But if Wilford had told him anything derogatory of the farmhouse or its inmates, it did not appear in Mr. Ray’s manner, as he replied that Mr. Cameron had been very busy ever since his return from Silverton, adding:  “From what Cameron tells me of your neighborhood there must be some splendid hunting and fishing there, and I had last fall half a mind to try it.”

This time there was something comical in the eyes turned so mischievously upon Wilford, who colored scarlet for an instant, but soon recovered his composure, and invited Morris home with him to dinner.

“I shall not take a refusal,” he said, as Morris began to decline.  “Mother and the young ladies will be delighted to see you again, while Jamie—­well, Jamie, I believe, worships the memory of the physician who was so kind to him in France.  You did Jamie a world of good, Dr. Grant, and you must see him.  Mark will go with us, of course.”

There was something so hearty in Wilford’s invitation that Morris did not again object, and two hours later found him in the drawing-room at No. ——­ Fifth Avenue, receiving the friendly greetings of Mrs. Cameron and her daughter, each of whom vied with the other in their polite attentions to him, while little Jamie, to whose nursery he was admitted, wound his arms around his neck and laying his curly head upon his shoulder, cried quietly, whispering as he did so:  “I am so glad, Dr. Grant, so glad to see you again.  I thought I never should, but I’ve not forgotten the prayer you taught me, and I say it often when my back aches so I cannot sleep and there’s no one around to hear but Jesus.  I love Him now, if he did make me lame, and I know that He loves me.”

Surely the bread cast upon the waters had returned again after many days, and Morris Grant did not regret the time spent with the poor crippled boy, teaching him the way of life and sowing the seed which now was bearing fruit.  Nor did he regret having accepted Wilford’s invitation to dinner, as by this means he saw the home which had well-nigh been little Katy Lennox’s.  She would be sadly out of place here with these people, he thought, as he looked upon all their formality and ceremony and then contrasted it with what Katy had been accustomed to.  Juno would kill her outright, was his next mental comment, as he watched that haughty young lady, dressed in the extreme of fashion and dividing her coquetries between himself and Mr. Ray, who, being every way desirable both in point of family and wealth, was evidently her favorite.  She had colored scarlet when first presented to Dr. Grant, and her voice had trembled as she took his offered hand, for she remembered the time when her liking had not been concealed, and was only withdrawn at the last because she found how useless it was to waste her affections upon one who did not prize them.