“That’s why Miss Jane couldn’t leave it to Asher’s son,” she murmured.
Then she read the will of the late Jane Aydelot. When she lifted her face from its pages, her fair cheeks were 361 pink with excitement, her deep violet eyes were shining, her lips were parted in a glad smile. She went down to the meadow fence and plucked the first little golden sunflower from its stem, and stood holding it as she looked away to where the three headlands stood up clear and shimmering in the light of the May afternoon. That night two letters were hurried to the postoffice. One went no farther than Wykerton to tell Darley Champers that Leigh would heartily approve of any action he might take in the business that was taking him to Ohio.
CHAPTER XXII
The Farther Wilderness
| And beyond the baths of sunset found new worlds. —London. |
Dr. Carey and Thaine Aydelot sat watching the play of a fountain in a moonlit garden of tropical loveliness. In the Manila hospital Thaine had gone far down the Valley of the Shadow of Death before he reached a turning point. But youth, good blood, a constitution seasoned by camp and field, the watchful care of his physician, and the blessing of the Great Physician, from whom is all health, at last prevailed, and he came back sturdily to life and strength.
As the two men sat enjoying the hour Dr. Carey suddenly asked:
“After this hospital service, what next?”