CHAPTER XX.
AN IMPORTANT LETTER.
His visitors turned away.
Rosalie, whose triumph was supreme, could not wholly control herself. She gave an occasional hop as they went.
Trudy's face shone, and her eyes were starry. As for Collin, he felt that silence was best.
"Go and tell your mother, Collin," Trudy whispered. "You won't be afraid to see her now."
"I'm going there," Collin answered—they stood at the corner of his street. "I'll go; and all I can say is, that I shan't ever forget what you've all done for me. You've saved me—that's what. I don't know what would have become of me. And you'll never be sorry for it."
And, choking somewhat, Collin Spencer turned down the street to his mother's home.
It seemed to Trudy that it was the strangest piece of good fortune in the world which had taken place. After all the dark worry her true young heart had known, she could hardly believe it. And yet a stranger thing was to happen then and there.
As they walked on, Trudy's eyes turned down the street and fixed themselves upon a figure coming rapidly towards them, or as rapidly as was possible. The figure, which was small and bent in the shoulders, limped. Rosalie saw it at the same instant.