"Well, I'll go then. He'll not be wanting anything." said his wife. "Ain't the rest of you coming, ladies and gentlemen?"
After some discussion, all went but Mrs. Perkins and Violet, and they were left alone with the invalid.
Vi had conceived a great pity for him, great disgust for the selfish, unsympathizing wife.
"How different from mamma!" she said to herself. "She never would have wearied of waiting upon papa if he had been so afflicted; she would have wanted to be beside him, comforting him every moment. And how sweetly it would have been done."
"Little lady," the old man said, with a longing look into the sweet girlish face, "will you sing me that song again? It was the most delightful, consoling thing I've heard for many a day."
"Yes, indeed, sir; I would do anything in my power to help you to forget your pain," she said, coloring with pleasure.
She sang the whole of the one he had asked for, then perceiving how greatly he enjoyed it, several others of like character.
He listened intently, sometimes with tears in his eyes, and thanking her warmly again and again.
Finding that the old gentleman felt brighter and more free from pain during the rest of the day, and thought he had received benefit from his visit to the beach, the lads helped him there again the next day.
They set him down, then wandered away, leaving him in the care of the same group of ladies who had gathered round him the day before.