CONTENTS

[CHAPTER I A Man and a Maid]
[CHAPTER II The Heir]
[CHAPTER III Peter Grimm Has a Plan]
[CHAPTER IV A Warning and a Theory]
[CHAPTER V A Queer Compact]
[CHAPTER VI Breaking the News]
[CHAPTER VII The Hand Relaxes]
[CHAPTER VIII Afterward]
[CHAPTER IX The Eve of a Wedding]
[CHAPTER X A Wasted Plea]
[CHAPTER XI The Legacies]
[CHAPTER XII Mostly Concerning Gratitude]
[CHAPTER XIII The Return]
[CHAPTER XIV "I Can't Get It Across"]
[CHAPTER XV A Half-Heard Message]
[CHAPTER XVI The "Sensitive"]
[CHAPTER XVII Mr. Batholommey Testifies]
[CHAPTER XVIII Dr. McPherson's Statement]
[CHAPTER XIX Back to the Story]
[CHAPTER XX The Benefit of the Doubt]
[CHAPTER XXI "Only One Thing Really Counts"]
[CHAPTER XXII "All That Happens, Happens Again"]
[CHAPTER XXIII The Dawning]
[CHAPTER XXIV The Good-bye]

ILLUSTRATIONS

["I believe," said Peter irrelevantly, "that St. Paul was a single man, was he not, Pastor?"]
["Who's in the room!" he demanded]
["Sleep well," said Peter Grimm. "I wish you the very pleasantest of dreams a boy could have in this world"]


CHAPTER I

A MAN AND A MAID

The train drew to a halt at the Junction. There was a fine jolt that ran the length of the cars, followed by a clank of couplings and a half-intelligible call from the conductor.

The passengers,—dusty, jaded, crossly annoyed at the need of changing cars,—gathered up their luggage and filed out onto the bare, roofless station platform. There, after a look down the long converging rails in vain hope of sighting the train they were to take, they fell to glancing about the cheerless station environs.