Maud leaned back against her knee. "He is trying to be," she said. "You know that the Stud has been sold?"
"It really has?" said Mrs. Wright.
"Yes, it really has. The animals were to have been sent to Tattersall's, but a man we know--an American--came at the very beginning of the year and made an offer on behalf of a friend of his that Lord Saltash's agent thought too good to refuse. He has gone back to America now, and no doubt his principal will make his appearance soon. The idea is to build new Stables nearer to Graydown. Jake is negotiating about some land there. It's such a pretty part, and there will have to be a house for him too. We shall probably be allowed to stay on at the Burchester Stables till it is all ready. Jake is hoping that it may all be done in a year, I think," she smiled again with a hint of wistfulness. "I think Jake is going to enjoy himself."
"And you, dearie?" whispered Mrs. Wright, tenderly persistent.
Maud reached up a hand to clasp hers. "I have been lost in the desert for a long, long time, dear Mrs. Wright," she said. "But I am just beginning to find myself."
Mrs. Wright stooped impulsively and carried the soft hand to her lips. "May it please the dear Lord to guide you, dear!" she said.
"He is guiding me," Maud said with simplicity. "But I've some way to travel yet before I reach my goal. And--it's very sandy travelling sometimes, Mother Wright." She lifted her face with its sweet quivering smile. "And there are stones too, sometimes," she said. "But--I'd like you to know that I've passed the worst. I've left off yearning for--for--the mirage. It doesn't draw me any more--at all. I've left it all behind me,--like an evil dream and I can never, never, never be deceived by it again."
"My darling!" murmured Mrs. Wright very tenderly. "My darling!"
Maud suddenly clung to her closely. "I'm beginning to find out," she whispered tremulously, "that the thing I took for a rank weed growing beside my path is the one flower I have always wanted in my garden. I've tried for ever so long to uproot it, but now--but now--I'm trying to make it grow. I want it--but this is a secret!--more than anything else on earth."
Mrs. Wright's own eyes were full of tears. "I am sure you will have it, darling," she said. "I am sure--quite sure--your want will be satisfied."