agreeable person bright and a certain easy charm which when by � through the medium also of the many opportunities in which he would have made himself useful or pleasant to you � you would have thought him a good fellow highly acceptable as a guest a or a brother in law whether all mothers would have liked him as a son is another question it is a fact perhaps kept a little too much in the back ground that mothers have a self larger than their and that when their sons have become taller than themselves and are gone from them to college or into the are wide spaces of their time which are filled with praying for their boys reading old letters and yet blessing those who are attending to their shirt buttons mrs ome was certainly not one of those bland and gently tearful women after sharing the common dream that when a beautiful was born to her her cup of happiness would be full she had through long years apart from that child to find herself at last in the presence of a son of whom she was afraid who was utterly by her and to whose sentiments in any given case she possessed no key was a kind son he kissed his mother s brow her his arm let her choose what she liked for the house and l n asked her whether she would have of for her new carriage and was bent on seeing her as good a figure in the neighborhood as any other woman of her rank she trembled this kindness it was not enough to satisfy her still if it should ever cease and give place to something else � she was too about s feelings to imagine clearly what that something would be the finest threads such as no eye sees if bound about the sensitive flesh so that the to break them would bring torture may make a worse bondage than any f rs felt the fatal threads about her and the bitterness of this helpless bondage mingled itself with the new of the dining drawing rooms and all the household changes which had ordered to be brought with quickness nothing was as she had once expected it would be if had shown the least care to have her stay in the room with him � if he had really cared for her opinion he had been what she had dreamed he would be in the eyes of those people who had made her world f all the past could be dissolved and leave no solid trace of mighty that were all impossible � she would have tasted some joy but now she began to look back with regret to the days when she sat in loneliness among the old and still longed for something that might happen save in a bitter little speech or in deep sigh heard by no one besides she kept all these things hidden in her heart and went out d in the autumn sunshine to overlook the alterations in the pleasure grounds very much as a happy woman might have done day however when she was occupied in this way an occasion came on which she chose to express indirectly a part of her inward care she was standing on the broad gravel in the afternoon the long shadows lay on the grass the light seemed the more glorious because of the and golden trees the were busy at their pleasant work the soil gave out an agreeable f and little harry was playing with round old mr who sat placidly on a low garden chair the scene would have made charming picture of english domestic life an the handsome majestic gray haired woman ob would have been especially admired but the artist would have f lt it requisite to turn her face toward her husband and little and to have given her an elderly of expression which would have divided remark with his exquisite rendering of her indian shawl i s face was turned the other way and for this reason she only heard an approaching step and did not see whose it was yet it startled her it was not quick enough to be her son s step and besides was away at it was mr s � � chapter ix a woman naturally bom to � john � some sorrow in is toward me and my with nothing � approached mrs taking off his hat and smiling she did not but said you knew was not at home yes i came to see you to know if you had any wishes that i could further since i hate not had an opportunity of consulting you since he came home let us walk toward the then they turned together mr still keeping his hat off and holding it behind him the air was so soft and agreeable mrs herself had nothing but a large veil over her head they walked for a little while in silence till they were out of sight under tall trees and treading noiselessly on fallen leaves what was really most anxious about was to learn from mrs whether anything had that was significant of s disposition toward him which he suspected to be from friendly was not naturally hearted at five and twenty he had written verses and had got himself wet through order not to disappoint a dark eyed woman whom he was proud to believe in love with him but a family man with grown up sons and daughters a man with a professional the radical position and complicated affairs that make it hard to ascertain the exact relation between property and necessarily thinks of himself and what may be impending is remarkably acute and clever he began at last since mrs did not speak if he gets into parliament i have no he will distinguish himself he has a quick eye for 