"But have you never," she continued, "come
although it was in the dark and we did not know it--oh, let me think that
you have not been so cruel as we have thought you. Tell me that you came
if only to comfort me and make me happier."
Ernest was ready. "I had no money to come with, mother, till just
lately."
This was an excuse Christina could understand and make allowance for;
"Oh, then you would have come, and I will take the will for the deed--and
now that I have you safe again, say that you will never, never leave
me--not till--not till--oh, my boy, have they told you I am dying?" She
wept bitterly, and buried her head in her pillow.
CHAPTER LXXXIII
Joey and Charlotte were in the room. Joey was now ordained, and was
curate to Theobald. He and Ernest had never been sympathetic, and Ernest
saw at a glance that there was no chance of a _rapprochement_ between
them. He was a little startled at seeing Joey dressed as a clergyman,
and looking so like what he had looked himself a few years earlier, for
there was a good deal of family likeness between the pair; but Joey's
face was cold and was illumined with no spark of Bohemianism; he was a
clergyman and was going to do as other clergymen did, neither better nor
worse.
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