"Yes, Aunt Elizabeth."

He acknowledged the gravity of this opening statement by straightening a
little, his hand falling away from the stone against which he had been
leaning. But Vance looked more closely at his sister. He could see the
gleam of worship in her eyes.

"And now I want you to be something more. I want you to be my boy in the
eyes of the law, so that when anything happens to me, your place won't be
threatened."

He was straighter than ever.

"I want to adopt you, Terence!"

Somehow, in those few moments they had been gradually building to a
climax. It was prodigiously heightened now by the silence of the boy. The
throat of Vance tightened with excitement.

"I will be your mother, in the eyes of the law," she was explaining
gently, as though it were a mystery which Terry could not understand.
"And Vance, here, will be your uncle. You understand, my dear?"

What a world of brooding tenderness went into her voice! Vance wondered
at it. But he wondered more at the stiff-standing form of Terence, and
his silence; until he saw the tender smile vanish from the face of
Elizabeth and alarm come into it. All at once Terence had dropped to one
knee before her and taken her hands. And now it was he who was talking
slowly, gently.