Gently she thrust Ruth aside.  Ruth’s eyes were wet, but she saw light everywhere:  the room was filled with celestial aura.

The aunt rushed over to her nephew, knelt and wrapped him in her arms.  “My little Hoddy!  You used to love me; and I have always loved you.  The thought of you, wandering from pillar to post, believing yourself hunted—­it tore my old heart to pieces!  For I knew you.  You would suffer the torments of the damned for what you had done.  So I set out to find you, even if it cost ten times sixteen thousand.  My poor Hoddy!  I had to talk harshly, or break down and have hysterics.  I’ve come to take you back home.  Don’t you understand?  Back among your own again, and only a few of us the wiser.  Have you suffered?”

“Dear God!... every hour since!”

“The Spurlock conscience.  That is why Wall Street broke your father; he was honest.”

“Ah, my father!  The way you treated him...!”

“Good money after bad.  You haven’t heard my side if it, Hoddy.  To shore up a business that never had any foundation, he wanted me to lend him a hundred thousand; and for his sake as well as for mine I had to refuse.  He wasn’t satisfied with an assured income from the paper-mills your grandfather left us.  He wanted to become a millionaire.  So I had to buy out his interest, and it pinched me dreadfully to do it.  In the end he broke his own heart along with your mother’s.  I even offered him back the half interest he had sold to me.  You sent back my Christmas checks.”

“I had to.  I couldn’t accept anything from you.”

“You might have added ’then’,” said Miss Spurlock, drily.

“I’m an ungrateful dog!”

“You will be if you don’t instantly kiss me the way you used to.  But your face!  What happened here just before I came?”

“Perhaps God wasn’t quite sure that I could hold what I had, and wanted to try me out.”

“And you whipped the beast?  I passed him.”

“At any rate, I won, for he went away.  But, Auntie, however in this world did you find this island?”

She told him.  “The chief of the detective agency informed me that it would be best not to let Mr. O’Higgins know the truth; he wouldn’t be reckless with the funds, then.  For a time I didn’t know we’d ever find you.  Then came the cable that you were in Canton, ill, but not dangerously so.  Mr. O’Higgins was to keep track of you until I believed you had had enough punishment.  Then he was to arrest you and bring you home to me.  When I learned you were married, I changed my plans.  I did not know what God had in mind then.  Mr. O’Higgins and I landed at Copeley’s yesterday; and Mr. McClintock sent his yacht over for us this morning.  Hoddy, what made you do it?  Whatever made you do it?”

“God knows!  Something said to me:  Take it!  Take it! And ...  I took it.  After I took the bills it was too late to turn back.  I drew out what I had saved and boarded the first ship out.  Wait!”