He was reassuring the frightened animal and looking quietly down at the girl's face against his breast. Under that quiet look Nan's blue-white lips flushed with life and she tried to smile gratefully. When he smiled back and said, "So you did get back by lilac time," Nan was well enough to wonder what he meant. And the little crowd of rescuers arrived only just in time to hear Nanny thanking him.
But when he asked her where in Green Valley town Mary Wentworth lived everybody stared and listened. Even Nan came near staring. But after the puzzled look her face broke into a smile.
"Oh—you mean Grandma Wentworth?"
He smiled too and said, "Perhaps. I am a stranger in Green Valley. But my mother was a Green Valley girl. She was Cynthia Churchill and Mary Wentworth was her dearest friend."
"Then you are—why, you must be—" stammered Nanny.
"I am Cynthia Churchill's son."
"From India?" questioned Nan.
"From India," he said quietly.
From out the group of Green Valley folks, now dim in the May twilight, a voice spoke.
"You may come from India but if you are Cynthia Churchill's son you are a Green Valley man and this is home. So I say—welcome home."