“And she knew about your Aunt Olivia’s wedding, too,” added Sara Ray.
“Oh, well, she likely heard that from some one. Grown up folks talk things over long before they tell them to children,” said Cecily.
“Well, she couldn’t have heard father was coming home from any one,” answered Peter. “He was converted up in Maine, where nobody knew him, and he never told a soul he was coming till he got here. No, you can believe what you like, but I’m satisfied at last that Peg is a witch and that skull of hers does tell her things. She told me father was coming home and he come!”
“How happy you must be,” sighed Sara Ray romantically. “It’s just like that story in the Family Guide, where the missing earl comes home to his family just as the Countess and Lady Violetta are going to be turned out by the cruel heir.”
Felicity sniffed.
“There’s some difference, I guess. The earl had been imprisoned for years in a loathsome dungeon.”
Perhaps Peter’s father had too, if we but realized it—imprisoned in the dungeon of his own evil appetites and habits, than which none could be more loathsome. But a Power, mightier than the forces of evil, had struck off his fetters and led him back to his long-forfeited liberty and light. And no countess or lady of high degree could have welcomed a long-lost earl home more joyfully than the tired little washerwoman had welcomed the erring husband of her youth.
But in Peter’s ointment of joy there was a fly or two. So very, very few things are flawless in this world, even on the golden road.
“Of course I’m awful glad that father has come back and that ma won’t have to wash any more,” he said with a sigh, “but there are two things that kind of worry me. My Aunt Jane always said that it didn’t do any good to worry, and I s’pose it don’t, but it’s kind of a relief.”
“What’s worrying you?” asked Felix.