"Take you in?" Forrest answered slowly. "Well, if you--and all the others--will only take me in, and never turn me out--or let me turn myself out again--I ’ll be--satisfied." With one hand holding tight the small one buried in the grass, Murray’s other hand went out toward the fist clenched on Forrest’s knee. "Old fellow," he said, warmly, "if you ’ll just stay where you can get over often into this garden in Gay Street, you ’ll find it will do as much toward making life worth living as it has done for every other one of the Townsend family." "I believe you," answered Forrest, and gave the brotherly hand an answering grip. BOOK II WORTHINGTON SQUARE CHAPTER I JANE WEARS PEARLS A tap upon her door sent Mrs. Murray Townsend flying across the room to answer it. She expected to find her husband there, awaiting her permission to come in and see her in the cloud-like white gown which she had worn but once before--two months ago. He had vowed since that he had never seen that wedding-gown, being occupied wholly upon the occasion on which it was worn in keeping his head, in order to play his own part with dignity and self-command. But to Jane’s disappointment, she opened the door only to a maid with a florist’s box. The box, upon being examined, yielded up among a mass of roses Murray’s card, which bore this message: Sorry to be delayed, dear, but father wanted to go over everything that has happened at the office during my absence. Will be up in time for the pow-wow. Wear one of these for MURRAY. Jane smiled regretfully. It had seemed a long day. Only that morning she and Murray had returned, belated, from their wedding journey across the continent, to find cards out for a reception in their honour to take place that very evening. "You knew the date," Mrs. Harrison Townsend had said to her elder son, when, upon being told that his delay had caused much anxiety to the givers of the affair, he turned to his bride with a soft whistle of recollection and chagrin. "I certainly did," he had owned. "I forgot, I ’m afraid, that there were such things as after-wedding festivities due to society, and that this was the date for the first of the series. I don’t think Jane even knew." "I didn’t," said Jane, looking regretfully at her mother-in-law’s handsome face, which betrayed a slight annoyance. It certainly had been trying to receive daily telegrams from the travellers throughout the past week, announcing delays at this place and that on the homeward way. "Of course it’s of no consequence now that you are safely here. I ’m only sorry Jane will have no chance to rest and visit. The florist’s men will arrive within an hour, and the house will be generally upset." "I ’ll run away over to Gay Street, then," said Jane. "Murray ’s going down to the office, and mother and Nan will be looking for me."