There were tears in their eyes at the meeting.
"Nina, this is my wife," said Rupert. "Signe, my sister, Mrs. Furns."
A number of Rupert's old friends were there who now came forward and welcomed him home.
Then they rode through the valley behind two spirited grays. Nina had not changed much, but she declared that had she met her brother on the street, she would not have known him.
"What has changed you so, brother?" asked she.
"Experience, Nina, experience with the world I have lived a long time in the two and a half years that I have been away—but never mind that now. Everything looks the same hereabouts. I seem to have been absent but a few days. How strange it is! Signe, there you see Willowby, on that rise; quite a town yet. How's Dry Bench, James?"
"Much the same, Rupe. No improvements since you left."
"And the reservoir?"
"As you left it, though it needs repairing badly."
In the few moments of silence that followed, Rupert contrasted his condition now with what it was when he left the place. What a change! He was wiser if not much older. And then he had a wife—and he looked lovingly at her as he thought of all she had done for him. As they drove into town, friends greeted him and seemed pleased at his return. Married? Yes; that is his wife. Not so dashing as Miss Wilton, but far more charming, was the general expression.