Mrs. Le Moyne's life had gone back to its old channel. Shut out
from the world, she saw only the fringes of the feeling that had
set so strongly against her son. Indeed, she received perhaps more
attention than usual in the way of calls and short visits, since
she was understood to have manifested a proper spirit of resentment
at his conduct. Hesden himself was almost the only one who did not
know of her will. It was thought, of course, that she was holding
it over him _in terrorem_.
Yet he was just as tender and considerate of her as formerly, and
she was apparently just as fond of him. She had not yet given up
her plan of a matrimonial alliance for him with Cousin Hetty, but
that young lady herself had quite abandoned the notion. In the year
she had been at Mulberry Hill she had come to know Hesden better,
and to esteem him more highly than ever before. She knew that he
regarded her with none of the feeling his mother desired to see
between them, but they had become good friends, and after a short time
she was almost the only one of his relatives that had not allowed
his political views to sunder their social relations. Living in
the same house, it was of course impossible to maintain a constant
state of siege; but she had gone farther, and had held out a flag
of truce, and declared her conviction of the honesty of his views
and the honorableness of his _intention_.
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