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Mrs. Husting is Jack’s mother. When Jack returns to Richmond as a grown man, Mrs. Husting still wants to treat him like a child and does not know how to respect his boundaries. Although Jack loves Connie, Mrs. Husting tries to set him up with a girl named Emily, since her father owns a hardware store and the union would benefit their family more. Mrs. Husting also thinks very little of Kip, assuming that he will amount to nothing, demonstrating that one’s limited perspective and judgment of a person’s character and potential is often inaccurate.
Mrs. Husting Quotes in Nine Days
The Nine Days quotes below are all either spoken by Mrs. Husting or refer to Mrs. Husting. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 3: Jack Quotes
I can imagine [Mrs. Husting’s] face close to the keyhole. She’s been pacing up and down the hall for the best part of ten minutes. She’s imagining what she might be disturbing. She is unsure how to mother a grown man.
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Although even then, Mum says, Kip will never make anything of himself, (“that’s plain”), and if we have to send boys to fight overseas—here she gives me a nervous glance—“it’s layabout boys with no responsibilities, the Kip Westaways of the world, who ought to be going.”
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Mrs. Husting Character Timeline in Nine Days
The timeline below shows where the character Mrs. Husting appears in Nine Days. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1: Kip
Mrs. Husting leans out an upstairs window. Kip greets her and compliments her shawl, but Mrs. Husting...
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...their antique shop soon—Francis dismissively calls it a “junk shop”—but Jean is uninterested, and disparages Mrs. Husting instead. Jean starts bemoaning their family’s “bad luck” and lamenting her own suffering and all...
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Chapter 3: Jack
...is too small for him, his body presses against its iron frame, but although Mum, Mrs. Husting , and Dad, Mr. Husting, have a shop full of furniture, they have not replaced...
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...Westaway has come out of the house and is scolding her. As Connie walks inside, Mrs. Husting opens the door, saying she thought he’d fallen back asleep and was dreaming. Jack thinks...
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...unfamiliar to him as any, different than when he’d left. Mr. Husting is frailer and Mrs. Husting ’s eyes are weaker. Although it’s they who sent him west to work in the...
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The morning passes as Jack does menial chores, but by the afternoon Mrs. Husting has been hovering so long that he decides to walk into town for a bit...
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When Jack gets home, Mrs. Husting tells him to clean up and shave. Though she’s never done that in the six...
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...of lemons with him that he claims are extras from his parent’s tree, sent from Mrs. Husting . Kip sees that its only a pretense to meet Connie, and remarks that those...
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When Jack gets home, he asks Mrs. Husting about the Westaways and how they’ve fared since their father died. Mrs. Husting finds them...
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Chapter 9: Connie
...he remarks soon he’ll be off again, this time farther away. When Jack mentions that Mrs. Husting thinks Connie will be engaged to Mr. Ward any day now, Connie decides she’ll make...
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