You were always a proud, wayward boy, William, but never did I think you would do as you have done.

You have treated me with utter neglect, never allowing your wife to see me, and when I once proposed visiting you in Hartford you asked your brother, now dead, to dissuade me from it, if possible, for you could not introduce me to your acquaintances as your mother.

Never do you speak of me to your children, who, if they know they have a grandmother, little dream that she lives within a mile of their father's dwelling.

One of them I have seen, and my heart yearned toward her as it did toward you when first I took you in my arms, my first-born baby; and yet, William, I thank Heaven there is in her sweet face no trace of her father's features.

This may sound harsh, unmotherly, but greatly have I been sinned against, and now, just as a brighter day is dawning upon me, why have you come here?
Say, William, why ?" By the time Mrs.Hudson had finished, nearly all in the room were weeping.