"We have been across the mountain," she said. "We came together--and we will go back together. Will you go back with us, Rupert?" He took her in his strong young arms and kissed her, while Tom looked on. "That is what I was thinking," he cried; "that it does not matter whether we win the claim or lose it. The house is gone and the store is gone, but we can add a room to the cabin in Blair's Hollow--we can do it ourselves--and I will learn to plough." He dropped on one knee like a young knight and kissed her little, warm, soft palm. "If I can take care of you and Uncle Tom, Sheba," he said, "will you marry me?" "Yes, I will marry you," she answered. "We three can be happy together--and there will always be the spring and the summer and the winter." "May she marry me, Uncle Tom," Rupert asked, "even though we begin life like Adam and Eve?" "She shall marry you the day we go back to the mountains," said Tom. "I always thought Adam and Eve would have had a pretty fair show--if they had not left the Garden of Eden behind them when they began the world for themselves. You won't have left it behind you. You'll find it in the immediate vicinity of Talbot's Cross-roads." CHAPTER XXXVIII The facts in detail which the Reverend John Baird had journeyed to Delisle County in the hope of being able to gather, he had been successful in gaining practical possession of. Having personal charm, grace in stating a case, and many resources both of ability and manner, he had the power to attract even the prejudiced, and finally to win their interest and sympathies. He had seen and conversed with people who could have been reached in no ordinary way, and having met them had been capable of managing even their prejudices and bitterness of spirit. The result had been the accumulation of useful and convincing evidence in favour of the De Willoughbys, though he had in more than one instance gained it from persons who had been firm in their intention to give no evidence at all. This evidence had been forwarded to Washington as it had been collected, and when Baird returned to the Capital it was with the knowledge that his efforts had more than probably put the final touches to the work which would gain the day for the claimants. His train was rather late, and as it drew up before the platform he glanced at his watch in some anxiety. His audience for the lecture must already have begun to turn their faces toward the hall in which the evening's entertainment was to be held. He had hoped to reach his journey's end half an hour earlier. He had wanted a few minutes with Latimer, whose presence near him had become so much a part of his existence, that after an absence he felt he had lacked him. He took a carriage at the depot and drove quickly to their rooms. They were to leave them in a day or two and return to Willowfield. Already some of their possessions had been packed up. The sitting-room struck him as looking a little bare as he entered it.