me. In your last letter
there was no account of how he died.'

'It was in church, at the morning service. The pew-opener found him
sitting there dead, when all had gone away.'

'But the vicar could see into the pew from the pulpit? The death must
have been very peaceful.'

'No, he could not see; the front curtains were drawn.'

'Why was that, I wonder?'

Mrs. Eldon shook her head.

'Are you in pain?' she asked suddenly. 'Why do you breathe so
strangely?'

'A little pain. Oh, nothing; I will see Manns to-morrow.'

His mother gazed long and steadily into his eyes, and this time he bore
her look.

'Mother, you have not kissed me,' he whispered.

'And cannot, dear. There is too much between us.'

His head fell upon her lap.

'Hubert!'

He pressed her hand.

'How shall I live when you have gone from me again? When you say
good-bye, it will be as if I parted from you for ever.'

Hubert was silent.

'Unless,' she continued--'unless I have your promise that you will no
longer dishonour yourself.'

He rose from her side and stood in front of the fire; his mother looked
and saw that he trembled.

'No promise, Hubert,' she said, 'that you cannot keep. Rather than that,
we will accept our fate, and be nothing to each other.'

'You know very well, mother, that that is impossible. I cannot speak to
you of what drove me to disregard your letters. I love and honour you,
and shall have to change my nature before I cease to do so.'

'To me, Hubert, you seem already to have changed. I scarcely know you.'

'I can't defend myself to you,' he said sadly. 'We think so differently
on subjects which allow of no compromise, that, even if I could speak
openly, you would only condemn me the more.'

His mother turned upon him a grief-stricken and wondering face.

'Since when have we differed so?' she asked. 'What has made us strangers
to each other's thoughts? Surely, surely you are at one with me in
condemning all that has led to this? If your character has been too weak
to resist temptation, you cannot have learnt to make evil your good?'

He kept silence.

'You refuse me that last hope?'

Hubert moved impatiently.

'Mother, I can't see beyond to-day! I know nothing of what is before me.
It is the idlest trifling with words to say one will do this or that,
when action in no way depends on one's own calmer thought. In this
moment I could promise anything you ask; if I had my choice, I would be
a child again an