“Blasted!” Peyton repeated in surprise. “That was taking a big chance, wasn’t it?”
“Yes, indeed! I shudder to think of it now, but then, when it was the only thing that could possibly save my brother, it had to be done of course.”
“And you say he wasn’t hurt in the least?”
“Not hurt, but he is so weak that he cannot stand alone, or rather he could not then, and now he is asleep I am sure.” Then turning to the listening lad, Virginia asked, “Peyton, where would you suggest that brother be taken to have as complete a rest as he needs. I would like to go to some place where even the scenery would be different and where he couldn’t see a cow or a cowboy or anything that would suggest his own occupation.”
For a thoughtful moment the lad looked steadily into the questioning eyes of the girl he loved. “Virginia,” he said at last, “if I were as tired as Malcolm is, I know where I would want you to take me.”
If there was an emphasis on the pronoun, it was unnoticed by the others, but a sudden flush in the cheeks of Virginia and a tender light in the eyes of the lad told more than mere words could.
But when the girl spoke, it was as though her only thought had been her brother’s welfare, as, indeed, it really had been.
“Once, in the days of my rambling life,” it was the first time that Peyton had ever referred to the time when he had run away from home because his father was unkindly severe, “I boarded the train in Boston and went to the end of the line, so to speak, and found myself in paradise, if ever there was one on this earth of ours.”
“Oh, then you must have been in California,” Margaret leaned forward to exclaim. “That, of course, would be the end of the line if you were crossing the continent, for there is nothing beyond but ocean. I went there once with Mother when she was trying to get well, and Oh, how wonderful it is! I’ve often hoped that I might go again, although I would not want to revisit the same place, not where little Mother and I were together.”
“Of course not, dear,” the thoughtful Virginia had slipped an arm about her adopted sister. Then glancing again at the lad who seldom looked at anything or anyone but her, she asked. “Then you think California the best place for us to take brother for a vacation and to get back his strength?”