"Here,—to Brookside?"
"Yes," with a smile. "He needs the quiet and the country air, and I fancy there are two or three people here whom he is longing to see."
Kathie's heart beat with a great bound.
By and by she found herself rambling slowly toward the cottage. Hugh was busy with some spring preparations, pruning trees and vines. He nodded to her, but did not seem inclined to stop and talk, and Jamie caught hold of her dress, begging her to come in.
Grandmother took off her spectacles and wiped them; she often did this now, for her eyes grew dim many times a day.
"So you have had good news," she said, after the first greeting. "I am glad there is a little joy saved out of the great wreck. Such a handsome young man as Mr. Meredith was too; but there's many a bonny lad sleeping under the sod, who was fair enough to his mother."
Kathie slipped her hand within the one so wrinkled and trembling.
"It is such a sorrow to us all," she said, in her soft, comforting tone. "I keep thinking of it day and night. It was so noble in him to go—to suffer—"
"It is the one thing, Miss Kathie, that gives me a little resignation. I shall always feel thankful that he went in your dear uncle's stead, not for the money merely. And if it has saved him—if it has kept you all together; but this is too sad a talk for you, dear child."
The tears were dropping from Kathie's long bronze lashes.