This saying `Good-bye' to you too, my darling, makes me infected with morbid fear and nervous anxiety.

Fancy me nervous, Eric--I whom you call your strong-minded mother, eh ?" and the poor lady smiled bravely, so as to encourage the lad, and banish his easily excited fears on her account.

It was but a sickly smile, however, for it did not come genuinely from the heart, prompted though the latter was with the fullest affection.

Still, Eric did not perceive this, and the smile quickly dismissed his fears.
"Ha, ha," he laughed in his light-hearted, ringing way.

"The idea of your being nervous, like I remember old grandmother Grimple was when I used to jump suddenly in at the door or fire my popgun! I would never believe it, not even if you yourself said it.