So these three generations had joined in that supplication: the strong
man, humbled by trial and grief, whose loyal heart was yet full of
love;--the child, of the sweet age of those little ones whom the Blessed
Speaker of the prayer first bade to come unto Him;--and the old man,
whose heart was well-nigh as tender and as innocent; and whose day was
approaching, when he should be drawn to the bosom of the Eternal Pity.

CHAPTER LXXX. In which the Colonel says "Adsum" when his Name is called

The vow which Clive had uttered, never to share bread with his
mother-in-law, or sleep under the same roof with her, was broken on the
very next day. A stronger will than the young man's intervened, and he
had to confess the impotence of his wrath before that superior power.
In the forenoon of the day following that unlucky dinner, I went with my
friend to the banking-house whither Mr. Luce's letter directed us, and
carried away with me the principal sum, in which the Campaigner said
Colonel Newcome was indebted to her, with the interest accurately
computed and reimbursed. Clive went off with a pocketful of money to the
dear old Poor Brother of Grey Friars; and he promised to return with his
father, and dine with my wife in Queen Square. I had received a letter
from Laura by the morning's post, announcing her return by the express
train from Newcome, and desiring that a spare bedroom should be got
ready for a friend who accompanied her.

On reaching Howland Street, Clive's door was opened, rather to my
surprise, by the rebellious maid-servant who had received her dismissal
on the previous night; and the doctor's carriage drove up as she was
still speaking to me. The polite practitioner sped upstairs to Mrs.
Newcome's apartment. Mrs. Mackenzie, in a robe-de-chambre and cap very
different from yesterday's, came out eagerly to meet the physician on
the landing. Ere they had been a quarter of an hour together, arrived a
cab, which discharged an elderly person with her bandbox and bundles; I
had no difficulty in recognising a professional nurse in the new-comer.
She too disappeared into the sick-room, and left me sitting in the
neighbouring chamber, the scene of the last night's quarrel.

Hither presently came to me Maria, the maid. She said she had not the
heart to go away now she was wanted; that they had passed a sad night,
and that no one had been to bed. Master Tommy was below, and the
landlady taking care of him: the landl