Explore "The Expensive Halo" by Josephine Tey on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Gareth hung about the railings of number Fifteen hoping that Molly would come out to meet him and save him from having to go in. He didn't want to see Molly's mother to-night, somehow. Mrs. Rayner knew, as well as any of them, that this job of his was a come-down; that it was capitulation not achievement. But she wouldn't pretend as well as the others. She would smile at him, and perhaps pat him, but her small, inquisitive eyes would be probing, quizzing, full of delighted curiosity. They would be like a fork digging into him and turning over his emotions in search of the interesting bits. He liked Mrs. Rayner all right (of course he liked her, she was Molly's mother, wasn't she?) but there were times when the rejoicing malice in the jewel-like eyes, stuck so incongruously in the fat amiability of her face, made him uncomfortable. He didn't want to have to face her to-night, and pretend.
Molly came running down the steps, still hatless. "You're coming in to see mother, aren't you, Gareth? Oh, you must, just for a minute. She hasn't seen you to congratulate you. She'll think it so funny if you don't."