“’Not while I have life enough to seek her.  What, bring her all these miles to me.  My mother, my poor forsaken mother.  Oh, no, if indeed I may not live, if strength be not granted me to seek her, then, then it will be time enough to think of beseeching her to come to me; but not while a hope of life remains, speak not of it, Percy.  Let her know nothing of me, nothing, till I can implore her blessing on my knees.’”

* * * * *

“I have ceased to argue with him, for he is bent upon it, and perhaps it is better thus.  His mind appears much relieved, he has passed a quiet night, and this morning the physician finds a wonderful improvement, wonderful to him perhaps, but not to me.”

* * * * *

Percy’s letters containing the above extracts, were productive of much interest to his friends at Oakwood.  The details of Cecil’s death, alleviated by sympathy, were forwarded to his father and sister.  The words that had preceded his death Mr. Hamilton carefully suppressed from his friend, and Mr. Grahame, as if dreading to hear anything that could confirm his son’s reckless disposition, asked no particulars.  For three months he buried himself in increased seclusion at Llangwillan, refusing all invitations, and denying himself steadfastly to all.  At the termination of that period, however, he once more joined his friends, an altered and a happier man.  His misanthropy had departed, and often Mr. Hamilton remarked to his wife, that the Grahame of fifty resembled the Grahame of five-and-twenty far more than he had during the intervening years.  Lilla and Edward were sources of such deep interest to him, that in their society he seemed to forget the misery occasioned by his other children.  The shock of her brother’s death was long felt by Lilla; she sorrowed that he was thus suddenly cut off without time for one thought of eternity, one word of penitence, of prayer.  The affection of her husband, however, gradually dispelled these melancholy thoughts, and when Lord Delmont paid his promised visit to his nephew, he found no abatement in those light and joyous spirits which had at first attracted him towards Lilla.

Ellen, at her own particular request, had undertaken to prepare Mrs. Greville for the return of her son, and the change that had taken place in him.  Each letter from Percy continued his recovery, and here we may notice, though somewhat out of place, as several months elapsed ere he was enabled fully to succeed, that, by the active exertions of himself and of the solicitor his father had originally employed, Dupont was at length brought to justice, his criminal machinations fully exposed to view, and the innocence of Alfred Greville, the son of the deceased, as fully established in the eyes of all men.

Gently and cautiously Ellen performed her office, and vain would be the effort to portray the feelings or the fond and desolate mother, as she anticipated the return of her long-absent, dearly-loved son.  Of his own accord he came back to her; he had tried the pleasures of the world, and proved them hollow; he had formed friendships with the young, the gay, the bright, the lovely, and he had found them all wanting in stability and happiness.  Amid them all his heart had yearned for home and for domestic love; that mother had not prayed in vain.