Sleep used to
come before morning; and by day Fernando was himself again, very
subdued and quiet, and, in fact, having lost a good deal of ground as
to health.
Strange to say, the greatest pleasure he had at this time was sitting
in the upstairs parlour. The custom had begun in consequence of his
nervous shuddering at being left alone lest his uncle should return,
and Felix and Geraldine had then proposed taking him to their mother,
who was rather interested than annoyed by his presence, and indeed
all her gentle motherly instinct was drawn out by his feebleness and
lameness; she talked to him kindly and quite rationally, and he was
wonderfully impressed and soothed by her tenderness. It was so
utterly unlike anything he had ever even seen, that he watched her
with a sort of awe; while Cherry worked, read aloud, or drew, and
felt proud of being able to fetch what was beyond the capacity of her
little errand boy, Bernard.
The children, too, entertained him; he was a little afraid of
Bernard's roughness, but delighted in watching him, and he and little
Stella were intensely admiring friends. She always knew him, cooed at
him, and preferred the gold of his watch-chain to all things in
nature or art.
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