side, too. Your son has achieved a small independence.
Bayne can carry on the little factory, and Henry can sell or lease
his patents; he can never sink to a mere dependent. There, I throw my
crotchets to the wind, and we will Raby your son, and marry him to Grace
Carden."

"God bless you, my good and true friend! How can I ever thank you?" Her
cheek flushed, and her great maternal eye sparkled, and half the beauty
of her youth came back. Her gratitude gave a turn to the conversation
which she neither expected nor desired.

"Mrs. Little," said Dr. Amboyne, "this is the first time you have
entered my den, and the place seems transformed by your presence. My
youth comes back to me with the feelings I thought time had blunted;
but no, I feel that, when you leave my den again, it will be darker than
ever, if you do not leave me a hope that you will one day enter it for
good."

"For shame! At our age!--" said the widow.

But she spoilt the remonstrance by blushing like a girl of eighteen.

"You are not old in my eyes; and, as for me, let my years plead for me,
since all those years I have lived single for your sake."

This last appeal shook Mrs. Little. She said she could not entertain any
such thoughts whilst her son was unhappy. "But marry him to his Grace,
and then--I don't know what folly I might not be persuaded into."

The doctor was quite content with that. He said he would go to Raby, as
soon as he could make the journey with safety, and her troubles and her
son's should end.

Mrs. Little drove home, a happy mother. As for the promise she had made
her old friend, it vexed her a little, she was so used to look at him
in another light; but she shrugged her maternal shoulders, as much as to
say, "When once my Henry leaves me--why not?"

She knew she must play the politician a little with Henry, so she opened
the battery cautiously. "My dear," said she, at breakfast, "good news!
Dr. Amboyne undertakes to reconcile us both to your uncle."

"All the better. Mr. Raby is a wrong-headed man, but he is a
noble-minded one, that is certain."

"Yes, and I have done him injustice. Dr. Amboyne has shown me that."

She said no more. One step at a time.

Henry went up to Woodbine Villa and Grace received him a little coldly.
He asked what was the matter. She said, "They tell me you were at the
very door the other day, and did not come in."

"It is true," said he. "Another had just come out--Mr. Coventry."

"And you