"Hank!" young Henry cried, getting up, "you ain't going away. You are going to stay here."
He ran to DeGolyer, seized his hand, and leading him to Ellen, said: "I have caught you a prince. Take him." And DeGolyer, smiling sadly, replied, "I love her as a brother." She held out her hands to him. "I could never think of you as anything else," she said.
"But you must not leave us," Mrs. Witherspoon declared, coming forward.
"Yes, my mission here is ended."
"You shan't go, Hank," young Witherspoon cried.
"Henry," said DeGolyer, "I did as you requested. Now it is your time to obey. Keep quiet!" He stood erect; he had the bearing of a master. He turned to Witherspoon. "Here is a check for the amount of money you advanced me, with interest added."
Witherspoon stepped back. "I refuse to take it," he said.
"But you shall take it. I have sold the paper at a profit, and it has made money almost from the first. Do as I tell you. Take this check."
The merchant took the check, and it shook in his hand. DeGolyer now addressed Mrs. Witherspoon. "You have indeed been a mother to me. No gentler being ever lived, and till the day of my death I shall remember you with affection."
"Oh, this is all so strange!" she cried, weeping.