Mrs. Bennett reached over and gently stroked her hair. “You need not hesitate. I quite comprehend.”
Erminie caught her hand. “It’s perfectly lovely of you to say that. I’ve been feeling so mean—untrue to Billy—even while I’ve been loving him all the time. But I’ve met a—a man, a good man, much older than Billy, and—and—”
“Yes, a man. Billy’s only a boy, but you are a woman.”
“It was Billy who set me to thinking. He told me many things you have said, and I began to see that even if I had loved Billy as—in the right way, it would have been wrong for us to marry.”
“That is over now. Look to the future, and—I hope you will be very happy.”
“And may I bring Will—Mr. Harrington, to see you? He’s anxious to meet you, and Billy—all the family. And I want him to before—before I change my name.”
Mrs. Bennett made the girl happy by her sympathy. Erminie summoned Sydney by telephone to meet them at Mr. Wright’s office, and there the two told their story. Mr. Wright sent a command to Jim Barney that brought him while they waited. He soon found his small knowledge of law and trickery no match for the astute lawyer, and he was very glad to accept immunity from prosecution on more than one charge by a full confession of his misdeeds, and the payment to Billy of the money he had induced Erminie to take.
When the interview was over Erminie and her lover went to the hospital, where she saw Billy first alone.
Never had she seemed so dear and sweet to him as when she stood beside him telling the story of what she had done for him. And when, after a moment’s absence she brought her Cousin Will, looking so happy, and proud of him, Billy felt his heart bound with a great joy, the joy of freedom.
“Here’s the dearest man in the world, Billy, and the best, next to you.” She looked sidewise at the well-made but rather short man beside her, with a trace of her old coquetry lurking in voice and manner.