Hannah
returned to Devonshire on the following morning very well pleased with
her successful expedition.
"If there had been any doubt," she said to herself, as she was being
whirled homewards in her third-class carriage, "if there had been any
doubt after the sight of that mole on his dear, blessed arm, why, the
little shirt which Mrs. Ellsworthy showed me, and which she took off
his back herself after them horses had all but killed him, would prove
that he's my own boy. Could I ever forget marking that shirt in
cross-stitch, and making such a bungle over the A, and thinking I'd
put Mainwaring in full, and then getting lazy, and only making the
mark A.M.? Well, I was served out for that piece of laziness, for my
boy might have been brought back to his mother but for it. Dear, dear!
Well, there's no mistaking my own A.M., and when I peered close with
my glasses on I could even see where I unpicked the A. and did it over
again. Dear, dear, shall I ever forgive myself for not doing the
surname in full--his poor, poor mother! Well, I mustn't think of
that--it's a merciful Providence that has led me to him now, and he's
as darling and elegant a young man as ever I clapped eyes on, and as
fond of the young ladies as can be even now.
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