Promise

her and grandson with a bond of felt communion. And it was an uprooting when the inevitable parting came, that the old man mourned like a double desertion : that of the daughter he had recovered, and of the grandson he had found. It was not for some little time after this that Bebe became interesting in his turn ; and it was then, curiously enough, in the way that Henriette least expected. She had been determined from the first to make Philip a musician. It was so obvious that he ought to be, that it was long before Henriette would believe the evidence of her own eyes and ears. She bent herself to the task with a wholehearted enthusiasm which seemed certainly quite copious enough for two ; but do what she would, she could never inspire him with her soul. Her creed he accepted?critically. Philip was always critical, even in his earliest years. He was terribly reasonable, incorrigibly serene over his music, and would watch his mother's reverent fervour with a sort of inquiring sympathy that made her fling her arms in the air, at her wits' end whether to laugh or cry. He played little duets very nicely with her at seven years old, having, as she often declared, a pair of hands that were wasted upon him ; not to mention a lively intelligence, and a patient devotion to her that was really touching in such a hot-headed, tempestuous little sinner as Philip was at this age. But the day came when she turned upon him with her final benediction. At the end of an excellent...