"And she believes in you, Gabriel. Oh, if you only knew how much she loves you!" cried Nan.
They didn't go in to the dear old lady hand in hand, for when they reached the Lumsden Place, they found Miss Polly Gaither there, and they interrupted her right in the midst of some very interesting gossip. Miss Polly, after greeting Gabriel as cordially as her lonely nature would permit, looked at Nan very critically. There was a question in her eyes, and Nan answered it with a blush.
"I thought as much," said Miss Polly, oracularly. "I declare I believe there's an epidemic in the town. There's Pulaski Tomlin, Silas Tomlin, Paul Tomlin, and now Gabriel Tolliver. Well, I wish them well, especially you, Gabriel. Nan is a little frivolous now, but she'll settle down."
"She isn't frivolous," said Gabriel, speaking in the ear-trumpet; "she is simply young."
"Is that the trouble?" inquired Miss Polly, with a smile, "well, she'll soon recover from that." And then she turned to Gabriel's grandmother, and took up the thread of her gossip where it had been broken by the arrival of Nan and Gabriel.
"I declare, Lucy, if anybody had told me, and I couldn't see for myself, I never would have believed it. Why, Silas Tomlin is a changed man. He looks better than he did twenty-five years ago. He goes about smiling, and while he isn't handsome—he never could be handsome, you know—he is very pleasant-looking. Yes, he is a changed man. He was going into the house just now as I came out, and he stopped and shook hands with me, and asked about my health, something he never did before. Honestly I don't know what to make of it; I'm clean put out. Why, the man had two or three quarrels with Ritta Claiborne when she first came here, and now he is going to marry her, or she him—I don't know which one did the courting, but I'll never believe it was old Silas. I am really and truly sorry for Ritta Claiborne. We who know Silas Tomlin better than she does ought to warn her of the step she is about to take. I have been on the point of doing so several times; but really, Lucy, I haven't the heart. She is one of the finest characters I ever knew—she is perfectly lovely. She is all heart, and I am afraid Silas Tomlin has imposed on her in some way. But she is perfectly happy, and so is Silas. If I thought such a thing was possible, I'd say they were very much in love with each other."
"Possible!" cried Gabriel's grandmother; "why, love is the only thing worth thinking about in this world. Even the Old Testament is full of it, and there is hardly anything else in the New Testament. Read it, Polly, and you'll find that all the sacrifice and devotion are based on love—real love, and unselfish because it is real."
"It may be so, Lucy; I'll not deny it," and then, after some more gossip less interesting, Miss Polly Gaither took her leave, saying, "I'll leave you with your grand-children, Lucy."
When she was gone, Gabriel stood up and beckoned to Nan, and she went to him without a word. He placed his arm around her, and then called the attention of his grandmother.
"You've been Bethuning Nan and me for ever so long, grandmother: what do you think of this?"