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.I shall do my best to take you both home with me as soon as possible."She looked for a moment silently in his face, then, throwing her arms round hisneck, answered:"And I wonder who wouldn't be glad to wait for your sweet face to the very Dayof Judgment, sir, when all must have their own at last."Therewith she burst into tears, and, turning, led the way to the parlor."Here's your Hector, Annie," she said as she opened the door."Take him, andmake much of him, for I'm sure he deserves it."Then she drew him hastily into the room, and closed the door."You see," Hector went on, "I must let you both know that my mother is deadagainst my having Annie.She thinks, of course, that I might do better; but Iknow she is only far too good for me, and that I shall be a fortunate as well ashappy man the day we come together.She has already proved herself as true awoman as ever God made.""She is that, sir, as I know and can testify, who have known her longer thananybody else.But sit you down and love each other, and never mind me; I'll notbe a burden to you as long as I can lift a hand to earn my own bread.And whenI'm old and past work, I'll not be too proud to take whatever you can spare me,and eat it with thankfulness."So they sat down, and were soon making merry together.But nothing could reconcile Mrs.Macintosh to the thought of Annie for herdaughter-in-law; her pride, indignation, and disappointment were much too great,and they showed themselves the worse that her husband would not say a wordagainst either Annie or Hector, who, he insisted, had behaved very well.Hewould not go a step beyond confessing that the thing was not altogether as hecould have wished, but upheld that it contained ground for satisfaction.In vainhe called to his wife's mind the fact that neither she nor he were by birth orearly position so immeasurably above Annie.Nothing was of any use to calm her;nothing would persuade her that Annie had not sought their service with theexpress purpose of carrying away her son.Her behavior proved, indeed, thatAnnie had done prudently in going at once home to her mother, where presentlyher late mistress sought and found her; acting royally the part of onerighteously outraged in her dearest dignity.Her worst enemy could have desiredfor her nothing more degrading than to see and hear her.She insisted thatHector should abjure Annie, or leave the house.Hector laid the matter beforehis father.He encouraged him to humor his mother as much as he could, andlinger on, not going every night to see the girl, in the hope that time mightwork some change.But the time passed in bitter reproaches on the part of themother, and expostulations on the part of the son, and there appeared no sign ofthe amelioration the father had hoped for.The fact was that Mrs.Macintosh'snatural vulgarity had been so pampered by what she regarded as wealth, and shehad grown so puffed up, that her very person seemed to hold the door wide forthe devil.For self-importance is perhaps a yet deeper root of all evil thaneven the love of money.Any deep, honest affection might have made it too hotfor the devil, but in her heart there was little room for such a love.Sheseemed to believe in nothing but mode and fashion, to care for nothing but whatshe called "the thing." She grew in self-bulk, and gathered more and more weightin her own esteem: she wore yet showier and more vulgar clothes, and actuallycultivated a slang that soon bade farewell to delicacy, so that she sank and shesank, and she ate and she drank, until at last she impressed her good-naturedclergyman himself as one but a very little above the beasts that perish-if,indeed, she was in any respect equal to a good, conscientious dog! She retained,however, this much respect for her son, for which that son gave her littlethanks, that by-and-by she limited herself to expending all her contempt uponAnnie, and toward Hector settled into a dogged silence, where upon he, findingit impossible to make any progress toward an understanding where he could noteven get a reply, at last gave up the attempt and became as silent as she.To poor Annie it was a terrible thought that she should thus have come betweenmother and son; but she remembered that she had read of mothers who withoutcause had even hated their own flesh, and how much the more might not she whoknew her ambitions and designs so utterly opposed to the desires of her son?And thereupon all at once awoke in Annie the motherhood that lies deepest of allin the heart of every good woman, making her know in herself that, his motherhaving forsaken him, she had no choice but take him up and be to himhenceforward both wife and mother.What remains of my story will perhaps serveto show how far she succeeded in fulfilling this her vow.At last Mr.Macintosh saw that things could not thus continue, and that he hadbetter accept an offer made him some time before by a London correspondent-totake Hector into his banking-house and give him the opportunity of widening hisexperience and knowledge of business; and Hector, on his part, was eager toaccept the proposal.The salary offered for his services was certainly not avery liberal one, but the chief attraction was that the hours were even shorterthan they had been with his father, and would yet enlarge his liberty of anevening.Hector's delights, as we have seen, had always lain in literature, andin that direction the labor in him naturally sought an outlet
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