Charles hung his sword from a captain's belt then, but she kept the
blue ribbon of his babyhood. There was a bit from Jack's first cravat,
and Dick's flag, and her dear husband's wedding vest, and from the
small silken shoes of the little Maya--dear little Maya, who
"From the nursery door,
Climbed up with clay cold feet
Unto the golden floor."
Any wife and mother can imagine the thousand silken strips that would
gather in a life of love.
She had often said that in her old age she would sew together these
memorials of her sorrow and her joy; and Bessie frequently stood beside
her, listening to events which this or that piece called forth, and
watching, the gay beautiful squares, as they grew in the summer
sunshine and by the glinting winter firelight.
After Mr. North left her she lifted her work and sat sewing and
singing. It was an unusually hot day; the perfume from the August
lilies and the lavender and the rich carnations almost made the heart
faint. All the birds were still; but the bees were busy, and far off
there was the soft tinkling of the water falling into the two fountains
on the terrace. Harry came in, and said, "I am going into Hallam,
mother, so I kiss you before I go;" and she rose up and kissed the
handsome fellow, and watched him away, and when he turned and lifted
his hat to her, she blessed him, and thanked God that he had let her
live to see Antony's son so good and worthy an inheritor of the old
name and place.
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