ty.

"You have been a great comfort to her, Mr. Chamberlayne," said Kesiah,
breaking the silence at last.

A low sound, half a sob, half a sigh, escaped the lawyer's lips. "A
spirit like hers needs no other prop than her Creator," he replied.

"It is when one expects her to break down that she shows her wonderful
fortitude," added Kesiah.

"Her consolation now is the thought that she never considered either her
health or her happiness where her son was concerned," pursued the old
man. "She clings pathetically to the memory that she urged him to return
to Europe, and that he chose to remain a few weeks for the pleasure of
hunting. Not a breath stains the purity of her utter selflessness. To
witness such spiritual beauty is a divine inspiration."

For the last few hours, ever since a messenger had met him, half way on
the Applegate road, with the news of Jonathan's death, he had laboured
philosophically to reconcile such a tragedy with his preconceived belief
that he inhabited the best of all possible worlds. Only when suffering
obtruded brutally into his immediate surroundings, was it necessary
for him to set about resolving the problem of existence--for, like most
hereditary optimists, he did not borrow trouble from his neighbours. A
famine or an earthquake at a little distance appeared to him a puerile
obstacle to put forward against his belief in the perfection of the
planetary scheme; but when his eyes rested upon the martyred saintliness
of Mrs. Gay's expression, he was conscious that his optimism tottered
for an instant, and was almost overthrown. That a just and tender Deity
should inflict pain upon so lovely a being was incomprehensible to his
chivalrous spirit.

"Has any one told her about Blossom?" asked Molly.

Kesiah shook her head. "Mr. Chamberlayne feels that it would be cruel.
She knows so little about Jonathan's affairs that we may be able to keep
his marriage from her knowledge if she leaves Jordan's Journey a few
days after the funeral."

"In spite of it all I know that Jonathan hated lies," said Molly almost
fiercely.

"Our first thought must be to spare her," answered the lawyer. "It
was her son's endeavour always, just as it was my poor old friend
Jonathan's. If you will come with me into the library," he added to
Kesiah, "we will take a few minutes to look over the papers I have
arranged."

They moved away, walking side by side with halting steps, as though
they were crushed by age, and