To learn, after all these years, that he had been a coward! To have run away from misfortune instead of facing it and beating it down!
Pearls! All he had left! And when he found them, what then? Turn them into money he no longer cared to spend? Or was this an interlude—a mocking interlude, and would to-morrow see his conscience relegated to the dustbin out of which it had so oddly emerged?
When Dennison opened his eyes again Jane was still holding his hand. Upon beholding his father Dennison held out his free hand.
“Will you take it, Father? I’m sorry.”
“Of course I’ll take it, Denny. I was an old fool.”
“And I was a young one.”
“Would you like a cup of coffee?” Cleigh asked, eagerly.
“If it won’t be too much trouble.”
“No trouble at all.”