n? Is it--"

"All may come in here," Helena answered softly, "and"--her eyes met
Thornton's fixed gaze and dropped quickly--"please come in," she ended
abruptly.

--XIII--

REAL MONEY

The two women passed inside the cottage, Mrs. Thornton holding out her
hand again to the little lad; while Holmes and his wife followed
hesitantly, awed. In the rear, Thornton grasped Madison's arm suddenly.

"I never saw such a beautiful face," he whispered tensely. "It's
wonderful."

"Yes," assented Madison. "But everything here seems full of a rare,
strange beauty, a hallowed something--it lifts one beyond material
things. You _feel_ it--a great, calm solemnity all about you."

He closed the door softly behind him.

Mrs. Thornton's eyes swept questioningly, anxiously and a little timidly
about the plain, simple, quiet room; and then she spoke, her voice
unconsciously hushed:

"He--he is not here?"

Helena shook her head, as she led Mrs. Thornton to a chair.

"Not now," she said in a low voice. "The strain of this afternoon has
left him very weary and very tired--much has gone out of him in response
to the faith he felt but could not see."

"But he knows?" said Mrs. Thornton eagerly, reaching for Helena's hand.
"He knows?"

"Yes," Helena replied quietly, "he knows. He always knows." She nodded
gravely to the others. "Please sit down," she said.

Madison quietly took the chair nearest the table; Thornton one a little
in front of Madison and nearer his wife and Helena, who were close by
the big, open fireplace; the two Holmes sat down on the edges of chairs
a little behind Madison; while young Holmes knelt, his arms in Mrs.
Thornton's lap, his head turned a little sideways, his chin cupped in
one hand, as he stared breathlessly around him.

It was the boy who broke the momentary silence.

"Ain't that other fellow here, neither--the fellow that was worse'n me?"
he whispered.

Helena leaned toward him.

"Yes; he is here," she answered, smiling sweetly. "He is with the
Patriarch." She lifted her head to include the others in her words. "It
is very wonderful, his gratitude. He will not leave the Patriarch--he
says he will not leave him ever, that all he has to give for the debt he
owes is the life that the Patriarch gave back to him, and he will listen
to nothing but that he should devote that life to the Patriarch's
service."

"I'd like to, too," said young Holmes, with a quick flush on his face.
"Can I, mi