"Well, then, your set, your—"
"Damn my set, if I've got one. I wouldn't give her for all the sets in the world. You can see that—you must have seen it all along."
"Then you are in earnest?" she asked, putting her arm about him.
"In earnest? You might just as well ask a dying man if he means it."
"That's all I want to know, my boy—I want to know that you are true."
"You are all right, auntie," he said, kissing her.
"It is simply a question of love, Tom. And that should come before everything. Go and find her."
"Yes, if I have to track her with the hounds," he replied, hastening away; and she stood looking after him, with a new light in her eye. And while she was standing there, Jim came out of the house.
"Ma'm," he said, and she turned with a start; and toward her he came with a gentle boldness, and she looked at him in surprise. "Ma'm, I have come to tell you good-bye."
Her breath came quick, and then with a smile she quieted herself as one resigned to evil news. "Why, you aren't going, are you?"