As the narrator picks up the pace when recounting Michael's childhood and adolescence, it becomes clear that the affection between Helen and Michael only deepens with time. Kipling uses a simile to underline how much Helen cherishes time with her son.
The terms at his public school and the wonderful Christmas, Easter, and Summer holidays followed each other, variegated and glorious as jewels on a string; and as jewels Helen treasured them.
In this simile, Kipling compares Michael's holidays from school to jewels on a string. Michael likely felt the same way about his time off, but this necklace of "variegated and glorious" jewels is particularly developed from the point of view of Helen. Helen has enough money to know what it feels like to own jewels, but not enough money to possess an abundance of them or take them for granted. Thus, she treasures all opportunities to spend time with Michael just as she would treasure a string of jewels.
Starting in the 19th century, it became common for families of a certain social standing to send their preteen sons to private boarding schools. These preparatory (usually "prep") schools were supposed to prepare the boys to get into the most prestigious public schools, such as Eton. A reader from Kipling's time would have understood that Michael left home to attend a prep school from around the age of eight. This is why Helen appreciates the school holidays so much.
The simile, and passage overall, shows that the affection between Helen and Michael is comprehensive yet simple. Even as he grows up and develops a range of interests, he feels a "constant and increasing" affinity for Helen. In return, she gives him all she has "of affection" and all she can "command of counsel and money." This is one of the short story's most touching paragraphs, and it becomes all the more gripping for the reader when, in the last clause of the last sentence, the narrator suddenly brings up what the reader has been dreading: Michael's death.
The story's expositional passages contain a large amount of colloquial language that develops the collective voice of the village. Although the story is narrated by an omniscient third-person narrator, the narration here is focalized from the perspective of the village and eventually of Helen. Contributing to Helen's characterization, the idioms and similes establish her outward persona and give insight into the community she belongs to. The chatter-like tone of the opening passages contrasts sharply with the formal, somber epigraph.
Mercifully, George's father and mother were both dead, and though Helen, thirty-five and independent, might well have washed her hands of the whole disgraceful affair, she most nobly took charge.
The colloquial diction and conversational tone of this sentence make it sound like a direct quote of people familiar with the Turrell family exchanging gossip. For example, by starting the sentence with the word "mercifully," the narrator suggests that the older generation of Turrells wouldn't have handled an illegitimate grandchild well. The notion that they're better off dead than alive with a scandal reinforces the casual yet involved tone, which contributes to the impression that the narrator is mimicking the village's chatter about Helen. The impression that the narrator is speaking in the style of people who know Helen is further reinforced by the idiomatic claim that she "might well have washed her hands of the whole disgraceful affair."
The following paragraph opens with a simile: "All these details were public property, for Helen was as open as the day." On the one hand, this simile seems appropriate, as Helen seems honest and accessible. Later in the story, the reader even finds out that she shares supposed secrets with her friends. On the other hand, this simile is ironic. A perceptive, suspecting reader has most likely caught onto the likelihood that Michael is not Helen's nephew but her own son. Nevertheless, it is possible for Helen to simultaneously be "open as the day" and be Michael's mother, as it appears that the whole village is in on the secret.
