father stood near, nonplussed, uncertain what to do or
what course to take. The old gentleman on the veranda left his seat and
took a few steps towards the group, as though to assist his daughter to
the house, but Dr. Elliott motioned him to remain where he was. Mr.
Britton, scarcely able to restrain his feelings, yet fearful of
agitating his wife, had withdrawn slightly to one side, but
unconsciously was standing so that the moonlight fell full across his
face.

At that instant Mrs. Britton raised her head, and, seeing the familiar
faces of Dr. Elliott and his father, looked at the solitary figure as
though to see who it might be. Their eyes met, his shining with the
old-time love with which he had looked on her as she stood a bride on
that summer evening crowned with the sunset rays, only a thousand-fold
more tender. She gave a startled glance, then raised her arms to him
with one shrill, sweet cry,--the cry of the lone night-bird for its
mate,--

"John!"

"Patience!" came the responsive note, deep, resonant, tender.

He held her folded within his arms until he suddenly felt the fragile
form grow limp in his clasp, then, lifting her, he bore her tenderly up
the walk, past the bewildered father and sister, into the house, Dr.
Elliott leading the way, and laid her on a couch in her own room.

She was soon restored to consciousness, and, though able to say little,
lay feasting her eyes alternately upon the face of husband and son, her
glance, however, returning oftener and dwelling longer on the face of
the lover, who, after more than twenty-seven years of absence, was a
lover still.

_Chapter XXXI_

AN EASTERN HOME

Within a few days Darrell and his father were domiciled in the Jewett
homestead, the physicians pronouncing it unwise to attempt to remove
Mrs. Britton to another home.

To Experience Jewett, who reigned supreme in her father's house, it
seemed as though two vandals had invaded her domain, so ruthlessly did
they open up the rooms for years jealously guarded from sunshine and
dust, while her cherished household gods were removed by sacrilegious
hands from their time-honored niches and consigned to the ignominy of
obscure back chambers or the oblivion of the garret.

Under Mr. Britton's supervision, soon after his arrival, the great
double parlors, which had not been used since the funeral of Mrs. Jewett
some seven years before, were thrown wide open, Sally, the "help,"
standing with ope