In silence they waited; the Colonel meditative, Brent leaning above his drawing and making line after line which would weld the mountains with civilization. Still their man did not come, so without further comment the Colonel went slowly down stairs and out to the porch, there gazing sternly at the grouped lawn chairs where the attentive physician was sitting with Nancy. But, as he approached them, a measure of recollection must have returned to the man of science, for he looked hurriedly at his watch and began to stammer: "Colonel, I am greatly to be excused! I was just--just giving Nancy a few--a few instructions till I come back for her!" "For her, or to her?" the old gentleman's eyes twinkled. "He said 'to her,'" she insisted, blushing furiously. "I really--that is, I said 'for her,'" the doctor smiled happily, as she gave him a rather bewildering look and precipitately fled. They watched her go into the house and then turned to each other, one with an accusing smile, the other grinning self-consciously. "You'll find her here when you return," the old gentleman murmured. "I shall never permit her to go back to those who are neither her blood nor breeding, and my home shall be her home until she chooses to leave it; but, sir," he began to smile again now, "my consent will have to be obtained--I warn you!" The doctor, still crimson to the roots of his hair, was endeavoring to say something rational about his practice and his prospects, when the Colonel sternly interrupted him. "Stone, all the worldly goods you may possess or ever expect to possess, if they were greater than these mountains behind us, would not amount to a damn, sir, unless your mind is clean and your body healthy! If you can say before your God that they are no worse than those of any man whom you would have your sister wed, go then and win your bride!" A silence followed, so prolonged that the Colonel was beginning to feel the sickening weight of dread about his heart, when the other said quietly: "Then I may as well ask you now!" "God bless my soul, sir," the old gentleman cried, "I consent right merrily! Nor shall I keep you another minute from her, after we speak a word of Dale!" "Miss Jane telephoned me about him this morning." "And what did you tell her?" "That he's working too hard." "Nothing more serious?" "That's plenty serious enough, Colonel, if he sticks at it. I talked to him a little while ago, and he wanted to throw me out the window. Nobody can make him stop that grind!" "Jane can," the old gentleman grunted. "She's going to try, anyway, when he takes his lessons to her this afternoon. But she told me he was so impatient now preparing himself to go up in the mountains and be a Lincoln to his people, that she really doubts if she can influence him without help." "Be a Lincoln to his people, eh?" "Yes, emancipate them from the chains of ignorance, he calls it." "By Godfry, sir, that isn't a bad idea! Whose help does she want?"