They talked longer, they went over all the ground again and again, down to minute details. They lingered so long that Mrs. Forman’s anxiety reached the point where she had resolved to break in upon them at once and compel her husband to rest, when they suddenly appeared.

It had been for years the custom of the Forman family to gather in the living-room immediately after early dinner for family worship, unless circumstances prevented. But many were the circumstances that prevented. Especially had this been the case of late years, as the social duties and engagements of the young people increased, and the daily cares of life began to press more and more heavily upon the heads of the house, until for nearly a year the passing over of this service had been more common than its observance. But they still had a habit of loitering about for a while, to see, as Derrick once expressed it, “whether this is the night that we have prayers.” They had done so on this evening, waiting much longer than usual, because each felt an unspoken anxiety for the absent father, and, to the young people, there was an indescribable tenseness in the air as though something, they did not imagine what, was about to happen. Something had happened! One look at their father’s face revealed it. The moment he had established Aunt Elsie in the armchair that Derrick sprang to offer her, he turned toward them, his face shining, his voice gladly solemn:

“Louise, and children, a wonderful deliverance has come to us this night; to me it seems nothing less than a miracle. Our home that I believed only an hour ago was gone from us forever is saved. The Father in heaven has looked down in pity upon this blundering earthly father of yours and has sent us deliverance at the hand of this dear sister; God bless her! Let us pray.” He knelt beside Aunt Elsie’s chair with her hand clasped in his, and there was not a member of his family who ever forgot that prayer.

It was a wonderful evening they had together after that. There were many things to be talked over, and many plans to make for the immediate future. Matters that by tacit consent had been held in abeyance because if they were to move, somewhere, all would be different, now came to the front and insisted on being considered. Most of them Aunt Elsie heard for the first time, and enjoyed to the full this being taken into the real and intimate family circle, never to be, kindly and graciously, even tenderly, shut out from it any more.

Yet it was, of course, the “deliverance” that was uppermost in their thoughts.

“It is wonderful, isn’t it,” Jean said, lingering at the door of Derrick’s room for their last words together. “It does seem like a miracle, as father said; and to think that it should have come through Aunt Elsie! Professor Norton announced to-day that the age of miracles was long past; I guess if he had been through what we have, and then been here to-night, he would know better.”

“Especially if he had seen father’s face,” added Derrick. “Do you know what I thought of when I looked at him: ‘And all that sat looking steadfastly on him saw his face as it had been the face of an angel.’”

[CHAPTER XIII]
AN ALLY

AUNT ELSIE had become a woman of affairs; on the day following the “miracle,” while the family were adjusting themselves anew to the delights of the home which so nearly went from them, she stayed in her room writing a letter of some length, the details of which she went over most carefully. When it was finished, she made a journey to the kitchen and pared apples for the little maid, while she, most happy to serve her helper, sped with the letter to the nearest post-box. On the Friday following, Aunt Elsie interviewed Kendall Forsythe, while he waited in the little reception room for Ray, who was going out with him for the evening. Long before this, Kendall had adopted her; she was “Aunt Elsie” to him as entirely as she was to Ray; although, owing to his busy life and home responsibilities, they saw but little of each other.

“Is nobody here?” she asked, looking carefully down the room. “What a piece of good fortune! I wanted to see you alone to ask a favor.”