"You are sure you forgive me?" he asked earnestly.
"Quite sure. Now, good night. Run away and have your supper; you must be very hungry. Jack is anxiously waiting for you, and so is Jane—poor Jane! Good night, my dear."
A few moments Mr. Barton joined his wife, and leaning over the back of her chair, kissed her softly on the forehead.
"Do you think I shall ever win his love?" she asked wistfully. "Sometimes I almost despair."
"You must not do that," he answered fondly. "Some day Theodore will love you as dearly as your own boy does. You will see that I shall prove a true prophet."
[CHAPTER VIII.]
THEODORE'S DISOBEDIENCE, AND THE RESULT.
FOR some days after Theodore's exhibition of disobedience and passion, he was very subdued and quiet, treating Jane with great consideration, and spending most of his spare time in Jack's company.
Neither Mr. nor Mrs. Barton referred to Tom Blake, and Theodore felt he was quite forgiven for his naughtiness. But the boy could not overcome the slight reserve that his stepmother seemed to have wrapped around her.
Hitherto he had been content to keep out of her way as much as possible; now he often sought her presence, with the idea of wiping out from her mind the bitter words he had hurled at her in his ungovernable rage. But he found he could not. When he and Jack sat listening to a story from her lips,—for she often drew on her imagination for their amusement,—he would catch her eye, and know that she remembered.