"My son will to-night be under my roof; I must begin at the beginning; there shall be no reproaches. I shall offer him love, money, home, influence and a fair chance of winning a beautiful wife. If he refuses these, there is nothing more."
So saying, she rose, and with a hopeful look in her eyes, passed, in her own stately and gracious manner, down the wide staircase and on into the spacious parlors of her beautiful home, now doubly attractive to her by the anticipated happiness of her son's return.
For, although there was little doubt but that the erratic Maurice had been in London for many months, yet he had not seen fit to gladden his mother's heart with the sight of his almost forgotten face until just in time to give Stella's birthday reception a double significance.
CHAPTER VI. A PAINFUL REMINISCENCE.
How few look back upon a past
Of spotless purity,—and who
Would dare absolve with prayer and fast
The deeds they've done—the deeds they do;