“Yes, mother; I will not deny to you that it has cost me a very severe struggle; and perhaps you see some of its effects.”
“Yes, some of them, Mark—alas! not all,” said the lady, in a low, faint voice.
If a little while before she had restrained unmeet energy of expression in the strong emotion she had felt, now all power as well as all will seemed to forsake her. She sat silent, with her hands folded and her eyes fixed upon them. Mr. Sutherland watched her anxiously.
“My dear madam, I have pained you.”
“I am a widow, Mark, and have no child but you”—
“Mother”——
“It is a sorrowful time for the mother, Mark, when the boy she has nursed and brought up to man’s estate turns upon her in her weakness, arrayed in all the strength and power of manhood.”
“My dearest mother”——
“Your father, Mark, never caused me a tear or a sigh in his life.”
“God bless his memory for that.”