"You see," Forrest pursued, "I came home on the quiet--just wanting to see, you know, how they would take it. I thought if they really still cared, I should know it by the look on their faces----"
"Oh, how could you think----" Jane began, eagerly.
But he interrupted. "A fellow thinks a good many things when he 's on the other side of the world, and I--well, I got to wanting to know some things so badly, I was n't sorry when I had my fever. Yes--you did n't know that, did you? Oh, I had it all right! And I wasn't sorry when they sent me home with a lot of other convalescents. So I made for the office the minute I had seen my mother and the girls, for they told me that Murray was down there for good--a thing I had n't known. Maybe they thought I 'd be jealous--and maybe I was--in a way, though I don't want the job any more than I ever did.
"Father gave me a good warm greeting--I 'll say that. And Murray--well, when he got up and came toward me with his hand out, looking like the strongest kind of a young business man, I felt as if--But I can't tell you about that now."
There was a general movement of the younger people of the party, in response to a request from Ross, who was entertaining them with some new tricks, at which he was an adept. During the confusion Murray came and flung himself upon the grass beside Jane.
"Take me into the conference, will you?" he said. "I'm envious of anybody my brother talks to, I 'm so glad to get him back."
Under cover of the subdued light, Jane found her hand, which had been resting on the cool grass where she sat, taken into a warm, significant grasp, as familiar now as it was dear. She gave back a little answering pressure, without turning her head toward Murray, at whose close presence she had grown instantly happier.
"Take you in?" Forrest answered slowly. "Well, if you--and all the others--will only take me in, and never turn me out--or let me turn myself out again--I 'll be--satisfied."
With one hand holding tight the small one buried in the grass, Murray's other hand went out toward the fist clenched on Forrest's knee. "Old fellow," he said, warmly, "if you 'll just stay where you can get over often into this garden in Gay Street, you 'll find it will do as much toward making life worth living as it has done for every other one of the Townsend family."
"I believe you," answered Forrest, and gave the brotherly hand an answering grip.