mother's darling

Gerry, his mother’s darling, owns a nearby tavern and has lived at home since an unspecified tragedy related to Sept.

But a shadow suddenly fell on the sunny landscape, and Madame de Gu�rin lay on her death-bed, when, calling to her Eug�nie, her eldest child, she gave to her especial charge Maurice, then aged seven, and his mother's darling.

Halliwell illustrates this word by a quotation from Nash's Pierce Penilesse, 1592: "A young heyre or cockney, that is his mother's darling, if hee playde the waste-good at the innes of the court, or about London, falles in a quarrelling humor with his fortune, because she made him not king of the Indies."

The remains of what was once a fond mother's darling were buried next day in the old dilapidated Military Cemetery, without a murmer, except from one, a pretty young half-breed mexican damsel, whose tears, no doubt, has dampened the lonely grave more than once.

Undoubtedly William—the father's namesake, her youngest born—was the mother's darling, in spite of his odd ways.