“I can,” said Burton, rising from his chair in his sudden resolve.
The old merchant and the young one clasped hands together, and at that moment Miss Jones entered with the mail.
“The clerk in the post office said there was a letter for Mr. Burton,” she explained, “and wondered where to find him, so I brought it with me.” So saying she placed an envelope in Burton’s hands.
As he left the store he glanced at the post mark, and his heart jumped as he found it was that of a far western town. He nervously tore open the enclosure, and read:
“Dear Ray.—Of course I have found out all about you. Why couldn’t you tell me and save all this investigation on my part? I am addressing this letter to reach you at Plainville on the first day of the assizes. I expect you will be there to lift it; if it comes back to me undelivered another pillar of my faith in humanity will be gone. But it won’t come back. And in some way justice will prevail, even if we do not see it clearly just now. The fact that the lady with the scales may sometimes be caught napping is no fault of her customer.
“I have invited myself to visit you and Myrtle when you get settled down. Meanwhile—good luck!
“Kate McKay.”
“Dear old Kid,” said Burton, as he pressed the letter fervently to his lips. “It’s wonderful how many people there are in this world who ring true, after all, isn’t it?”
As he entered the hall of the Goode boarding-house he was overwhelmed by a pair of arms about his neck and a resounding kiss on his cheek. When he could disengage himself he was looking into the laughing face of Alice Goode.
“That’s a horse to me,” she exclaimed, gleefully. “I knew it was now or never. In fifteen minutes you’ll be tagged and labelled, and I never trespass on other people’s property. But until the ‘Keep off’ sign is up I don’t mind stamping around on the lawn a little.”
“There’ll always be a corner in the lawn for you, Alice,” he said earnestly.
“More likely in the root garden,” she sallied. “But hist——”—this with her finger to her lips—“the great moment is at hand.” She led him softly to the parlour door, and as it swung open to her touch his eyes fell on that wonderful face which he had seen in every dawn and every sunset, every shadow and every sunbeam, since that glorious day, ages ago, when their mirrored images had blended in the glassy water at their feet. With a spirit flooded with humility and tenderness he stepped into the presence that to him was nothing less than sacred.