And yet, as he thought of this prospective January and May affair, and a fossil like Simmons, with dyed hair, false teeth, and certainly sixty years wrinkling his face, he felt disgusted with Ethel. And the more he thought of the groove he was in, of the cold, selfish, grasping city life where mammon was king and sentiment a jest, the more his heart turned to Rockhaven. Then the thought of Mona came back to him, and a yearning for her, impossible to resist. And with it, self-reproach that he had let his own discouragement control his actions so long. A few days more did he waver, and then his heart's impulse won.
The winter had nearly passed and the days were lengthening when this impulse came, but he waited no longer.
"I'm going to Rockhaven," he said to his aunt that night, "and shall be gone a few days. I've obtained a week's leave of absence from the paper, and start to-morrow. I want to see Jess Hutton and some of my old friends there. I've also an idea that possibly the quarry can be started again. If I can bring it about," he added, after a pause, "how would you feel about loaning me a few thousand dollars, auntie?"
Then the motherly side of Mrs. Converse spoke out.
"I'll do it gladly, Winn," she responded. "I've felt all along that the money you saved me was more yours than mine, and you shall have all of it that you need."
And when Winn left the city, as once before, a new courage and new hopes tinged his horizon.
And first and foremost in them was the flowerlike face and soulful eyes of Mona.
The wisest of us, however, are but mere bats in this world, blindly flying hither and thither. At times one may, by sheer good luck, fly free; and then again we strike our heads against a wall.
Yet we think we are very wise.
And so, Winn Hardy, full of hope and love, found, when he reached the coast town where the steamer Rockhaven made landing, that her trips were but twice a week now and he had a full day to wait.