"Mother?" she looked up from the book in the dim light of the library to see a familiar little face peering through the gap in the door at her.

"Hello, darling," she replied, letting the book drop beside her as Matthew padded through the door and into the room, "What are you doing out of bed?"

"Couldn't sleep," he replied quietly, hovering a little way away from her.

"Why couldn't you sleep?" she asked, "Come here," she told him, reaching her arms out to him, "I'm not cross."

"There was noise," he told her, lifting himself up onto the sofa to sit beside her.

In spite of the fact that she was wearing her best dress, from the party going on in the drawing room, she lifted him up into her lap, hugging him to her.

"Oh, yes, I see," she replied, "I'll go and tell your father that he and his friends have to be quieter. How is that for you?"

"Thank you, mother."

"That's alright, my love," she told him, running her hand over his fair hair and planting a kiss on his cheek.

"Don't you like father's friends?" he asked suddenly.

"Why do you say that?" she asked.

"Because you're up here."

"I think they're alright," she replied, "They're just a bit too boisterous for me sometimes."

"What does that mean?" he wanted to know.

"Boisterous? A bit too loud, and they like to push themselves about a lot. They like to get their own way. A bit like you can be sometimes," she told him, pressing the tip of his nose in gentle reproof, "Like when it's bathtime. Or bedtime."

He grinned almost wickedly.

"Aren't Father's friends your friends as well?" he asked.

"Not really," she replied, "He knows them from school. He went away from home to school."

"To live?"

"Yes, to live. That's why he made so many friends."

"Will I have to go away from home to school?" he wanted to know.

She looked at him very clearly.

"Not if you don't want to," she told him, "I won't make you go anywhere you don't want to."

"Will Father want me to?" he asked.

"I don't care if he does," she replied, quite determined, "You only go if you want to, my darling, do you understand that?"

He nodded.

"But we won't have to decide anything for ever such a long time," she promised him.

"How long?"

"Well, you're five now, and I would say it would be just as long again before we have to think about it. Is that alright?"

He nodded again.

"Now, do you want to go back to bed, and I'll tell Father to keep the noise down, or do you want to stay up with me for a little bit and we'll read something together?"

"Can I stay up with you? What's your book, Mother?"

"Well, actually, it's Darwin, but we don't want to read that, do we? Hang on a second, I'll find us something more interesting."

By the time she returned to the sofa, he was fast asleep against her evening shawl.