At the same moment the sound of wheels fell upon their ears; the next, a carriage stopped before their door and a stalwart figure leaped to the ground.
"Papa!" "William!" fell simultaneously from the lips of the mother and daughter—one with a ring of triumph in her voice, the other with a note of intense yearning in her tones.
The man caught his wife to his breast.
"Sweetheart, it is joy to hold you here once more," he breathed, as their lips met; and she knew there was no cloud between them.
Then he turned and knelt beside his child, folding her in a long, silent embrace.
One swift glance into her bright, eager, happy face had told him a story that thrilled his soul and made him, for the moment, dumb.
"Papa, you can see, can't you?—and you are glad, aren't you? "Dorothy at length observed, as she lifted wet but joyful eyes to his bronzed face.
"Darling, I can see, and I am more than 'glad,'" he returned, in a husky tone, as he gently released her, then arose to greet his brother-in-law.
"Phillip, old boy, it is good to be home again," he said, as he clasped the outstretched hand, and the hearty grip told the younger man that there would be no controversy between them over a previously mooted question, while he was strangely touched, when he added, with a smile that was somewhat tremulous:
"The cane is here, Phil, and at your disposal."