Then, yielding to her partiality for gossiping, since there was somebody to listen to her, she started telling stories.

The one affair, however, on which she invariably harped was the sorry business of her son Charles and the servant girl at a wine shop over the way.

Before going into the army Charles had been a most hard-working and affectionate son, invariably bringing his pay home to his mother.

And certainly he still worked and showed himself good-natured; but military service, while sharpening his wits, had taken away some of his liking for ordinary manual toil.

It wasn't that he regretted army life, for he spoke of his barracks as a prison.