"
This had the true Theobald ring and instantly brought the whole train of
ideas which in Ernest's mind were connected with his father. The
surroundings were the old familiar ones, but the surrounded were changed
almost beyond power of recognition. He turned sharply on Theobald in a
moment. I will not repeat the words he used, for they came out before he
had time to consider them, and they might strike some of my readers as
disrespectful; there were not many of them, but they were effectual.
Theobald said nothing, but turned almost of an ashen colour; he never
again spoke to his son in such a way as to make it necessary for him to
repeat what he had said on this occasion. Ernest quickly recovered his
temper and again asked after his mother. Theobald was glad enough to
take this opening now, and replied at once in the tone he would have
assumed towards one he most particularly desired to conciliate, that she
was getting rapidly worse in spite of all he had been able to do for her,
and concluded by saying she had been the comfort and mainstay of his life
for more than thirty years, but that he could not wish it prolonged.
The pair then went upstairs to Christina's room, the one in which Ernest
had been born.
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