"
I will not reproduce the long and serious consultation which followed;
be it sufficient to chronicle the result. I hastened homeward, and had
my landlady, Mrs. Harrison, roused from her midnight slumbers; she
was, as I knew, a woman of strong maternal instincts, who was fond of
referring to her experience in that line,--a woman to whom your
thought would naturally revert in embarrassing circumstances. She
responded promptly and eagerly to my appeal; the situation evidently
roused all the latent romance of her nature, and afforded her no small
satisfaction. She spent a half hour in privacy with the baby, who
re-appeared fresh and beaming in a sort of sacerdotal Norse
night-habit which was a miracle of neatness.
"Bless her little heart," ejaculated Mrs. Harrison, as the small fat
hands persisted in pulling her already demoralized side curls. "She
certainly knows me;" then in an aside to Storm: "The mother, whoever
she may be, sir, is a lady. I never seed finer linen as long as I
lived; and every single blessed piece is embroidered with two letters
which I reckon means the name of the child."
Storm bowed his head silently and sighed. But when the baby, after
having rather indifferently submitted to a caress from me, stretched
out its arms to him and consented with great good humor to a final
good-night kiss, large tears rolled down over his cheeks, while he
smiled, as I thought only the angels could smile.
Pages:
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236