lous jealousy."

The humour of this struck him, and he remarked rather grimly:

"Good God, Molly, what a vixen you are!" Then he broke into a laugh, and
catching her to him, stopped her mouth with kisses.

"Well, we're in it," he said, "and we can't get out, so there's no use
fighting about it."

CHAPTER XVII

THE SHADE OF MR. JONATHAN

Old Reuben, seated in his chair on the porch, watched Molly come up the
flagged walk over the bright green edgings of moss. Her eyes, which
were like wells of happiness, smiled at him beneath the blossoming apple
boughs. Already she had forgotten the quarrel and remembered only the
bliss of the reconciliation.

"I've had visitors while you were out, honey," said the old man as she
bent to kiss him. "Mr. Chamberlayne and Mr. Jonathan came up and sat a
bit with me."

"Was it on business, grandfather?"

"'Twas on yo' business, Molly, an' it eased my mind considerable
about what's to become of you when I'm dead an' gone. It seems old Mr.
Jonathan arranged it all befo' he died, an' they've only been waitin'
till you came of age to let you into the secret. He left enough money in
the lawyer's hands to make you a rich woman if you follow his wishes."

"Did they tell you his wishes?" she asked, turning from Reuben to Spot
as the blind dog fawned toward her.

"He wants you to live with Miss Kesiah and Mr. Jonathan when I'm taken
away from you, honey, an' you're to lose all but a few hundred if you
ever marry and leave 'em. Old Mr. Jonathan had sharp eyes, an' he saw
I had begun to fail fast befo' he died. It's an amazin' thing to think
that even after all the morality is wrung out of human natur thar'll
still be a few drops of goodness left sometimes at the bottom of it."

"And if I don't do as he wished? What will come of it, then,
grandfather?"

"Then the bulk goes to help some po' heathens over yonder in China to
the Gospel. He was a strange man, was old Mr. Jonathan. Thar warn't
never any seein' through him, livin' or dead."

"Why did he ever come here in the beginning? He wasn't one of our
people."

"The wind blew him this way, pretty, an' he was never one to keep goin'
against the wind. When the last Jordan died childless an' the place was
put up to be sold, Mr. Jonathan read about it somewhar, an' it looked to
him as if all he had to do was to come down here an' bury himself alive
to git rid of temptation. But the only way to win against temptation is
to stand s