BooksBarbecue
Back Weighed and Wanting Save as PDF
Chapters (55)
  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Page
  3. CONTENTS
  4. Foreword to The Cullen Collection
  5. Introduction to Weighed and Wanting
  6. 1. A Bad Weather Holiday
  7. 2. An Eventful Walk
  8. 3. Hester Alone
  9. 4. The Aquarium
  10. 5. Amy Amber
  11. 6. Cornelius and Vavasor
  12. 7. Hester and Amy
  13. 8. A Beginning in Hester
  14. 9. A Private Exhibition
  15. 10. Vavasor and Hester
  16. 11. The Concert Room
  17. 12. Sudden Change
  18. 13. Yrndale
  19. 14. Down the Hill
  20. 15. Out of the Frying Pan
  21. 16. Waiting a Purpose
  22. 17. Major H. G. Marvel
  23. 18. The Major and Vavasor
  24. 19. A Walk Along the River
  25. 20. An Unpleasant Interview
  26. 21. Corney’s Holiday
  27. 22. A Distinguished Guest
  28. 23. Courtship in Earnest
  29. 24. Calamity
  30. 25. In London
  31. 26. A Talk with the Major
  32. 27. A Scuffle
  33. 28. Gartley and the Major
  34. 29. Further Down
  35. 30. Differences
  36. 31. Deep Calleth Unto Deep
  37. 32. Deliverance
  38. 33. On the Way Up
  39. 34. The Attic Room
  40. 35. Amy and Corney
  41. 36. Miss Vavasor
  42. 37. Mr. Christopher
  43. 38. An Arrangement
  44. 39. Things at Yrndale
  45. 40. The Return
  46. 41. A Sad Beginning
  47. 42. Mother and Son
  48. 43. Miss Dasomma and Amy
  49. 44. The Sick Room
  50. 45. Vengeance Is Mine
  51. 46. Father and Daughter-in-law
  52. 47. The Message
  53. 48. A Family
  54. 49. A Birthday Gift
  55. ENDNOTES

A great part of the time when her husband supposed her asleep, she had been lying wide awake, thinking of the Corney she had lost, and the Corney that had come home to her instead. She was miserable over the altered looks of her disfigured child. The truest of mothers, with all her love for the real and indifference to outsides, can hardly be expected to reconcile herself with ease to a new face on her child—she has loved him in one shape, and now has to love him in another! It was almost as if she had received again another child—her own indeed, but taken from her the instant he was born and never seen by her since—whom, now she saw him, she had to learn to love in a shape different from that in which she had been accustomed to imagine him.

His sad, pock-marked face had a torturing fascination for her. It was almost pure pain, yet she could not turn her eyes from it. She reproached herself that it gave her pain, yet was almost indignant with the face she saw for usurping the place of her boy’s beauty. At the same time very pity made her love with a new and deeper tenderness the poor spoilt visage, pathetic in its ugliness.

Not a word did she utter of reproach. His father was doing enough for both in that way! Every few minutes she would gaze intently in his face for a moment, and then clasp him to her heart as if seeking a shorter way to his presence than through the ruined door of his countenance.

Hester, who had never received from her half so much show of tenderness, could not help, like the elder brother in the divine tale, a little choking at the sight, but she soon consoled herself that the less poor Corney deserved it the more he needed it. The worst of it to Hester was that she could not with any confidence look on the prodigal as a repentant one. And if he was not, all this tenderness, she feared and with reason, would but blind him to his moral condition. But she thought also that God would do what he could to keep the love of such a mother from hurting, and it was not long before she was encouraged by a softness in Corney’s look, and a humid expression in his eyes which she had never seen before.