"I don't want to persuade you against your judgment, mother," at last Uncle Godfrey said, still speaking very gently, even tenderly, and then we were silent again.
Then Granny said with an effort—an effort that plainly cost her much:
"You are right, my son; yes, you are right. I am getting too old to have the entire responsibility of the child, and, doubtless, it would be good, it would be more cheerful for him, to be with a little companion of his own age. Yes, it is better that he should go to Louisa."
And then she got up and left the room, as if, for the time, she could say no more. It was a hard trial for her, because love for Chris was as part of her life, and to part with him would be a wrench that neither Uncle Godfrey nor myself could fully comprehend, with all our desire to enter into her feelings. Yet I think that she had never loved him so truly as at that moment when she gave him up. For is not our love the greatest when it is the most unselfish, when it is purified by self-sacrifice, as "gold that is tried in the fire"?
It was such a bright morning when the little beggar left us; a cold, crisp day in the beginning of October, the slight frost sprinkling the ground with a white powder that sparkled and glistened like diamonds in the autumn sun.
Uncle Godfrey had come up from Aldershot for the express purpose of taking him to his new home, which fact filled Chris with no little pride.
"Me and my Uncle Godfrey are going a long way together," he kept informing everyone. "He has left all his soldiers to come and take me. Isn't it kind of my Uncle Godfrey?" in a tone of devotion.
I imagine that had it been anyone else but his Uncle Godfrey it would have been a difficult matter to reconcile him to leave his Granny. As it was, he became inclined to be very tearful as the hour of departure drew near, and clung to her in a way that, whilst it touched and pleased her, made the thought of the parting more difficult to bear.
And now the little beggar, who for the last few minutes had been playing in a somewhat restless fashion with Uncle Godfrey, returning between whiles to Granny's side, was sent upstairs to have his hat put on.