Between her and my only child, then living, who
was eight months old when she came to us, and something over
two years when she sailed for Europe, tendrils of affection
gradually intertwined themselves, which I trust Death has not
severed, but rather multiplied and strengthened. She became
his teacher, playmate, and monitor; and he requited her with a
prodigality of love and admiration.
"I shall not soon forget their meeting in my office, after
some weeks' separation, just before she left us forever. His
mother had brought him in from the country and left him asleep
on my sofa, while she was absent making purchases, and he had
rolled off and hurt himself in the fall, waking with the shock
in a phrensy of anger, just before Margaret, hearing of his
arrival, rushed into the office to find him. I was vainly
attempting to soothe him as she entered; but he was running
from one end to the other of the office, crying passionately,
and refusing to be pacified. She hastened to him, in perfect
confidence that her endearments would calm the current of his
feelings,--that the sound of her well-remembered voice would
banish all thought of his pain,--and that another moment would
see him restored to gentleness; but, half-wakened, he did not
heed her, and probably did not even realize who it was that
caught him repeatedly in her arms and tenderly insisted that
he should restrain himself.
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