'Dear mother,' I murmured, 'all the mischief and sorrow and pain are
ended now; and we shall all be happy; for you have a kind heart,
dear, and cannot help loving poor Winnie, when you come to know her.'
She made no answer save that her lips slowly reddened again after the
pallor; then came a quiver in them, as though pity were conquering
pride within her breast, and then that contemptuous curl that had
often in the past cowed the heart of the fearless and pugnacious boy
whom no peril of sea or land could appal.
'She is found,' I said. 'And, mother, there is no longer an
estrangement between you and me. I forgive you everything now.'
I leapt from her as though I had been stung, so sudden and unexpected
was the look of scorn that came over her face as she said, 'You
forgive me!' It recalled my struggle with her on that dreadful
night: and in a moment I became myself again. The pleading boy
became, at a flash, the stern and angry man that misery had made him.
With my heart hedged once more with points of steel to all the world
but Winnie, I turned away.
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