On Conrad, Nalle says: "I think you are right about Conrad, when you say he seems irrevocably lost to his mother for the time being. One day he will liberate himself. After all he must have some of his father's stamina. Otherwise his father can't be his father!"

Conrad orders his father to break with Malleson and no longer see her or write to her, but BR "... refuses to be dictated to and to break with you—both things equally impossible. So B. certainly has a horrid situation to handle...."