 Graham, sitting opposite, silently disposed of his
paroxysm of astonishment.
    »Mama calls me a stupid boy, and I think I am so,« at length he said; »for,
upon my honour, often as I have seen you, I never once suspected this fact: and
yet I perceive it all now. Lucy Snowe! To be sure! I recollect her perfectly,
and there she sits; not a doubt of it. But,« he added, »you surely have not
known me as an old acquaintance all this time, and never mentioned it?«
    »That I have,« was my answer.
    Dr. John commented not. I supposed he regarded my silence as eccentric, but
he was indulgent in refraining from censure. I dare say, too, he would have
deemed it impertinent to have interrogated me very closely, to have asked me the
why and wherefore of my reserve; and, though he might feel a little curious, the
importance of the case was by no means such as to tempt curiosity to infringe on
discretion.
    For my part, I just ventured to inquire whether he remembered the
circumstance of my once looking at him very fixedly; for the slight annoyance he
had betrayed on that occasion, still lingered sore on my mind.
    »I think I do!« said he: »I think I was even cross with you.«
    »You considered me a little bold, perhaps?« I inquired.
    »Not at all. Only, shy and retiring as your general manner was, I wondered
what personal or facial enormity in me proved so magnetic to your usually
averted eyes.«
    »You see how it was, now?«
    »Perfectly.«
    And here Mrs. Bretton broke in with many, many questions about past times;
and for her satisfaction I had to recur to gone-by troubles, to explain causes
of seeming estrangement, to touch on single-handed conflict with Life, with
Death, with Grief, with Fate. Dr. John listened, saying little. He and she then
told me of changes they had known: even with them, all had not gone smoothly,
and fortune had retrenched her once abundant gifts. But so courageous a mother,
with such a champion in her son, was well fitted to fight a good fight with the
world, and to prevail ultimately. Dr. John himself was one of those on whose
birth benign planets have certainly smiled. Adversity might set against him her
most sullen front: he was the man to beat her down with smiles. Strong and
cheerful,
