I had not seen him since he left for Dartmouth, nearly fourteen months before. Then he was a round-faced, rosy boy....
Up the steps, dragging a seaman’s canvas kit-bag, came a tall, thin figure, white of face, drawn, haggard—incredibly old. I had not quite realised this. For a second my heart stood still—— Where was my boy?
Then he saw me waiting in the hall, and his face lighted with half-incredulous joyous wonder: “Mother! You here!”
•••••••
My boy was gone for ever—but my son had come home.
Te Deum Laudamus.
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