“Free from the law, O sinner, receive it,
Free from the law, O brother, believe it—!”
and Mrs. Peterson, up in her room making her bed and plumping up the pillows, said to herself happily:
“Bless her dear little heart. I wish we could keep her here.”
Darcy came home with Judge Peterson at noon to lunch. He seemed a new Darcy. His face was alight, and his smile was joyous.
He did not talk much during the meal, but what he said rippled with humor, and kept them all in gales of laughter. The new gravity that was upon him when he was silent sat well there, and gave him an air of one who had found a solid foundation.
As they arose from the table he looked at Joyce and said in a tone that every one could hear:
“Miss Joyce, it’s a gorgeous afternoon and I thought perhaps you’d like to take a walk through some of the old paths. I have something I’d like to tell you, and if you don’t mind being seen in company with a law-breaker like me we might stroll down to the old woods.”
Joyce looked up with her face flooded with glory: “Oh, but you’re not under the law now, you know,” she said brightly.