“I may be off on a journey when you arrive, but until my return you are to make yourself completely at home in my house.”
The time came for Julie to put in her application for transportation to Solano, where she would catch a boat for Manila. Calmiden being Quartermaster, her application passed through his hands, and came back to her signed by him. She stared grimly at his signature.
That same afternoon she met Mrs. Smith on a corner. “Have you heard the news?” that lady exclaimed. “The Treasurer has been dismissed, and is ordered to turn over his office and leave at once. Julie,” she asked whimsically, “where is your pull?”
Julie shrugged her shoulders negatively.
“You can’t think? How about that man in Manila who was so glad to hear about you again? Couldn’t he do almost anything?”
Julie’s eyes opened. She had written to Mrs. Calixter and recounted her troubles. Could that have been what Barry meant?
On that last day when she stood in the school which had once been the temple of her faith, one solitary boy faced her, struggling with his tears—the loyal Delphine.
“Maestra, take me with you!” he chokingly pleaded, clinging to her skirts in appeal. The girl and the little brown boy clung to each other weeping.
After leaving the school, she went to a spot outside the village and gathered some flowers. She had made few farewells, but there was one person to whom she must bid a positive good-by. It was a shining morning. On just such a one had she embarked upon the renaissance of Nahal.