My father! who never tolerated
anything but respect from all of us, who were accustomed to despotic
government, I can assure you, was allowing Tom!--well, you were with
him on the steamer," she broke off abruptly. The placid look was gone
again in a flash.
"Yes," said Mother Fisher, her black eyes full of sympathy; "don't let
that trouble you, dear Mrs. Selwyn; Tom was pure gold down underneath--we
saw that--and the rest is past."
"Ah,"--the placid look came back as quickly--"that is my only comfort--that
you did. For father told the whole, not sparing himself. Now he
sees things in the right light; he says because your young people
taught it to him. And he was cruelly disappointed because you couldn't
come down to visit him in his home."
"We couldn't," said Mother Fisher, in a sorry voice, at seeing the
other face.
"I understand--quite," said Tom's mother, with a gentle pressure of the
hand she held. "And then the one pleasure he had was in picking out
something for Polly."
"Oh, if the little red leather case _had_ gone back to the poor
old man!" ran through Mother Fisher's mind, possessing it at once.
"I don't think his judgment was good, Mrs. Fisher, in the selection,"
said Mrs. Selwyn, a small pink spot coming on either cheek; "but he
loves Polly, and wanted to show it."
"And he was so good to think of it," cried Mother Fisher, her heart
warming more and more toward the little old earl.
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