She left him after this to go round the garden; he had already sent for
the head-gardener, who was waiting as bidden at the front door, in some
trepidation of mind. Mrs. Home hated to have to scold and find fault,
she hated also that Philip should do it, and she went indoors instead of
accompanying him. There was no sweeter and kinder soul in this world
than she, and even now, when her heart bled for her son, no
vindictiveness or desire for revenge on those who had made him suffer so
had place in her mind. But forgiveness could not be there yet, and it
was the most she could do to resolve not to think about either Madge or
Evelyn. Philip's sorrow and what faint consolation or palliation she
could bring to that was enough to fill her thoughts; the authors of his
sorrow she wished as far as was humanly possible to root out from her
mind altogether. Resentment would do no good to anybody and only hurt
herself, and since she knew that she could not wholly forgive, since
there was no sign of sorrow or regret on their parts, the best thing she
could cultivate in their regard was oblivion.
She went, therefore, first to the smoking-room, where there hung the
little water-colour sketch that Evelyn had once made of her; a
photograph of him also stood there, and this she took with her also. The
frames were her own, but she took the pictures out of each. Then, going
to her bedroom, she unlocked her jewel-case and took from it the pearl
brooch he had given her. No anger was in her mind; and even as she
handled those dear and familiar things, she detached it from what she
was doing. Then making a packet of them, she sealed and directed it to
him. There was no need that any word of hers should go with it; indeed,
there was no word she could say to him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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