She slept again after the doctor had given her a stimulant, and her son was brought in. He was weak and pale, and Mrs. Norton held him while the rector tried, as gently as possible, to explain his mother’s condition to him. He received all that was told him so quietly that it was evident the shock and exhaustion of the accident kept him from fully understanding the words.
Again Mag opened her eyes, and this time they fell upon her child.
“Poor lad!” she whispered; “he was always so fond of his poor mother, and I don’t know who’ll care for him now.”
“I will,” said Mrs. Norton quickly. “I am his Aunt Grace, and if you will trust me I will try to take your place with him. And I will not let him forget you.”
Mag’s face darkened with the look of gloomy reserve that it had worn for so many years.
“He must forget me,” she said, “if he’s to be with his father’s people. The very thought of me would keep him from being fit for them.”
“Give him to us,” said Dr. Norton, who had exchanged a few whispered words on the subject with his wife while Mag slept, “and we will educate and rear him as Philip’s child should be.”
“No,” said the rector, who had been weeping silently while they spoke, “give him to me, that I may have the opportunity of repairing my neglect of him and you. I have not realized till now the duty I have owed you both. Philip was like a darling son to us, and his boy will take his place in our hearts. I can speak for my wife, for she has urged me to do this before, though I was wicked enough not to heed her.”
Mag had watched them all keenly. “Let him be Philip over again if ye can make him so, and do with him as ye please,” she said, not making any decision as to which of his relatives should take him. She lay quite still for some time after that with her eyes closed, and when she opened them again she looked about fearfully as though alarmed at the sight of so many strange faces. “If the ladies and gentlemen wouldn’t mind,” she said, “could I have just a word alone with my little lad?”
In tearful silence they all left the room, but through the thin partition they could hear Mag’s low voice growing gradually fainter until it ceased altogether, and the sound of Philip’s heart-broken sobbing filled the room. Mrs. Norton stole quietly in, and kneeling beside the bed gathered the boy gently in her arms.