"Dearest Aunt Amy, do smile again!" Edith entreated, putting her arms around Mrs. Yorke's neck. "You are not displeased with me! Don't you remember you told Dick that ingratitude is the vice of slaves?"
"Dear child, you do as you will with me," her aunt sighed; and so the dispute ended.
One day of the next week, as the steamer came ploughing up the Narrows into Seaton Bay, Mrs. Williams and her son sat in a corner of the deck by themselves. Mr. Williams, slightly sea-sick, was below. There were not many passengers that day, and no one seemed to have recognized these two. They sat leaning on the rail and looking off over the water. It could scarcely be expected that they would not feel some emotion on such a return to their native town after such a departure, and Dick held his mother's trembling hand tight in his, which, indeed, was scarcely steady.
A low, sandy island lay before them, and seemed to toss on the surface of the bay. "I wish I could go over there before we go home again," the mother whispered, looking up wistfully into her son's face.
"No!" he answered. "We shall be commented on and watched sufficiently as it is. Let the dead past bury its dead. It is a shame and disgrace. I cannot have it dragged up again."
He spoke firmly, and his mother was silenced. She feared her son in his rare moods of sternness. They awed her far more than his earlier passions had. Those she had understood, and could soothe; but now he was growing out of her knowledge. Besides, she did not dream what an ordeal his meeting with Edith's family was to be to him. To her simplicity, Hester's invitation and Edith's allowed intercourse with them seemed an entire adoption; but he knew better. On the whole, it was a time above all when he least desired to be remembered of his father.
As they neared the wharf, they saw Major Cleaveland standing there, with a tall, slim girl beside him. She wore a black riding-cap and feather, and a glimpse of scarlet petticoat showed as she gathered up her riding-skirt. The disengaged hand was flung out with a quick welcoming gesture as she saw them, and a flush went over her face.
Mr. Rowan drew back to let Mr. and Mrs. Williams land first, and waited till his mother had received the first greeting. Then he took Edith's hand, and looked down at her as she looked up at him. Her eyes sparkled, and she breathed quickly with joy. There was not, he saw, a cloud over the delight with which she met him.
"Dick," she said ecstatically, after a minute, "I think that you are perfectly splendid!"
In the old times they had used each other's eyes for mirrors: why not now?