“My dear, I assure you I have not forgotten it: I was very grieved to hear it, and to know that you should have been alone in your trouble; but was it my fault, Fay? Did you keep your promise to me not to fret yourself ill when I Was gone?”
“I kept my promise,” she replied, quietly; “the fretting and the mischief were done before. We will not talk about my illness; it is too bad even to think of it. Have you nothing else to say to me, Hugh? do you not wish to see our boy?”
Hugh started, conscience-stricken—he had forgotten his child altogether; and then he laughed off his confusion.
“Our boy! what an important Wee Wifie. Yes, show him to me by all means. Do you mean you have got him under that shawl?”
“Yes; is he not good?” returned Fay, proudly; she had forgotten Hugh’s coldness now, as she drew back the flimsy covering and showed him the tiny fair face within her arms. “There, is he not a beauty? Nurse says she has never seen a finer baby boy for his size. He is small now, but he will grow; he has such long feet and hands that, she assures me, he will be a tall man. Mrs. Heron says he is a thorough Redmond. Look at his hair like floss silk, only finer; and he has your forehead, dear, and your eyes. Oh, he will be just like his father, the darling!”
“Will he?” returned Hugh, dubiously, and he touched him rather awkwardly—he had never noticed a baby closely before, and he was not much impressed with his son’s appearance; there was such a redness, he thought, and no features to be called features, and he had such a ridiculous button of a mouth. “Do you really call him a fine baby, Fay?”
“Fine! I should think so; the smallness does not matter a bit. You will be a big man some time, my beauty, for you are the very image of your father.”
“Heaven forbid!” ejaculated Hugh; he was quite appalled at the notion of any likeness between this absurd specimen of humanity and himself; but happily the little mother did not hear him, for she was adjusting the long robe to her liking.
“There, you must take him, Hugh; I want to see him once more in your arms—my two treasures together;” and she held the baby to him.
Hugh did not see how the weak arms trembled under their load, as he retreated a few steps in most genuine alarm.