in the hated house does the rocking-horse demon work its magic. Another demon is intangible but nonetheless--or for that very reason--quite real: an absence of love and a vulgar preoccupation with wealth and position that is connected to the continual whispers about more money. Above all, there is the demon mother, an unnatural beast who thinks the fact that she did not want and does not love her son is her very own little secret. That demon is also a hypocrite; she resents being unlucky but also resents (and wants to conceal the social embarrassment of) having been in a "gambling family" (Lawrence 10).
The notion that the rocking horse brings luck to Paul and his family and in addition could be relied on by Bassett and Oscar to bring tangible rewards for all of them is preposterous, but the intense reality of Paul's private demons makes his finding a welcoming psychological experience, however fantastical, that he can claim as his own hardly more surprising than his ability to intuit his mother
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