for a few books he had purchased made her
discontinue to send him others, so sensitive had misery made her. And
yet, strangely enough, there did not exist the same repugnance to accept
of little favors and trifling kindnesses from the poor people about
her, of whom she spoke with a deep and affectionate gratitude. Her whole
heart was, however, full of one thought and one hope,--to see her
dear son before she died. It was a last wish, and she felt as though
indulging it had given her the energy which had prolonged her life.
Doubts would cross her mind from time to time if it were possible for
him to come; if he could be so far his own master as to be able to
hasten to her; and even if doing so, he could be yet in time; but all
these would give way before the strength of her hope.

"That I should see you beside my bed,--that you should hold my hand as
I go hence,--will be happiness enough to requite me for much sorrow!"
wrote she. "But if this may not be, and that we are to meet no more
here, never forget that in my last prayer your name was mingled, and
that when I entreated forgiveness for myself, I implored a blessing for
_you!_"

"That letter was written on the Monday before; and where had he been
on that same Monday evening?" asked he of himself. "How had he been
occupied in those same hours when she was writing this? Yes, that
evening he was seated beside May Leslie at the piano, while 'she played
and sang for him. They had been talking of German songwriters, and she
was recalling here and there such snatches of Uhland and Schiller as
she could remember; while Clara, leaning over the back of his chair, was
muttering the words when May forgot them, and in an accent the purest
and truest What a happy hour was that to _him!_ and to _her_ how
wretched, how inexpressibly wretched, as, alone and friendless, she
wrote those faint lines!"

Poor Layton felt very bitterly the thought that, while he was living in
an easy enjoyment of life, his mother, whom he loved dearly, should be
in deep want and suffering.

In the easy carelessness of a disposition inherited from his father, he
had latterly been spending money far too freely. His constant visits
to Marlia required a horse, and then, with all a poor man's dread to be
thought poor, he was ten times more liberal to servants than was called
for, and even too ready to join in whatever involved cost or expense.
Latterly, too, he had lost at play; small sums, to be sure, but