‘It’s just how it affects us, you see.’

‘You like to be affected — don’t you? It’s quite nuts for you? You would have to be important. You have no need to stop at home. Why don’t you go away!’

These sentences, evidently the ripened grain of many dark hours, took Gerald by surprise.

‘I don’t think it’s any good going away now, mother, at the last minute,’ he said, coldly.

‘You take care,’ replied his mother. ‘You mind YOURSELF — that’s your business. You take too much on yourself. You mind YOURSELF, or you’ll find yourself in Queer Street, that’s what will happen to you. You’re hysterical, always were.’