Always reticent with him, she had been very
tryingly so on their journey. No explanation of it had been given; and
he had been permitted to pass his time among the looms in Ireland's
mill, while she and the lawyer were occupied about affairs to which even
his signature was not asked.
As they sat together in the evening, she caught his glance searching her
face tenderly; and she bent forward, and said, "Kiss me, Stephen, my
dear lad. I have seen this week how kind and patient, how honorable and
trustful, thou art. Well, then, the hour has come that will try thy love
to the uttermost. But wise or unwise, all that has been done has been
done with good intent, and I look for no word to pain me from thy mouth.
Stephen, what is thy name?"
"Stephen Latrigg."
"Nay, but it isn't."
Stephen blushed vividly; his mother's face was white and calm. "I would
rather be called Latrigg than--the other name, than by my father's
name."
"Has any one named thy father to thee?"
"Charlotte told me what you and she said on the matter. She understood
his name to be Pattison. We were wondering if our marriage could be
under my adopted name, that was all, and things like it."
Ducie was watching his handsome face as he spoke, and feeling keenly the
eager deprecation of pain to herself, mingling with the natural
curiosity about his own identity, which the cloud upon his early years
warranted.
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