"Americans?"
Sarah nodded. "Yes. An American family.
But - rather an unusual one, I think."
"Unusual?
How unusual?"
"Well, look at them.
Especially at the old woman."
Dr. Gerard complied.
His keen professional glance flitted swiftly from face to face.
He noticed first a tall, rather loose-boned man - age about thirty.
The face was pleasant but weak and his manner seemed oddly apathetic.
Then there were two good-looking youngsters - the boy had almost a Greek head.
"Something the matter with him, too," thought Dr. Gerard. "Yes - a definite state of nervous tension."
The girl was clearly his sister, a strong resemblance, and she also was in an excitable condition.
There was another girl younger still - with golden red hair that stood out like a halo; her hands were very restless; they were tearing and pulling at the handkerchief in her lap.
Yet another woman, young, calm, dark-haired with a creamy pallor, a placid face not unlike a Luini Madonna. Nothing jumpy about her!
And the center of the group -
"Heavens!" thought Dr. Gerard, with a Frenchman's candid repulsion. "What a horror of a woman!"
Old, swollen, bloated, sitting there immovable in the midst of them - a distorted old spider in the center of a web!
To Sarah he said: "La Manian, she is not beautiful, eh?" And he shrugged his shoulders.
"There's something rather - sinister about her, don't you think?" asked Sarah.
Dr. Gerard scrutinized her again. This time his eye was professional, not aesthetic.
"Dropsy - cardiac - " He added a glib medical phrase.
"Oh, yes, that!" Sarah dismissed the medical side. "But there is something odd in their attitude to her, don't you think?"
"Who are they, do you know?"
"Their name is Boynton.
Mother, married son, his wife, one younger son and two younger daughters."
Dr. Gerard murmured: "La famille Boynton sees the world."
"Yes, but there's something odd about the way they're seeing it.
They never speak to anyone else.
And none of them can do anything unless the old woman says so!"
"She is of the matriarchal type," said Gerard thoughtfully.
"She's a complete tyrant, I think," said Sarah.
Dr. Gerard shrugged his shoulders and remarked that the American woman ruled the earth - that was well known.
"Yes, but it's more than just that." Sarah was persistent. "She's - Oh, she's got them all so, so cowed - so positively under her thumb - that it's, it's indecent!"
"To have too much power is bad for women," Gerard agreed, with sudden gravity. He shook his head. "It is difficult for a woman not to abuse power."
He shot a quick sideways glance at Sarah.
She was watching the Boynton family - or rather she was watching one particular member of it.
Dr. Gerard smiled a quick comprehending Gallic smile.
Ah! so it was like that, was it?
He murmured tentatively: "You have spoken with them - yes?"
"Yes - at least with one of them."
"The young man - the younger son?"
"Yes.
On the train coming here from Kantara.
He was standing in the corridor. I spoke to him."
There was no self-consciousness in Sarah's manner.
There was, indeed, no self-consciousness in her attitude to life. She was interested in humanity and was of a friendly though impatient disposition.
"What made you speak to him?" asked Gerard.
Sarah shrugged her shoulders.