What news could the bishop have to impart which
concerned him?
"The little lost wanderer has come home."
"Not Charles!" uttered Arthur, startled to emotion. "Charles! and not
dead?"
"Not dead, certainly," smiled the bishop, "considering that he can talk
and walk. He will want some nursing, though. Good-bye, Channing. This,
take it for all in all, must be a day of congratulation for you and
yours."
To leap into Mr. Galloway's with the tidings, to make but a few bounds
thence home, did not take many minutes for Arthur. He found Charles in
danger of being kissed to death--Mrs. Channing, Lady Augusta,
Constance, and Judith, each taking her turn. I fear Arthur only made
another.
"Why, Charley, you have grown out of your clothes!" he exclaimed. "How
thin and white you are!"
The remarks did not please Judith. "Thin and white!" she resentfully
repeated. "Did you expect him to come home as red and fat as a
turkey-cock, and him just brought to the edge of the grave with brain
fever? One would think, Master Arthur, that you'd rejoice to see him,
if he had come back a skeleton, when it seemed too likely you'd never
see him at all. And what if he have outgrown his clothes? They can be
let out, or replaced with new ones. I have hands, and there's tailors
in the place, I hope."
The more delighted felt Judith, the more ready was she to take up
remarks and convert them into grievances.
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