Part 30 (1/2)

Oh, little room, little room, the child that once lived here will never come again!

She knelt beside the bed, her face buried in her hands. No words came, but in her heart she was saying, ”My beloved is mine--and I am his--”

When she went down, Dr. McKenzie was there, and Emily, and the two young soldiers had lost their awkwardness. When they found out afterwards that the young Drake who talked to them so simply and unaffectedly was DeRhymer Drake, the multi-millionaire, they refused to believe it. ”He was a mighty nice chap. He didn't put on a bit of side, and the dinner was some feast.”

And how could they know that Derry was envying them their cavalry yellow and their olive drab?

As for Jean, throughout the afternoon they gazed upon her as upon an enchanting vision. When they told her ”Good-bye” it was the boldest who asked, with a flush on his hard cheek, if he might have a bit of the heather which she wore. ”I am Scotch myself, and my mother was, and it would seem a sort of mascot.”

If she hesitated for a moment it was only Derry who noticed it. And he helped her out. ”It will be a proud day for the heather.”

So she gave away a part of his gift, and thanked him with her eyes.

It was after the boys had gone that Derry had a talk alone with Dr.

McKenzie.

”But you haven't known her a month--”

”I have wanted her all my life.”

”I see--how old are you?”

”Thirty-one.”

”You don't look it.”

”No. And I don't feel it. Not to-day.”

”And you think that she cares?”

”What do you think, sir?”

The Doctor threw up his hands. ”Oh, lad, lad, there's all the wonder of it in her eyes when she looks at you.”

When Derry went at last to find Jean, she was not in the library. He crossed the hall to the little drawing-room. His love sat by the fire alone.

”My darling--”

Thus she came to his arms. But even then he held her gently, wors.h.i.+pping her innocence and respecting it.

The next morning he brought her a ring. It was such a wonderful ring that she held her breath. She sat on the rose-colored davenport while he put it on her finger.

”If I had been the girl in the Toy Shop,” she told him, ”and you had been the shabby boy, you would have given me a gold band with three little stones--and I should have liked that, too.”

”You shall have the gold ring some day, and it won't have stones in it--and it will be a wedding ring.”

”Oh--”

”And when yon wear it I shall call you--Friend Wife--”