“Yes. So much has happened.” Anne spoke from far off, as if she were groping through a dream.
“But there’ll be time for all that tomorrow. You’re dead tired now—you’re falling with sleep.”
The girl opened her eyes wide, in the way she had when she came out of one of her fits of abstraction. “I’m not tired; I’m not sleepy.” She seemed to waver. “Can’t I come in and sit with you a little while?”
“Of course, dear.” Kate slipped an arm through hers, and they entered the shadowy welcoming room, lit by one veiled lamp and the faint red of the hearth. “After all, this is the best hour of the twenty-four for a talk,” the mother said, throwing herself back luxuriously on her lounge. It was delicious, after her fortnight of solitude, to think of talking things over with Anne. “And now tell me about everything,” she said.
“Yes; I want to.” Anne stood leaning against the chimney-piece, her head on her lifted arm. “There’s so much to say, isn’t there? Always, I mean—now that you and I are together. You don’t know the difference it makes, coming home to you, instead—” She broke off, and crossing the hearth knelt down by her mother. Their hands met, and the girl leant her forehead against Kate’s shoulder.
“I’ve been lonely too!” The confession sprang to Kate’s lips. Oh, if at last she might say it! But she dared not. The bond between her and her daughter was still too fragile; and how would such an avowal sound on her lips? It was better to let Anne guess—
Anne did guess. “You have been happy here, haven’t you?”
“Happy? Little Anne!”
“And what a beautiful mother you are! Nollie was saying tonight that you’re younger looking every day. And nobody wears their clothes as you do. I knew from that old photograph that you were lovely; but I couldn’t guess that you hadn’t grown any older since it was taken.”
Kate lay still, letting the warmth of the words and the embrace flow through her. What praise had ever seemed as sweet? All the past faded in the sunset radiance of the present. “Little Anne,” she sighed again. The three syllables summed it all up.