Mrs. Richie laughed.

"Well, you can laugh, but it's true. When I am near you I have no pain
and no worry; nothing but happiness." He sat down beside her on the
old claw-footed sofa near the fire, for it was cool enough these
spring evenings to have a little fire. He leaned forward, resting his
chin on his fist, and staring into the blaze. Once he put his hand out
and touched her dress softly, and smiled to himself. Then abruptly, he
came out of his reverie, and spoke with joyous excitement:

"Why! I forgot what I came to tell you about--something extraordinary
has happened!"

"Oh, what?" she demanded, with a sweet eagerness that was as young as
his own.

"You could never guess," he assured her. "Tonight, at supper,
grandfather suddenly told me that he wanted me to travel for a while--
he wanted me to go away from Old Chester. I was perfectly amazed. 'Go
hunt up a publisher for your truck,' he said. He always calls the
drama my 'truck,'" Sam said snickering; "but the main thing,
evidently, was to have me get away from home. To improve my mind, I
suppose. He said all gentlemen ought to travel. To live in one place
all the time was very narrowing, he said. I told him I hadn't any
money, and he said he'd give me some. He said, 'anything to get you
away.' It wasn't very flattering, was it?"

Helena's face flashed into suspicion. "Why did he want to get you
away?" she asked coldly. There was an alarmed alertness in her voice