An hour later there was a joyful gathering in Mrs. Ives’s parlor. Mr. Dean succeeded in capturing Ruth with one hand and Lester with the other.
“So you’ve closed your athletic career, Lester, in a blaze of glory and a blare of sound. I’m delighted—especially for Ruth’s sake. But I don’t mind saying that your great triumph is not in winning the game, but in winning Ruth.”
“Indeed, I realize that,” said Lester.
“Anyway, that home run was the most splendid sort of engagement present,” said Ruth. “If you’d struck out that time and given me a string of pearls, it couldn’t have consoled me.”
“If I’d struck out that time,” said Lester, “I don’t believe that even you, Ruthie, could have consoled me.”
“We’d have been two broken hearts, still trying to beat as one,” said Ruth.
“Well, I guess it would be pretty hard for us to be any happier than we are,” said Lester. “And, Mr. Dean, I want to tell you before saying good-bye how grateful I am for the great help that you gave me. And when I say that, Ruth knows exactly what I’m talking about.”
“Yes,” said Ruth in a low voice. “I’m so glad he came to you, Mr. Dean.”
“God bless you both,” said Mr. Dean. He squeezed Lester’s hand; then he drew Ruth to him and kissed her.
That evening Mr. Dean asked David to come to his room for a few moments. He seemed to David somewhat ill at ease; he greeted him with a curious formality, bade him take a chair, and then, after an interval of silence, said abruptly: “David, I suppose you realize that I’ve practically adopted you and your mother and Ralph as my family. At my death such property as I have will go to you and Ralph. I have no near relatives, as you know, and I believe there is no one who would be likely to contest my will, or in the event of contesting it likely to succeed. I don’t believe in long engagements. Five or six months or at most a year is sufficient as a probationary period. If you and Katharine are just as sure six months from now as you are to-day, I think that then you had better get married. You will do better work in the medical school if you are married and settled down instead of impatiently waiting to be. I could arrange matters so that you could live comfortably—not extravagantly, of course. It is what I should do if you were my own son. You stand in that relation to me.”