“We who have known him cannot but be the better for the knowing.  It would be a beautiful world, indeed, if we were all as good as he.  We cannot fail to be inspired by his example.  Through knowing him, each of us is better fitted for life.  We can conquer cowardice more easily, meet our temptations more valiantly, and more surely keep from the sin of shirking, because Anthony Dexter has lived.

“To me,” said Thorpe, his voice breaking, “it is the greatest loss, save one, that I have ever known.  But it is only through our own sorrow that we come to understand the sorrow of others, only through our own weaknesses that we learn to pity the weakness of others, and only through our own love and forgiveness that we can ever comprehend the infinite love and forgiveness of God.  If any of you have ever thought he wronged you, in some small, insignificant way, I give you my word that it was entirely unintentional, and I bespeak for him your pardon.

“He goes to his grave to-day, to wait, in the great silence, for the final solution of God’s infinite mysteries, and, as you and I believe, for God’s sure reward.  He goes with the love of us all, with the forgiveness of us all, and with the hope of us all that when we come to die, we may be as certain of Heaven as he.”

Perceiving that his grief was overmastering him, Thorpe proceeded quickly to the benediction.  In the pause that followed, Ralph leaned toward the woman who sat beside him.

“Have you,” he breathed, “forgiven him—­and me?”

Miss Evelina nodded, her beautiful eyes shining with tears.

“Mother!” said Ralph, thickly.  Like a hurt child, he went to her, and sobbed his heart out, in the shelter of her arms.

XXIII

Undine Finds Her Soul

The year was at its noon.  Every rose-bush was glorious with bloom, and even the old climbing rose which clung, in its decay, to Miss Mehitable’s porch railing had put forth a few fragrant blossoms.

Soon after Araminta had been carried back home, she discovered that she had changed since she went away.  Aunt Hitty no longer seemed infallible.  Indeed, Araminta had admitted to herself, though with the pangs of a guilty conscience, that it was possible for Aunt Hitty to be mistaken.  It was probable that the entire knowledge of the world was not concentrated in Aunt Hitty.

Outwardly, things went on as usual.  Miss Mehitable issued orders to Araminta as the commander in chief of an army issues instructions to his subordinates, and Araminta obeyed as faithfully as before, yet with a distinct difference.  She did what she was told to do out of gratitude for lifelong care, and not because she felt that she had to.

She went, frequently, to see Miss Evelina, having disposed of objections by the evident fact that she could not neglect any one who had been so kind to her as Miss Evelina had.  Usually, however, the faithful guardian went along, and the three sat in the garden, Evelina with her frail hands listlessly folded, and the others stitching away at the endless and monotonous patchwork.