But what I want to know is--how long we've been in here, and it feels to me like days and days." But it was impossible to say how long we had slept, and until we got some outside light on the matter we could not decide it.
So we gathered our beds into cushions and sat there side by side, and since our supply of candles was not a very large one, and I could feel her in the dark quite as well as in the light, I lit my pipe and put the lantern out.
And bit by bit she began to tell me of the dreary days when they waited for news of me, and hope grew sick in them, but they would not let it die.
"Your mother was an angel and a saint, and a strong tower, Phil,--so sweet and good.

How she made me long for a mother of my own!" "You shall have a share of mine!" "I've made sure of my share already.

It made the ache easier just to be with her, and so I went often to Belfontaine, and she never failed me.

She was always full of hope and confidence.

'He will come back to us, my dear,' she would say.