They brought him into his father’s house on a stretcher, Hester walking by his side, her hand in his. Weak and wan he was, but smiling, turning from one to the other with a hungry devouring gaze that made his father choke and leave the room.
What a home-coming that was! Very still, lest the invalid be excited, but very impressive, and always to be remembered by those who witnessed it; for hearts spoke through eyes what tongues dared not utter and a suppressed sense of exaltation mingled in their love.
It is a very beautiful thing to have a hero in one’s family. So at least thought the Dale girls, even though it was a very refractory hero, who sometimes mutinied and always disavowed any claim to distinction whatever.
Under Dr. Ware’s guidance, Hester and Bridget took care of him. He was home on a two-months’ sick leave and hoped at the end of that time to rejoin his troop wherever they then might be; but Dr. Ware, though he said nothing, thought it extremely improbable that Kenneth would be sufficiently recovered to go into the field before October. By that time the war might be over. Who could tell?
Mr. Landor sat for hours at a time in the sick room listening quietly while Hester, close to the bed, read the papers to her soldier husband, who never took his eyes off her. And the father did much thinking at that time. His stern repellent nature was softening under the warmth of Hester’s sunny presence and more than once she had looked up suddenly to find him gazing at them with misty eyes.
Jack came, too, satisfied to be permitted merely to gaze at his hero. Now and then, as a mark of high favor, Peter Snooks was allowed to lie on Kenneth’s bed. The little rascal seemed to appreciate the privilege and kept very still, sometimes licking Kenneth’s hand, as much as to say he knew how to behave in a sick room—had he not spent hours at a time with Major Dale?
Julie was in and out many times a day, doing a thousand little things for the comfort and happiness of the invalid. She and Hester were near neighbors, for the Landor mansion was but two doors down from Dr. Ware’s on the water side of Crana Street.
And here in Radnor where they had fought and won so great a victory, “those Dale girls” began a new life.