"A Green Valley man did--_that_? Oh, dear! And here I have been
hoping that some day I might marry a Green Valley man myself."

"Nanny, I expect I'm old and foolish but I've been hoping and hoping
that you'd marry a home boy and fearing you'd meet up with some one on
your travels who would take you away from us forever. It would be hard
to see you go."

The last sunbeam had faded away and golden twilight filled the room.
Outside little day noises were dying out.

"Grandma dear, don't you worry about me. I intend to marry a Green
Valley man if possible. But even if I didn't I'd always come back to
Green Valley."

"No, you wouldn't. You couldn't, any more than Cynthia could. Cynthia
loved this town better even than you love it. Yet she is lying under
strange stars in a foreign land, far from her old home. Her father,
they say, is dying in California. I suppose the old Churchill place
will go now unless Cynthia's son comes back to take it over. But that
isn't likely."

"Why--did Cynthia Churchill leave a son?" wondered Nanny.

"Yes. He must be a few years older than you. He was born and raised
in India. 'Tisn't likely he'd come to Green Valley now that he's a man
grown. Still, if Joshua Churchill dies out there in California, that
boy will come into all his grandfather's property."

"Well," Nanny stood up and walked to the window from which she could