‘I see that you received the packet I sent you on my father’s death, safely, mother.’
‘You see.’
‘I never knew my father to show so much anxiety on any subject, as that his watch should be sent straight to you.’
‘I keep it here as a remembrance of your father.’
‘It was not until the last, that he expressed the wish; when he could only put his hand upon it, and very indistinctly say to me “your mother.” A moment before, I thought him wandering in his mind, as he had been for many hours—I think he had no consciousness of pain in his short illness—when I saw him turn himself in his bed and try to open it.’
‘Was your father, then, not wandering in his mind when he tried to open it?’
‘No. He was quite sensible at that time.’
Mrs Clennam shook her head; whether in dismissal of the deceased or opposing herself to her son’s opinion, was not clearly expressed.
‘After my father’s death I opened it myself, thinking there might be, for anything I knew, some memorandum there. However, as I need not tell you, mother, there was nothing but the old silk watch-paper worked in beads, which you found (no doubt) in its place between the cases, where I found and left it.’
Mrs Clennam signified assent; then added, ‘No more of business on this day,’ and then added, ‘Affery, it is nine o’clock.’