"Well, you know my father. Let me tell you, aside from the
eccentricities, that are mere outside matters, and easily explained, if
you understood the whole of his life, a kinder man never lived, nor a
more reasonable one. But it was a misfortune that he had to be left so
much alone, as since my mother's death a dozen years ago has happened.
It pained me much." A shadow passed over her brow, but it was gone
again, and she smiled, and her eyes regained their old placid look. "I
live in Australia with my husband, where my duty is, putting the boys
as fast as they were old enough, and the little girls as well, into
English schools. But Tom has always been with my father at the
vacations, for he is his favourite, as of course was natural, for he is
the eldest. And though you might not believe it, Mrs. Fisher, my father
was always passionately fond of the boy."
"I do believe it," said Mother Fisher, quietly, and she put her hand
over the folded ones. Mrs. Selwyn unclasped hers, soft and white, to
draw within them the toil-worn one.
"Now, that's comfortable," she said, with another little smile.
"And here is where his eccentricity became the most dangerous to the
peace of mind of our family," continued Mrs. Selwyn. "My father seemed
never able to discover that he was doing the lad harm by all sorts of
indulgence and familiarity with him, a sort of hail-fellow-well-met way
that surprised me more than I can express, when I discovered it on my
last return visit to my old home.
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