Osborn

It was unclear whether he meant his real father, who died in Iowa in 2008, or his step-father, who divorced Osborn in 1998.

Osborn turned away with a sharp exclamation; and heard her door click behind her while he still stood in the corridor.

No one would feel it more deeply than Osborn if one of those slim fingers were burned or soiled or roughened ever so little.

It was scarcely five minutes before Mrs. Osborn lowered her hands and laid them, pressed tightly palm to palm, between her knees.

"Come and sit down," Osborn begged, and he drew her to the one big chair, into which they both squeezed.

But as for Osborn Boots, he said it served her just right, because she would not come home in good time for tea that very day.