She smiled at him.
“Why, yes,” she said.
He took them from her.
“You have been a very good daughter to me, dear,” he said.
He paused, but Helen said nothing, for his tone shewed an unfinished sentence. And the pause was long; it was not at all easy for him to say what followed.
“And I have been often and often very difficult and very hard all these months,” he said. “But will you do your best to forget that? Will you try to forgive me?”
She went close to him, very much moved, and laid her hand on his shoulder.
“Ah, don’t cut me to the heart,” she said.
“But promise me, if you can,” he said.
Yes, it was true; he had often been difficult and hard. And she answered him.