She had become very pale, but her eyes were glistening at the honest feeling she had witnessed.
I held out my hand, and asked, in a low voice, "May I stay?"
"I could not send you away from such friends, Mr. Morton," she said gently, "even had I the right," and she held out her hand.
I think I hurt it, for I grasped it as if I were drowning.
Reuben had raced down to the barn to call his father, who now followed him back at a pace that scarcely became his age and Quaker tenets.
"Richard," he called, as soon as he saw me, "welcome home! Thee's been a long time coming, and yet thee's stolen a march on us after all. Reuben was just going for thee. How did thee get here? There's no train so early."
"Oh, I came last night. A ship's cable couldn't hold me the moment I could get away."
"Mother, I think that's quite a compliment to us old people," he began, with the humorous twinkle that I so well remembered in his honest eyes. "Has thee seen Adah?"
"Yes, indeed, and she sent more love than I could carry to you all. She looked just lovely, and I nearly forgot to go down town that morning."
Miss Warren was about to leave the room, but the old gentleman caught her hand and asked: