"Mr. Howard," said Colonel Yancey, with his face working painfully, "you don’t know what it is to have a crippled child. You don’t know the agony I have endured, looking at her beautifully formed little body and into her dear face, with its intelligent eyes, broad brow, and sweet mouth, and then realizing that all her life she must be helpless, unable to walk or even to stand, a burden to herself and others. Her feet, as perhaps you know, were perfect in shape and form. They were simply turned inward. I have gone through Gethsemane itself wondering when her tender little heart would learn its first taste of bitterness against the parents who brought her into the world to suffer so. And then to have all this load of grief lifted, to see my baby walk about and play with her little sister, and frolic as other children do, and suddenly to learn that I owe it to the woman who is my all in life--I assure you, sir, it is almost more than my heart can bear. Take Guildford on your own terms, sir! It is a small return!" Mr. Howard held out his hand, and Colonel Yancey grasped it. "The human heart is a curious thing, Mr. Howard. I was as determined five minutes ago as ever a man was on earth to let you plead until you lost your breath, yet I would never part with my hold on Miss Carolina through owning Guildford. Now, in the twinkling of an eye, I am ready to let you have it. I can’t give it to you quickly enough. What price are you willing to pay?" "Suppose we say the face of the mortgage,--just what it cost you?" "Ten thousand dollars less, if you say so, Mr. Howard." "No, I prefer to let you show your gratitude to her in some other way. I will pay what you paid." "Good! I will have the deed made out to-day. But lose no time in telling her that Guildford is hers. She has won it for herself." "If I tell her that, do you know what she will say?" asked Mr. Howard. "No, what?" "She will give all the credit to her new thought. She told me before I started that I would be successful. As she puts it, ’Nothing is ever lost in Truth.’" "Then she considers, even though Guildford has been in my power for several years, that it was never really lost to her?" "In her new conception of the truth, that is the way she argues." "By Jove, Mr. Howard, I’m going to join them! I wonder if she would let me go to church with her next Sunday?" "I’m sure she would." But, as he turned away, Mr. Howard shook his head and said to himself: "Carolina will have to tell him what she told Noel,--of the futility of attempting to be a Scientist for the sake of the loaves and fishes."