be a
thousand, though. There never can be but one as good and as dear as he
is! Only remember, you mustn't come right away. I shall have a great
deal to tell them at home, and it won't be easy for Zenas Henry to face
the fact that the Galbraiths have any claims on me. It has always been
his pride that I had no relatives and belonged entirely to him. And I
do, you know," she went on quickly. "Nothing on earth shall take me
from Zenas Henry! I worried a good deal lest Madam L--lest my
grandmother should insist that I spend part of my time with her. But
that is all settled now. I can keep up my friendship with the
Galbraith family by calls and short visits, and everything will go on
as before. I don't want anything changed."

The young man saw her draw in her chin proudly. "Of course I have
forgiven my grandmother," she went on, "but I never can forget that she
made my mother's life unhappy and that she was unkind to my father. So
I never wish to accept any favors from any of them."

"But the Galbraiths are not to blame for the past," ventured Bob, his
loyalty instantly in arms.

"No. But they are Lees."

"Your grandmother was sorry--bitterly sorry," urged the young man in a
persuasive tone. "It was probably her regret that caused her death."

The girl nodded sadly.

"I know," she said. "I realize she lived to regret what she had done.
I am not blaming her. But for all that, she never can mean to me what
she might have meant. Rather I shall always think of her as a
handsome, stately old lady who was your friend and loved you."

She turned to leave him, but he refused to let her go.

"Delight," he cried, drawing her closer, "will your grandmother be
dearer to you because she loved me? Tell me, sweetheart! Do I mean
anything in your life? You are the only thing that matters in mine."

He saw a radiance flash into her wonderful eyes, and in another instant
her head was against his breast.

"It is only because of you, Bob," she whispered, clinging to him, "that
I can forgive the Lees at all."

CHAPTER XVIII

THE PROGRESS OF ANOTHER ROMANCE

The ecstasy that came to Robert Morton with his new-found happiness
swept before it the clouds that had overcast his sky, until his horizon
was almost as radiant as it had been on the day of his arrival at
Wilton. Janoah Eldridge came no more to the Spence cottage; Snelling
had vanished; the Galbraiths were occupied with their own affairs; and
th