Chapter28

#Chapter28

A MOTHER'S PLEA.

/"Hubert, my boy!/" she murmured, tremulously.

/"Mother!/" he answered, embracing her; then, flinging himself on a low hassock by her side, he caught both of her hands in his and kissed them.

/"I am so glad you are come, my son,/" she breathed—/"I am so ill!/"

He tried to cheer her with his brave, bright words; but she only smiled at him faintly, wistfully.

She brought round the subject uppermost in her mind.

/"I wonder what has became of Jessie Bain?/" she asked, abruptly.

/"Why do you ask me, mother?/" he replied, evasively, flushing to the roots of his curling hair—and that blush betrayed to her keen eyes that he had not as yet lost interest in the girl.

/"I want you to promise me, Hubert,/" she whispered, /"that if anything should ever happen to me, you will not think of even searching for Jessie Bain, in order to marry her./"