Mrs. Witherspoon led Henry to the threshold and tremulously kissed him.  And it was with this degree of welcome that the wanderer was shown into his home.

CHAPTER VII.

A mother’s affection.

In one bedazzled moment we review a whole night of darkness.  A luxury brings with it the memory of a privation.  The first glimpse of those drawing-rooms, gleaming with white and warm with gold, were seen against a black cloud, and that cloud was the past.  The wanderer was startled; there was nothing now to turn aside the full shock of his responsibilities.  He felt the enormity of his pretense, and he began again to pick at his motive.  Mrs. Witherspoon perceived a change in him and anxiously asked if he were ill.  No, but now that his long journey was ended he felt worn by it.  The father saw him with a fresh criticism and said that he looked older than his years bespoke him; but the mother, quick in every defense, insisted that he had gone through enough to make any one look old; and besides, the Craigs, being a thoughtful people, always looked older than they really were.  In the years that followed, this first day “at home” was reviewed in all its memories—­the library with its busts of old thinkers and its bright array of new books; the sober breakfast-room in which luncheon was served; the orderly servants; the plants; the gold fishes; the heavy hangings; a tiger skin with a life-expressive head; the portraits of American statesmen; the rich painting of a cow that flashed back the tradition of a trade-mark bull on a dead wall.

Evening came with melody in the music-room; midnight, and Henry sat alone in his room.  He was heavy with sadness.  The feeling that henceforth his success must depend upon the skill of his hypocrisy, and that he must at last die a liar, lay upon him with cold oppression.  Kindness was a reproach and love was a censure.  Some one tapped at the door.

“Come in.”

Mrs. Witherspoon entered.  “I just wanted to see if you were comfortable,” she said, seating herself in a rocking-chair.

“So much so that I am tempted to rebel against it,” he answered.

She smiled sadly.  “There are so many things that I wanted to say to you, dear, but I haven’t had a chance, somehow.”

Her eyes were tear-stricken and her voice trembled.  “It isn’t possible that you could know what a mother’s love is, my son.”

“I didn’t know, but you have taught me.”

“No, not yet; but I will—­if you’ll let me.”

“If I’ll let you?” He looked at her in surprise.

“Yes, if you will bear with me.  Sit here,” she said, tapping the broad arm of the chair.  He obeyed, and she took his arms and put them about her neck.  “There hasn’t been much love in my life, precious.  Perhaps I am not showy enough, not strong enough for the place I occupy.”

“But you are good enough to hold the place of an angel.”