Page:Orange Grove.djvu/317

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plainly by his actions that he considered them as intruders.

As they rose to leave Mrs. Kingley clung to the child with affectionate tenacity, when he spoke for the first time, addressing her,

"Don't woman, act so like a fool, let the young un go to his mother."

Although Mary had not expected her father to treat her with his former indulgence, she did think he would show some signs of lingering affection, and not until they returned and gave an account of their reception, did she realize how much she had calculated on this unconscious mediator as the repairer of the breach between them. She now gave up every hope of reconciliation, and when Rosalind restored to her her little charge, who immediately began to set up a clamor for his rights, the sight of his mother having suddenly reminded him of his morning lunch, she withdrew to her chamber, and alter lulling him to sleep, gave way to a passionate flood of tears. She felt a sense of languor when her grief had spent its force, and, lying down by the side of her sleeping babe, a deep slumber soon came to her relief, which Rosalind thought best not to disturb when she entered the chamber to summon her to dinner. Finding the child awake, who was laughing and cooing gently, but not sufficiently loud to awaken the sleeper, she took him to the table where they had a merry time, showing the type of royalty to which homage is most readily given. The etiquette of the dinner table was dispensed with in the presence of the unconscious stranger who was making his first debut