Before his stepmother had laid aside the title and glory of a bride, he
had, by his deadly honesty, made her understand that even a child of five
requires what she could not give him--namely, logic. Had she been clever
enough to reason logically she might have undermined the little fellow's
innate honesty of character, despite the fact that he lacked a child's
chief incentive to learn from its mother, namely, the sympathy of
heredity.
Gradually and steadily Mrs. Agar "gave him up," to make use of her own
expression. She was one of those women who either fear or despise that
which they do not understand. She could scarcely fear Jem, so she
persuaded herself that he was stupid and unattractive. At this time there
came another influence to militate against any excess of love between Jem
and his stepmother. It came to her, for he was ignorant of it. And this
was the knowledge that before long the little heir's undisputed reign in
the nursery would come to an end.
With a suburban horror of being a long distance from the chemist, Mrs.
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