Since the great stroke of the drainage, every one looked
better, and her pride in her babe was without a drawback. He seemed
to have inherited her vigour and superabundance of life, and 'that
first wondrous spring to all but babes unknown,' was in him unusually
rapid, so that he was a marvel of fair stateliness, size, strength,
and intelligence, so unlike the little blighted buds which had been
wont to fade at Willow Lawn, that his father watched him with silent,
wondering affection, and his eldest sister was unmerciful in her
descriptions of his progress; while even Sophia had not been proof
against his smiles, and was proud to be allowed to carry him about
and fondle him.
Neither was Mr. Kendal's reserve the trial that it had once been.
After having become habituated to it as a necessary idiosyncrasy, she
had become rather proud of his lofty inaccessibility. Besides, her
brother's visit, her recovery, and the renewed hope and joy in this
promising child, had not been without effect in rousing him from his
apathy. He was less inclined to shun his fellow-creatures, had
become friendly with the Vicar, and had even let Albinia take him
into Mrs. Dusautoy's drawing-room, where he had been fairly happy.
Having once begun taking his wife out in the carriage, he found this
much more agreeable than his solitary ride, and was in the condition
to which Albinia had once imagined it possible to bring him, in which
gentle means and wholesome influence might lead him imperceptibly out
of his morbid habits of self-absorption.
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