"It did!" said Jennings. "She'd have gone in hysterics if he hadn't
kept her down. He's got a way with him, Coombe has."
Andrews laughed, a brief, dry laugh.
"Do you know what the child calls her?" she said. "She calls her
the Lady Downstairs. She's got a sort of fancy for her and tries
to get peeps at her when we go out. I notice she always cranes
her little neck if we pass a room she might chance to be in. It's
her pretty clothes and her laughing that does it. Children's drawn
by bright colours and noise that sounds merry."
"It's my belief the child doesn't know she IS her mother!" said
Mrs. Blayne as she opened an oven door to look at some rolls.
"It's my belief that if I told her she was she wouldn't know what
the word meant. It was me she got the name from," Andrews still
laughed as she explained. "I used to tell her about the Lady
Downstairs would hear if she made a noise, or I'd say I'd let her
have a peep at the Lady Downstairs if she was very good. I saw
she had a kind of awe of her though she liked her so much, so it
was a good way of managing her. You mayn't believe me but for
a good bit I didn't take in that she didn't know there was such
things as mothers and, when I did take it in, I saw there wasn't
any use in trying to explain. She wouldn't have understood."
"How would you go about to explain a mother, anyway?" suggested
Jennings.
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