his father's, that tears sprang unbidden to her
eyes.

"Ah," he said presently, with a sigh that betrayed more than he was aware
of, "my father was a happy man in having such a woman for his wife!"

"A good husband makes a good wife, my boy," she returned, gazing
searchingly yet tenderly into his eyes; "and I think no woman with any
heart at all could have failed to be such to him."

"I am not worthy to be his son," he murmured, the hot blood mounting to
his very hair.

There was a moment or more of silence, then she said, softly caressing his
hair and cheek as she spoke, "Edward, my son, be very patient, very
gentle, forbearing and loving toward the orphan child, the care of whom
you assumed of your own free will, the little wife you have promised to
love and cherish to life's end."

"Yes, mother, I have tried very earnestly to be all that to her--but she
is such a child that she needs guidance and control, and I cannot let her
show disrespect to you or my grandfather."

"She has always been both dutiful and affectionate to me, Ned, and I have
never known her to say a disrespectful word to or about your grandfather."

"Did you not notice the looks she gave him at the table, to-night? the
tone in which she replied when he spoke to her?"

"I tried not to do so," she said with a smile. "I learned when my first
children were young that it was the part of wisdom to be sometimes blind
to venial faults. Not," she added more gravely, "that I would ever put
disrespect to my father in that category, but we must not make too much of
a little girlish petulance, especially when excited by a generous sympathy
with the troubles of another."

The cloud lifted from his brow. "How kind in you to say it, mother dear!
kind to her and to me. Yes, she is very fond of Max, quite as if he were a
younger brother, and it is very natural that she should sympathize with
him when in disgrace."

"And having been so petted and indulged by her father, allowed to have her
own way in almost everything, and seldom, if ever, called to account for
her doings, comings and goings, she can hardly fail to think my father's
rule strict and severe."

"True," Edward responded with a sigh, "and grandpa is a strict
disciplinarian, yet so kind and affectionate with it all that one cannot
help loving him."

"So I think. And now, good-night, my dear son. I must go; and perhaps your
little wife is looking and longing for your coming. She is very fond and