“Aren’t you going to write to some of your father’s family, Gwen?” asked Helen, who had become so absorbed in the research that she felt like a full-fledged detective.
“I think not,” and Gwen shook her head sadly. “He must have gone completely out of their lives. I can’t remember his getting any letters after we came to Virginia. Some day, maybe, I can make enough money to go to England, and then I will hunt them up and peep at them through the shutters, and if they look kind and nice, I’ll make myself known to them.”
“Perhaps you are right. They may be all kinds of pills and they might come over here and take you back with them whether you wanted to go or not. And you might have to live in stuffy chambers in London and never see the mountains any more.”
“Dreadful! That would kill me!”
And so Gwen went on living with kind Aunt Mandy, little by little cleaning up that good woman until she became reconciled to water and almost fond of it.
George Wright consulted a lawyer friend who took Gwen’s affairs in hand and by skillful management brought old Abner Dean to the realization that it would be best for him to execute a deed to the land bought by St. John Brownell, arranging it so Gwen would own the property without any string tied to it. He was forced to pay the money to Mr. Carter, and then the girls, having unwittingly built on Gwen’s land, rented it from her. Land had increased twofold in value since the Englishman had made his purchase, and the timber had grown so there was every indication that by careful management Gwen would have a good deal more money to add to her bank account.
Before Dr. Wright went back to Richmond, he told Helen he had killed the snake, if not the one who had taken a nip out of her tendon Achilles, at least one just as good or just as bad, whichever way she chose to look at it.
“Poor old snake!” exclaimed Helen. “He shouldn’t have been punished for acting according to his nature. I am the one that should have been punished, because I hope I acted not according to my nature.”
“Well, haven’t you been punished?”
Helen said nothing. She felt in her heart that she had not been punished at all but had been favored, in that through that rattlesnake she had gained a real friend in the young doctor.