Patsy nodded.
“I borrowed the rags so that it would take a pretty smart coroner to identify the person in it after the train had passed under the suspension-bridge from which he fell—by accident. Don’t shudder, dear. Was it so terrible—that wish to get away from a world that held nothing, not even some one to grieve? Remember, when I started there wasn’t a soul who believed in me, who would care much one way or another—unless, perhaps, poor old Greg.”
“Would ye mind letting me look at the marriage license? I’d like to be seeing it written down.”
The tinker produced it, and she read “William Burgeman.” Then she added, with a stubborn shake of the head, “Mind, though, I’ll not be rich.”
“You will not have to be. Father has left me absolutely nothing for ten years; after that I can inherit his money or not, as we choose. It’s a glorious arrangement. The money is all disposed of to good civic purpose, if we refuse. I am very glad it’s settled that way; for I’m afraid I would never have had the heart to come to you, dear, dragging all those millions after me.”
“Then it is a free, open road for the both of us; and, please Heaven! we’ll never misuse it.” She laughed joyously; some day she would tell him of her meeting with his father; life was too full now for that.
The tinker fell into his old swinging stride that Patsy had found so hard to keep pace with; and silence again held their tongues.
“Do you think we shall find the castle with a window for every day in the year?” the tinker asked at last.
“Aye. Why not? And we’ll be as happy as I can tell ye, and twice as happy as ye can tell me. Doesn’t every lad and lass find it anew for themselves when they take to the long road with naught but love and trust in their hearts—and their hands together? They may find it when they’re young—they may not find it till they’re old—but it will be there, ever beckoning them on—with the purple hills rising toward it. And there’s a miracle in the castle that I’ve never told ye: no matter how old and how worn and how stooped the lad and his lass may have grown, there he sees her only fresh and fair and she sees him only brave and straight and strong.”