"DEAR COZ,—Don't expect me to congratulate you! If I'm not a despairing, ruined, heart-broken man, it isn't your fault. I always had my suspicions that I had a rival. Now, honestly, do you think that grim, long-legged doctor will make you as happy as I should? But I won't reproach you. He played his cards better than I did, and got near you when I could not, and took advantage of your weakness when I was at a distance. I was lacking in perseverance, or I know I should have won the day. However, I'll play the part of a hero, give you my blessing, and retire into private life for a bit. I'm afraid the shade of your grandfather will visit you."
"I shall look to Rawlings for comfort. He will say, 'I allays knewed Lunnon would change Miss Jean for the worse. An' if she do prefer a Scotch barbarian to her own kith and kin, and take to porride and broth instead of English beef and puddin', why 'tis Lunnon that have twisted and perverted her head and her heart!'"
"Yours reproachfully,"
"CHARLIE."
"Chris sends love. She is a jewel!"
"I don't think Charlie knows what real love is," Jean mused as she finished reading this epistle. "How I wish he would marry Chris!"
[CHAPTER XXIV]
THEIR FUTURE
"Come, my beloved! we will haste and go
To those pale faces of our fellow-men!
Our loving hearts, burning with summer fire,
Will cast a glow upon their pallidness;
Our hands will help them, far as servants may;
Hands are apostles still to saviour hearts,
So we may share their blessedness with them."—MacDonald.
IT was a bright, frosty day, the latter end of February, when Dr. Fergusson and Jean paid their first visit together to Sunnie and her mother.
As Jean entered the familiar hall, and her eyes wandered to the family pictures and the race of Margarets, she gave a little start as she recognised Sunnie's picture amongst them.
"A framed sunbeam," said Dr. Fergusson, following her looks. "You will never paint a more successful picture, Jean."
Then they went up the stairs to the old nursery. Jean wondered if she were dreaming; everything seemed exactly the same. She almost expected when the door was opened to see the little golden-haired figure on the couch in the firelight, but instead, she saw Mrs. Gordon in a low chair by the fire and Sunnie sitting on the rug with her head resting against her mother's knee.
The child was on her feet in an instant, and with a joyous cry, started forward and precipitated herself into Jean's arms.