On arriving at the painter's house, he was shown into one of the
parlors on the ground floor; and there sat Mrs. Thorpe, with Mr. Blyth
to keep her company. The meeting between mother and son was
characteristic on both sides. Without giving Valentine time enough to
get from his chair to the door--without waiting an instant to ascertain
what sentiments towards him were expressed in Mrs. Thorpe's
face--without paying the smallest attention to the damage he did to her
cap and bonnet--Zack saluted his mother with the old shower of hearty
kisses and the old boisterously affectionate hug of his nursery and
schoolboy days. And she, poor woman, on her side, feebly faltered over
her first words of reproof--then lost her voice altogether, pressed
into his hand a little paper packet of money that she had brought for
him, and wept on his breast without speaking another word. Thus it had
been with them long ago, when she was yet a young woman and he but a
boy--thus, even as it was now in the latter and the sadder time!
Mrs. Thorpe was long in regaining the self-possession which she had
lost on seeing her son for the first time since his flight from home.
Zack expressed his contrition over and over again, and many times
reiterated his promise to follow the plan Mr.
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