Gene meets Leper's mother when he goes to Vermont to see
Leper at home after receiving his telegram about having "escaped" from the army. She
appears for the first time immediately after Gene has kicked Leper's chair, throwing him
to the floor:
Quick heels coming down the stairs, and his
mother, large, soft, and gentle-looking, quivered at the entrance. "What on earth
happened? Elwin!
Realizing
that Gene is responsible for her son's being knocked out of his chair, Mrs. Lepellier
confronts him angrily: "Did you come here to abuse him?" Gene apologizes, while he and
Leper's mother help Leper from the floor. The tenseness of the situation eases when Gene
starts to leave, but Leper asks him to stay for lunch.
Mrs.
Lepellier's attitude toward Gene warms during lunch, and it becomes apparent that she
has forgiven him for his earlier behavior:
Mrs. Lepellier began to be reconciled to me
because I liked her cooking. Toward the end of the meal she became able to speak to me
directly, in her high but gentle and modulated voice . . . when she offered me a second
dessert, I saw she had accepted [my apology]. "He's a good boy underneath," she must
have thought, "a terrible temper, no self-control, but he's sorry, and he is a good boy
underneath."
Her changed
attitude toward Gene is demonstrated after lunch when she suggests that Gene and Leper
take a walk together.
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