It seemed a long time to wait in Jerrie’s state of mind, and very, very short to the repentant man, who shrank from his brother’s return as from an impending evil, although it was a relief to think that he need not tell him what a hypocrite he had been.

‘Thank you, Jerrie,’ he said at last, as he rose to go, ’Thank you for being so kind to me.  I did not deserve it.  I did not expect it.  Heaven bless you.  I am glad for you, and so is Maude.  Oh, Jerrie, heaven is dealing hard with me to take her from me, and yet it is just.  I sinned for her; sinned to see her in the place I was sure was yours, although the shadow was always telling me that I did not and never could know for sure that you were Arthur’s child; but I did, and I meant to go to Germany some day, when I had the language a little better, and clear it up, and then I had promised myself to tell you.  Will you lay again that you forgive me before I go back to Maude?’

He was standing before her with his white head dropped upon his hat, the very picture of misery and remorse, and Jerrie laid her hand upon his head, and said: 

’I do forgive you, Uncle Frank, fully and freely, for Maude’s sake if no other; and if she lives what is mine shall be hers.  Tell her so, and tell her I am coming to see her as soon as I am able, I am so tired to-day, and everything is so strange.  Oh, if Harold were here.’

Jerrie was indeed so tired and exhausted that for the remainder of the day she lay upon the couch in her room, seeing no one but Judge St. Claire and Tom, both of whom came up together, the latter bringing the answer to his telegram, and asking what to do next.

‘Why, Tom,’ Jerrie said, as she read Arthur’s reply, ’pay him then, for I shan’t come,’ what does he mean?  What did you say to him, and whom are you to pay?’

With a half comical smile Tom replied, ’I told him the Old Nick was to pay, though I am afraid I used a stronger name for his Satanic majesty than that.  I guess you’ll have to try what you can do.’

And so Jerrie’s message, ‘I need you,’ went across the continent, and brought the ready response, ‘coming on the wings of the wind.’  It was Judge St. Claire who wrote to Harold, for Jerrie’s nerveless fingers could not grasp the pen, and she could only dictate what she wished the judge to say.

‘Tell him everything,’ she said, ’and how much I want him here; and tell him, too, of Maude, whose life hangs on a thread.  That may bring him sooner.’

It was three days before Jerrie went again to the Park House, and then Tom came for her, saying Maude was failing very fast.  The shock which had come upon her so suddenly with regard to Jerrie’s birth and the suspicions resting upon Harold had shortened the life nearing its close, and the moment Jerrie entered the room she knew the worst, and with a storm of sobs and tears knelt by the sick girl’s couch and cried: 

’Oh, Maude, Maude, I can’t bear it.  I’d give up everything to save you.  Oh, Maude, Maude, you don’t know how much I love you!’