"Never."
At this moment a servant entered the room with the message that our mother wanted to see us both in her private sitting room.
Neither of us delayed in answering her summons, and in a minute more we were seated near her. I thought I detected a change in her face as I entered; something of her harshness had gone, and a look of tender longing had taken its place.
"Mother," I said, as naturally as I could, "I have been very forgetful and unbrotherly, but I have heard nothing of my sisters, are they well and happy, can you tell me anything about them?"
"Both are married and both are happy and well," she replied absently; "but we can talk of them on some other occasion. I want us to speak of something else just now."
"Yes, mother."
"Roger, will you give us an account of what you were doing and where you went during those years you were absent from us."
I told her all, not in such great detail as I have written it here, but I told her enough to give her the information she desired to know. It took me a long while, but she sat patiently during the whole time, listening attentively to every word, while Wilfred sat with the same stony stare upon his handsome face.
When I had finished she rose and took Wilfred's right hand in her left hand, and my right hand in hers and tried to draw us together.
"Roger and Wilfred, shake hands," she said.