‘On her chair! Has she been lying on a chair all this time?’ asked Vivian in surprise, his radiant face growing grave with the sense of this new calamity.
‘Ah, it will take you quite a long time to pick up the threads of family life again,’ laughed his mother; ‘but do not look so distressed. Isobel is quite happy, and is really almost well; and as for Uncle Walter and Aunt Dora—well, look here—here is a telegram which they have sent all this way to you, just to let you know how glad they are that we have found you again.’
Tears came into Vivian’s eyes as his mother held up the flimsy paper and he read the kind words which it contained for himself.
‘Every one is too good to me, mother,’ he said, his lips quivering; ‘I don’t deserve it. It is just like the Bible story—the ring, and the best dress; and yet all the time Mr Maxwell was reading it to me the other night I felt that it could not turn out the same for me, and I was afraid to tell him my proper name. He has been so good to me, mother; he made me feel that I must tell him, even though I was afraid, for he began talking about you, and saying that you might be breaking your heart because you had lost me. Somehow I had never thought about that before; I had only thought of the trouble and the disgrace I had been to you all. And yet it is true what he said. You are just as kind and jolly as ever, just as if I hadn’t done anything.’
His mother kissed him softly.
‘And remember, dearie,’ she whispered, ‘if it is true of mother and father, it is far more true of God, and of the dear Lord who first told the story as an example of what love and forgiveness really are. But we must not have any more serious talk just now. Why, you have never asked for father, or Ronald, or little Dorothy!’
‘Oh yes, how are they?’ asked Vivian eagerly, looking half-ashamed of his omission. ‘And Joe Flinders,’ he repeated anxiously, ‘how is he?’
‘Joe is very well indeed,’ replied his mother, seeing that it would ease his mind to have this sore subject spoken of. ‘But he is not with Uncle Walter now; he has got a place as groom-gardener at a country rectory in Dorsetshire, and his mother has gone with him to keep the lodge and look after the hens. Joe is quite elated, I can tell you; his wages are almost double what he had at Eversley, and we hear such good reports of him! As for Dorothy, she is blooming; she sent a hundred kisses to you, and would have sent her own special dolly Rose-Marie if I had had room for her in my bag. As for father and Ronald, they must speak for themselves, for I hear them coming upstairs.’
‘Father and Ronald! Have they come all this way to see me?’ asked Vivian, his eyes wide open with astonishment.
His mother had no time to answer before the door was thrown open, and the smiling faces of his father and brother were beaming down at him.