“These are but selfish tears, my own; selfish, for they fall only when I think that to-morrow bears my Caroline away, and leaves her mother’s heart for a time so lone and sad, that it will not even think of the happiness I so fondly trust will be hers, in becoming the bride of him she loves.  Forgive me, my own Caroline; I had no right to weep and call for these dear signs of sympathy at such a time.”

Silently and tearfully Caroline clung to her mother, and repeatedly pressed her hand to her lips.

“And why are you not at rest, my child? you will have but few brief hours for sleep, scarcely sufficient to recall the truant rose to these pale cheeks, and the lustre to this suddenly dimmed eye, my Caroline;” and the mother passed her hand caressingly over her brow, and parted the luxuriant hair that, loosened from the confining wreath of wild flowers which had so lately adorned it, hung carelessly around her.  She looked long and wistfully on that young bright face.

“You ask me why I am not at rest; oh, I could not, I felt I could not part from you, without imploring your forgiveness for all the past; without feeling that it was indeed pardoned.  Never, never before has my conduct appeared in such true colours:  dark, even to blackness, when contrasted with yours.  Your blessing is my own, it will be mine to-morrow; but, oh, it will not be hallowed to my heart, did I not confess that I was—­that I am unworthy of all your fondness, mother, and implore you to forgive the pain I have so often and so wantonly inflicted upon you.  Oh, you know not how bitterly, how reproachfully, my faults and errors rushed back to my mind, as I sat and thought this was the last night that Caroline Hamilton would sleep beneath this roof; that to-morrow we parted, and I left you without once acknowledging I deserved not half your goodness; without one effort to express the devoted gratitude, the deep, the reverential love, with which my heart is filled.  Mother, dearest, dearest mother! oh, call me but your blessing, your comfort,—­I never have been thus; wilful and disobedient, I have poisoned many hours which would otherwise have been sweet.  Mother, my own mother, say only you forgive me—­say that no lingering pang I on my account remains.”

“Forgive you, my beloved! oh, long, long since have every childish fault and youthful error been forgiven.  Could resentment harbour in my heart so long? could memory linger on moments of pain, when this last year not one fault, not one failing of duty or of love has stained your conduct?  Even as my other children have you been my blessing, my comfort; the dearer, when I thought on the doubts and fears of the past.  Pain you may have once caused me; but, oh, you know not how blessedly one proof of affection, one hour of devotion in a child can obliterate from a mother’s heart the remembrance of months of pain.  Think no more of what is past, my own; remember only that your mother’s blessing, her fervent prayers will hover round you wherever you may be; that, should sickness and sorrow at any time be your portion, however distant we may be, your mother will come to soothe and cheer, your mother’s bosom will still be open to receive you.”