Purling--as he was henceforth styled--she had every
reason to be pleased. He proved a most exemplary husband--the chief of
her subjects, nothing more; a loyal, unpretending vassal, who did not
ask to share the purple, but was content to sit upon the steps of the
throne. He continued a shy, reserved, unobtrusive little man to the
end of the chapter; and the chapter was closed without unnecessary
delay as soon as the birth of a son secured the succession of the
Purling estates. Dr. Purling felt there was nothing more required of
him, so he quietly died.
His widow raised a tremendous tablet to his memory, eulogising his
scientific attainments and domestic worth; but, although she appeared
inconsolable, she was secretly pleased to have the uncontrolled
education of her infant son. An elderly lady with a baby-boy is like a
girl with a doll--just as the little mother dresses and undresses its
counterfeit presentment of a child in wax and rags, crooning over its
tiny cradle, talking to it in baby-language, pretending to watch with
anxious solicitude its every mood, so Mrs. Purling found in Harold a
plaything of which she never tired. She coddled and cosseted him to
her heart's content. If he had cried for the moon some effort would
have been made to obtain for him the loan of that pale planet, or the
best substitute for it that could be got for cash.
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