each other with hands held in a vice-like
grasp, all unconscious of what was going on around them in the street.

"Where did you come from?"

"Where have you been?"

John laughed. "In and around Marlborough all the time, except when I
went to New York for my degree."

"And never let us hear a word from you all these years!"

"You forget, Rege, your father forbade me to hold any communication with
Hollywood."

Reginald's face grew grave. "Poor father. Well he's done with it all
now."

"You don't mean that he is dead, Rege?"

"Yes--and little Nan."

"Oh!" The exclamation was sharp with pain.

"I think she fretted for you, John. She just seemed to pine away. Every
day we missed her about the same time, and they always found her in the
same place, down by the green road. Then scarlet fever came. She never
spoke of getting well--didn't seem to want to. The night she died she
put her arms around mother's neck and whispered. 'Tell Don me'll be
waitin' at the gate.' That was all."

John wrung Reginald's hand and turned away. Reginald looked after him
with misty eyes. "I used to tell mother it would break his heart. I
never saw any one so wrapped up in a child!"

"And your father, Rege?" John was calm again.

"Had a fit of apoplexy soon after. I think Nan was the only thing in the
world he cared for. It had never struck him that she could die. We sold
Hollywood and went abroad. Mother's health broke down--she was never
very strong, you know. We spent one year in Italy and one in France, but
the shock had been too great. She lies in a lovely spot beside the sea."

"Not your mother too, Rege!"

Reginald's voice broke. "Yes, they are all gone. It was a great deal to
happen in a few years. I am a wealthy man, John, but I am all alone in
the world, except for Elise. Well," he added more lightly, "I have
learned not to rebel at the inevitable. It is only what we have to
expect."

"Elise!" echoed John wonderingly, after the first shock of grief was
over.

"My wife," said Reginald proudly. "You must come home at once and let me
show you the sweetest woman in the world."

"Not just yet, Rege I must pay a visit to Mrs. O'Flannigan, then there
is the hospital, and the dispensary, and I promised to concoct a bed for
a poor fellow in the last stages of heart trouble. But I will come
to-night."

"Always helping somewhere, John. What a grand fellow you are!"

"We are in the world to help the world, else what were th