"But," choked Kate, between laughter and tears, "suppose it had been a granddaughter?" "Evidently you don't yet know our Jemima," remarked the husband. * * * * * Even Kate's grandson, however, does not keep her long away from the mountains and Jacques. She knows that their time together, hers and her husband's, must be short. Neither misunderstands the significance of the little cough with which he has fought, for years, a losing battle. But they know, too, that it is given to few to taste the splendor of life as they have tasted it together; the joy of dreams realized, of service shared. Kate was right in her belief that Jacques could take no advantage of the disclosure made by Mahaly. "The stone I threw was meant for Basil," he said. "Nevertheless--I am glad it failed to strike him. And I think that Basil, wherever he is, must be glad, too." "_Wherever he is?_" repeated Kate, quickly. The subject of the hereafter was become of poignant interest to her, facing as she must what lay before them. "Oh, Jacques! Are you beginning to believe--to believe--?" He interrupted her sadly. "I can believe only what I can understand. You must forgive me, my Kate. Only, sometimes there are dreams a man has, echoes perhaps out of his childhood--" he broke off with a shrug, "And one is envious when one sees a faith such as Philip's in his God, so strong, so sure.--Like his little-boy faith that his father was the best and greatest of men, all-wise, infallible." Kate said, with her hand on his, "Sometimes a little boy is right, dear." * * * * * There have been great changes on Misty Ridge since Kate went to live in the mountains. The work Dr. Benoix started alone has grown beyond belief, and the influence of it extends now far beyond his immediate locality. He has many other assistants than his wife, though none more able--a young oculist who specializes in trachoma, and makes no complaint of lack of practice; two trained teachers to help in the classrooms; even a clergyman fresh from his seminary to take the place left vacant by Philip, greatly to the satisfaction of Bates the peddler, and somewhat to the satisfaction of Dr. Benoix himself. As he once explained to the visiting Bishop: "I will undertake to treat as best I can any ill of the human body or the human mind; but when it comes to the human soul--that calls for a bolder man than I am!" The State is beginning to take notice of Misty Ridge, and offers of assistance come more rapidly than Kate can decline them. She does decline them; for the work there is Jacques Benoix' work, and she guards it for him jealously, to be his monument in the eyes of men when the great spirit that created it shall have passed into some other sphere of usefulness.