Perhaps this was the reason why he was not disturbed by the bustle of an arrival early next morning, although the window of his bedroom looked straight down into the courtyard; and why he did not wake when his bedroom door was gently opened, and some one entered the room and sat down in the great arm-chair at the head of his bed.
It was quite half-an-hour afterwards when he opened his eyes, and fixed them in a half-wondering way on the sweet face that was bent down over his.
Mother, oh mother!’ he cried. . . . ‘Can you forgive me?’ | |
| V. L. | [Page 266]. |
‘Mother, oh mother!’ he cried, throwing up a pair of thin arms and clasping them round his mother’s neck as if he would never let her go again. ‘Can you forgive me? I am so sorry—so terribly sorry.’
‘Yes, indeed, I can,’ said Mrs Armitage in a broken voice, pressing her lips to the little face which she had given up all hopes of ever seeing again. ‘God has been very good to us, Vivi, in giving you back; and we will begin all over again, dearie, and forget all that has passed.’
For a moment there was silence, mother and son clinging to each other in a happiness that was too deep for words.
Then Vivian spoke again.
‘And Aunt Dora and Uncle Walter,’ he asked rather anxiously, ‘will they ever speak to me again? And how is Isobel? And what about Joe Flinders?’
‘Isobel is almost well again,’ answered Mrs Armitage cheerfully, determined that after the first natural emotion there should be nothing but gladness in the meeting, and that the little prodigal who had suffered so much and repented so deeply should feel that there was nothing but rejoicing at his return. ‘She is still lying on her chair, but she is to be allowed to walk about next month when they go to the seaside.’