“Did you see Linda?” Mrs. Dwight asked, as he kissed her tenderly and stood, still with that everpresent alien weight at his heart, stroking her soft cheek. He nodded and smiled. “And did you tell her--did you decide that Pete could come back?” He nodded and smiled again. “She seems to think I'm running the country.” “As far as her interests are concerned, you _have_ been,” the invalid said, proudly. “Oh, Carson, you know somehow it has happened that I never knew Linda so well as some of our own slaves, but since this thing came up I have thoroughly enjoyed having her come to see me. I keep her here hours, at a time. Do you know why?” He shook his head. “Not unless it is because she has such a strong individuality and is so original.” “No, that isn't it--it is simply, my boy, because she worships the very ground you walk on, and I love to hear her express it in the thousands of indirect ways she has. Oh, Carson, I'm simply foolish--_foolish_ about you! I have never been able to tell you how I felt about your heroic conduct. I was afraid to. I gloried in it, but your constant danger tied my tongue--I was afraid you'd take more risks. I've got a secret to tell you.” “To tell me?” he said, still stroking her cheek. “Yes; Dr. Stone, seeing that I was so much better this morning tried to worm it out of me, but I wouldn't tell him the cause. Carson, for a long time I have harbored a gnawing, secret fear. It was with me night and day. I knew it was dragging me down, keeping me from proper sleep and proper nourishment, but I couldn't rid myself of it till this morning.” “What was it, mother?” he asked, unable to see her drift. “The fear, my boy, that you and that Dan Willis would meet face to face has for a long time been a constant nightmare to me. I had picked up in various ways, sometimes from remarks let fall by your father or one of the servants, more about your differences with that man than you were aware of. I tried to keep you from knowing how I felt, but it was secretly dragging me to my grave.” “And now, mother?” he asked, an almost hopeful light breaking far away on his clouded horizon. “Oh, it may be an awful sin, for I'm told Willis had a mother”--Mrs. Dwight sighed--“but when the news came to-day that he had accidentally killed himself I became a new woman. He was the one thing I dreaded above all else, for, Carson, if he had not shot himself you and he would have met and one of you would have fallen. Oh, I'm so happy. I'm going to get well now, my boy. You will see me out on the lawn in a day or two.” His eyes were on the floor at her feet. Why he gave so much of his mental burden to mere utterance he could not have explained, but he said: “And even if we _had_ met, mother, and he had tried to shoot me, and--and I, in self-defence you know, had been forced to kill him--really forced--I suppose even that situation would have--disturbed you?”