“Yes, very glad, and so is mamma and all of us. I want to show you something.” And the child went on to make confidences about her own personal affairs, into which Mr Philip entered with sufficient interest, as his manner was. He had only time for a word or two with the mother before Jem and David came in.
“Your father is really improving, I am glad to hear,” said Mrs Inglis when the children left them.
Philip’s face clouded.
“Is he better? It hardly seems to me that he gains at all. He is very much discouraged about himself.”
“Frank thinks him better. It is a great relief to him, he says, that you are here.”
“I ought never to have gone away,” said Philip, sighing.
“But your father wished it, did he not? Perhaps it would have been better had you been here. However, you are here now. Frank says he begun to improve the very day you consented to assist Mr Caldwell in the settlement of his affairs.”
Philip hung his head.
“Don’t be hard on me, Aunt Mary.”
“Am I hard on you? I am sure I don’t know how. That is Frank’s idea of the matter.”