Jane Aydelot’s face whitened, and her hands closed involuntarily on one another as she waited.
“I must have you and Asher Aydelot reconciled. What can I tell him of you?”
The pink flush returned to the pale cheeks.
“Let him read my will. I copied it when I had your telegram two days ago. I cannot give him my property; Uncle Francis’ will forbids it. But—take the copy with you. I hope my wishes will be realized.”
Doctor Carey held her hand long when he bade her good-by. In her clear gray eyes he read a story that gave him infinite sorrow. Stooping down, he put his arm gently about her shoulders and, drawing her to him, kissed her once on her forehead, and once—just once—on her lips, and was gone.
They never met again. But those who knew her best in Cloverdale remember yet that from the Maytime of that year, Miss Jane’s face was glorified with a light never there before.
Down at the creek, Doctor Carey saw a large man intently studying the bank beyond the break in the railroad grade. Something made the doctor pass slowly, for the figure appealed to his interest. Presently, the man turned away and, climbing up to the National pike road before him, made his way into town. As the last light of evening fell full upon him, it revealed to Doctor Carey a very white face, and eyes that stared, as if seeing nothing—even the bluff face and huge form of Darley Champers.
Two weeks later when Darley Champers gave Leigh Shirley the deed in her own name to the Cloverdale Ranch, he said, in his bluff way: 269
“I’m sayin’ nothin’ against Jim Shirley, madam, when I say I hope you’ll keep this in your own name. Some day you’ll know why. And I hope to Gawd you’ll prosper with it. It’s cost more’n the money paid out for it to get that quarter section of prairie out of the wilderness. Sorrow and disappointment, bad management, and blasted hopes, and hard work, and hate. But I reckon it’s clean hands and a pure heart, as the Good Book says, that you are usin’ now. This money don’t represent all it’ll cost me yet by a danged sight.”
He bade her a hearty good-by and strode away.