But after Chicago was left behind his mood changed, and he became as wild and excitable as he had before been abstracted and silent.  Sometimes he was on the top of old Capitan, looking down into the valley below, and singing ‘glory, hallelujah,’ at the top of his voice, while the startled passengers kept aloof from him as from a lunatic.  Again he was out upon the platform urging the conductor to greater speed; and when at last Shannondale was reached, he bounded from the car upon the platform before the train stopped, and was collaring Rob, the coachman, and demanding of him to know what was the matter with Jerrie, and why he had been sent for.  Rob, who had received his instructions to be wholly non-committal answered stolidly that nothing was the matter with Jerrie, but that Miss Maude was very sick and probably would not live many days.

‘Is that all?’ Arthur said, gloomily, as he entered the carriage.  ’I do not see what the old Harry has to do with Maude’s dying, and certainly Tom’s telegram said something about that chap.  I have it in my pocket.  Yes, here it is.  “Come immediately.  The devil is to pay.”  That doesn’t mean Maude.  There is something else Rob has not told me.  ’Here, you rascal, you are keeping something from me!  What is it?  Out with it!’ he shouted to the driver, as he thrust his head from the carriage window, where he kept it, and in this way was driven to the door of the Park House, where Frank was waiting for him outside, and where, inside, Jerrie stood, holding fast to the banisters of the stairs, her heart throbbing wildly one moment, and the next seeming to lie pulseless as a piece of lead.

She heard Arthur’s voice as he came up the steps, speaking to Frank, and asking why he had been sent for; and the next moment she saw him entering the hall, tall and erect, but with the wild look in his eyes which she knew so well, but which changed at once to a softer expression as they fell upon her.

‘Cherry, you here!’ he cried, with a joyful ring in his voice as he sprang to her side and kissed her forehead and lips.

Then Jerrie grew calm instantly, although she could scarcely restrain herself from falling on his neck and sobbing out, ’Oh, my father!  I am your daughter Jerrie!’ But the time for this had not come, and when he questioned her eagerly as to why she had sent for him, she only replied: 

’Maude is very sick.  But come with me to your rooms, and I will tell you everything.’

‘Then there is the deuce to pay; I thought so,’ he said, as he followed her upstairs into the Gretchen room, where he stood for a moment, amazed at the effect produced by the flowers and vines which Jerrie had arranged so skilfully, ‘It is like Eden,’ he said, ’and Gretchen is here with me.  Darling Gretchen!’ he continued, as he walked up to the picture and kissed the lovely face which, it seemed to Jerrie, smiled in benediction upon them both, the husband and the daughter, as they stood there side by side, Jerrie’s hands resting on his shoulder, which she pressed hard, as if to steady herself, while he talked to the inanimate face before him.