The cobbler bent and kissed her.
“I won’t try, dear,” she repeated. “You must all live with me, although I’ll go first to arrange things a little. We’ll never worry about money any more, dearest.”
“And Mr. King,” Lafe faltered, quite disturbed, “what about him?”
“I shan’t ever see him again,” Jinnie stated sadly. “I’ve just written him, and he’ll understand.”
Lafe knew by the finality of her tones that she did not care to discuss Theodore that night.
CHAPTER XLIX
BACK HOME
Late the next afternoon Jinnie left the train at Mottville station, her fiddle box in one hand, and a suitcase in the other. She stood a moment watching the train as it disappeared. It had carried her from the man she loved, brought her away from Bellaire, the city of her hopes. One bitter fact reared itself above all others. The world of which Theodore King had been the integral part was dead to her. What was she to do without him, without Bobbie to pet and love? But a feeling of thanksgiving pervaded her when she remembered she still had Lafe’s smile, the baby to croon over, and dear, stoical Peggy. They would live with her in the old home. It was preferable to staying in Bellaire, where her heart would be tortured daily. Rather the brooding hills, the singing pines, and all the wildness of nature, which was akin to the struggle within her, and perhaps in the future she might gather up the broken threads of her life.