His mother answered, rather low: “Yes, my Lord.” Val saw the Judge nod. “Wish I could take a cock-shy at your head!” he thought irreverently, as his mother came back to her seat beside him. Witnesses to his father’s departure and continued absence followed⁠—one of their own maids even, which struck Val as particularly beastly; there was more talking, all humbug; and then the Judge pronounced the decree for restitution, and they got up to go. Val walked out behind his mother, chin squared, eyelids drooped, doing his level best to despise everybody. His mother’s voice in the corridor roused him from an angry trance.

“You behaved beautifully, dear. It was such a comfort to have you. Your uncle and I are going to lunch.”