"But I assure you," persisted Stephen, "that it will give her the greatest
pleasure. She is a helpless cripple, and never leaves her bed. She has
probably been watching us from the window. She always watches for me. She
will wonder if I do not bring you in to see her. Please come," he said
with a tone which it was impossible to resist; and Mercy went.

Mrs. White had indeed been watching them from the window; but Stephen had
reckoned without his host, or rather without his hostess, when he assured
Mercy that his mother would be so glad to see her. The wisest and the
tenderest of men are continually making blunders in their relations with
women; especially if they are so unfortunate as to occupy in any sense a
position involving a relation to two women at once. The relation may be
ever so rightful and honest to each woman; the women may be good women,
and in their right places; but the man will find himself perpetually
getting into most unexpected hot water, as many a man could testify
pathetically, if he were called upon.

Mrs. White had been watching her son through the whole of his conversation
with Mercy. She could see only dimly at such a distance; but she had
discerned that it was a woman with whom he stood talking so long. It was
nearly half an hour past supper-time, and supper was Mrs. White's one
festivity in the course of the day. Their breakfast and their mid-day
dinner were too hurried meals for enjoyment, because Stephen was obliged
to make haste to the office; but with supper there was nothing to
interfere. Stephen's work for the day was done: he took great pains to
tell her at this time every thing which he had seen or heard which could
give her the least amusement. She looked forward all through her long
lonely days to the evenings, as a child looks forward to Saturday
afternoons. Like all invalids whose life has been forced into grooves, she
was impatient and unreasonable when anybody or any thing interfered with