Hallam went on: "To-morrow, the First Day that mother loved, I was going to make an experiment before you all—my surprise. I have practised in private continually, and uncle, as well as Cleena, has urged me to tell you before; but I kept it till the anniversary—you know."
"Ah," said Archibald Wingate, with a sudden recollection, "so it is. She was my best friend, my best beloved. You are her children. All my hard middle life seems to have slipped out of my memory, like a bad dream, and I am back in our youth-time again, with Salome and Cuthbert and Fred,—all gay and glad together. I wonder, I wonder what she would bid me do to you, poor fellow," he finished, regarding the abject natural with a pitying air.
"I know! Forgive him, else thy Salome and my mother were not one."
"Amy, thee is right. Come into the office, all of you."
"Is it safe?" she asked, hanging back.
"We'll make it safe. 'Bony,' or Fayette, take that stuff you put under the desk and step out there to the Ardsley. Behind that rock is a deep hole. I used to fish there as a lad. I can see if you obey. Drop that death powder into the stream and come back."
Fayette obeyed, and they watched him, shivering. But when the water flowed on after an instant, undisturbed and merrily singing its deathless song, they breathed deeply and with complete relief.
"Look here, Fayette; you think I've been a hard man. So I have—so I have. You've been a bad boy too, eh?"
"Yes; I won't never—"