I haven't been so happy this many a day as I've been since I've seen you and him making friends." I could not bear to tell her that I did not like her son and that nothing on earth would induce me to make friends with him, so I sat silent and said nothing; and I think it did her good to talk, for she prattled on in a gentle, monotonous way about her son's childhood and school-days and of the kindnesses he had done her.

Apparently she thought him the finest, handsomest, best person in the world, and apparently his father thought likewise, which was a much stranger thing.
She seemed to have no reticence at all, or I had unlocked her heart.
"When Rick is at home," she said, "Dawson is good-tempered, and is often even kind to me.

And Rick knows that, and has promised me not to go away any more.

I should be so glad if he would marry and settle down, and so would Dawson.

There's nothing Dawson wouldn't give him if he'd marry according to his wishes." At this moment some of the gentlemen arrived, and the group of ladies broke up to admit the black coats.