Then the minister's voice was heard again, and it said, "Sister, remember the little child's grave in the garden, and forgive and be forgiven."
Then Mrs. Wayland, who had stood like a statue all this time, rushed forward, and, kneeling by the couch poured forth her whole heart in a torrent of passionate words,--
"O my husband, my darling, my only love, forgive me for my coldness and my scorn! forgive me for not helping you to withstand temptation,--I, who was always the stronger! It was I who drove you away, and for it I have suffered and agonized all these years. I have been so hard, so wicked and cruel, so unpitying and unforgiving, that I have had no rest or peace night or day. It is so blessed to feel that I forgive you! so joyful to think that you will forgive me,--that God will forgive us both!" and the woman laid her head upon his breast, and rained upon his lips a thousand passionate kisses.
Then Dr. Ashly would have left them; but the woman called him back.
"Share in our great joy, dear friend," she said; "for, had it not been for you, this would never have been. A few weeks ago I should never have received him whom I loved even as I had always loved, but whom my pride would have banished from my door in the face of all his pleadings; but you have softened my heart, and to you we owe this joyful hour. And now you must help me," she continued, with a woman's thoughtful care, "to carry him to my own room upstairs, which is the only comfortable room I have; and there I can nurse him up, and soon have him well again."
And so he was carried up to the room where she had sat alone so many years, and was soon as comfortable as womanly care could make him.
"How natural it all looks here!" he said, glancing around the room. "It is just as it used to be,--isn't it, darling? And I remember it so well,--furnished, to suit you, in crimson, which you still like, as I see by your shawl."
"Yes," she said, with a little blush; "I have always worn it for your sake. You used to say it was just the color to suit me, and I have worn it all these years."
"Darling," said he, looking all about the room, "I see no traces of any one but yourself here. Where is our child,--our little baby boy?"