"How you do long,and fight,to be convinced!"he said."I don't blame you!When anything means this much,of course you must be sure.But you'll know your nephew's signature;also your lawyer's.You'll know letters from old friends who are above question.Sandy McSheel has written you that he was with Robert through all of it,and he gives you his word that everything is all right.You will believe him,won't you?"Big tears began to squeeze from under Mr.Pryor's lids,until Laddie and the Princess each tried to see how much of him they could hold to keep him together-like.
"Tell me!"he said at last,so they took turns explaining everything plain as day,and soon he listened without being held.
When they had told him everything they could think of,he asked:
"Did Robert kill Emmet?"
"I am very happy to be able to tell you that he did not.It would have been painful,and not helped a bad matter a particle.
Your nephew had dissipated until he was only a skeleton just breathing his last.It's probable that his fear of death helped your son out,so that he got the evidence he wanted easier than he hoped to in the beginning.I don't mean that he is dead now;but he is passing slowly,and loathsomely.Robert thinks word that he has gone will come any hour.Think how pleasant it will be to have your son!Think how happy your home will be now!
Think how you will love to see Sandy,and all your old friends!
Think how glad you'll be to go home,and take charge of your estate!""Think!"cried Mr.Pryor,pushing Laddie away and sitting up:
"Think how I shall enjoy wringing the last drop of blood from that craven's body with these old hands!"What a sight he did look to be sure!Sick,half-crazy,on the very verge of the grave himself,and wanting to kill a poor man already dying.Aren't some people too curious?
Laddie carefully laid him down,straightened him out and held him again.Mother always said he was "patient as Job,"and that day it proved to be a good thing.
"You're determined to keep yourself well supplied with trouble,"laughed Laddie.I don't believe any one else would have dared.
"Now to an unbiased observer,it would seem that you'd be ready to let well enough alone.You have your son back,you have him fully exonerated,you have much of your property,you are now ready for freedom,life,and love,with the best of us;you have also two weddings on your hands in the near future.Why in the name of sense are you anxious for more?""I should have thought that Sandy McSheel,if he's a real friend of mine----""Sandy tells you all about it in the letter he has sent.He went with Robert fully intending to do that very thing for you,but the poor creature was too loathsome.The sight of him made Sandy sick.He writes you that when he saw the horrible spectacle,all he could think of was to secure the evidence needed and get away."Suddenly the Princess arose and knelt beside the davenport.She put her arms around her father's neck and drew his wrinkled,white old face up against her lovely one.
"Daddy!Dear old Daddy!"she cried."I've had such a hard spot in my heart against you for so long.Oh do let's forget everything,and begin all over again;begin away back where we were before Emmet ever came.Oh Daddy,do let's forget,and begin all over new,like other people!"He held her tight a minute,then his lips began whispering against her ear.Finally he said:"Take yourselves off,and send Robert here.I want my son.Oh I want my boy!"It was a long time before Robert came from the parlour;when he did,it was only to get his mother and take her back with him;then it was a still longer time before the door opened;but when it did,it was perfectly sure that they were all friends again.
Then Leon went to tell Thomas,and he came with the big carriage.
White and shaking,Mr.Pryor was lifted into it and they went home together,taking Shelley with them to stay that night;so no doubt she was proposed to and got her kiss before she slept.
That fall there were two weddings at our church at the same time.
Sally's had been fine;but it wasn't worth mentioning beside Laddie and the Princess,and Robert and Shelley.You should have seen my mother!She rocked like a kingbird on the top twig of the winesap,which was the tallest tree in our orchard,and for once there wasn't a single fly in her ointment,not one,she said so herself,and so did father.As we watched the big ve-hi-ackle,as Leon called it,creep slowly down the Little Hill,it made me think of that pathetic poem,"The Three Warnings,"in McGuffey's Sixth.I guess I gave Mr.Pryor the first,that time he got so angry he hit his horse until it almost ran away.
Mother delivered the second when she curry-combed him about the taxes,and Mrs.Freshett finished the job.The last two lines read as if they had been especially written about him:
"And now old Dodson,turning pale,Yields to his fate--so ends my tale."
