“Perfectly right, Perry, and I thank you for your kindness,” and the boy passed on with the mail for the “Fair Meadow” home, whistling and halting occasionally to pluck a flower.
“Oh, Anna,” said Mrs. Ashley anxiously, “I am afraid that letter brings sad news of Dr. Warfield. Will you stop with me and see?”
“Willingly; and I sincerely hope that your fears will not be realized.”
The two ladies, followed by Hilda, hurried through the meadow and up the road to the cottage, where Anna listened to the reading of the missive which gave the intelligence that Mrs. Warfield was a widow and Paul and Fred fatherless.
Mrs. Ashley’s tears fell fast in sympathy for her sister’s bereavement, and Anna wept with her and stayed for a time to give what comfort was in her power.
“I will write to Sarah this evening,” said Mrs. Ashley, when Anna arose to go home; “I wish I had written oftener and less reservedly while Cyril lived. He was always kind to me and never knew how much I appreciated his goodness. Oh, Anna, will we never learn to be tender and considerate with our fellow pilgrims? We never appreciate them as we should until they are gone; or if we do we never let them know it.”
CHAPTER III—“MY LADY’S MANOR” AND ITS MYSTERY
During that one beautiful summer Anna Ashburton remained in her childhood’s home and scarcely a day passed that she and Mrs. Ashley did not see each other or have an exchange of messages.
But one morning a lawyer from Baltimore visited “My Lady’s Manor” on behalf of a client in California—Mr. Reginald Farnsworth—who could prove beyond doubt that he was the legal owner of the property, being the only son and heir of Joshua Farnsworth by a former marriage.
In vain Anna protested that she had never heard of a former marriage; in vain the Courtneys, the Merrymans, the Lattingers and other families who had known the Farnsworths and whom Anna summoned to her assistance, affirmed the same. The lawyer produced a marriage certificate and letters, which even their unwilling eyes could see were genuine. The signatures—“Joshua Farnsworth,” were fac-similes of those in the foster father’s letters to her foster mother, kept by Anna with reverent care.