"Yes," said Aline in a low voice, "I have told them they might go if you would have them." "Thank you!" he said, and his voice was full of feeling. We knew he felt that she had trusted him with Pierce, and Pierce had come home only to die, and now she trusted him with those two. "Thank you!" he said again. "God helping me, I will fulfil your trust." After that we saw a great deal of Mr. Desmond, and he was often at Brandon. There were naturally many arrangements to be made about the boys, and Aline confessed to me that Mr. Desmond's affection for Pierce and grief for his death had brought the silent strong man of the people closer into her friendship than perhaps any man had ever penetrated before. He was to leave in October, and the boys' simple outfits were ready, and we had begun to dread the coming parting, for Aline more than for ourselves. It was no unusual thing now to find Mr. Desmond at Brandon when we went over of an afternoon, so that when we went in one of those last evenings, and saw him standing by the mantel-piece looking down at Aline's bent head, and Aline visibly agitated, we felt no surprise. The air was surcharged with emotion just then. We sat down, and made some ordinary remarks, and then I asked if it had been settled about the date of departure, a matter which had been still under discussion when last we had met. "Mrs. MacNeill," Mr. Desmond answered me in a half-shy, half-humorous way, "it is possible that the sailing may be indefinitely postponed after all." "What do you mean?" I cried, without a glimmer of the truth. He bent and lifted Aline's hand and kissed it. "Your sister has done me the immense honour," he said, "of consenting to be my wife." Well, we were all delighted beyond measure--all but the boys, who were bitterly disappointed at being cheated out of their fortune-hunting, so disappointed, indeed, that Mr. Desmond at last persuaded Aline to consent to their going out to the charge of his lieutenant, Mr. Allen, whom he trusted entirely, for such time as they chose to stay. "If they have the spirit of the thing, they will be happy nowhere else. If not, it will take the edge of the appetite off, and they can come back to any career they choose, that I can open for them." So Aline was married--by poor, faithful Mr. Benson, who had the sympathy of us all--and the boys went. A year later Hugh returned, but Donald stayed where he was. He is in Cape Town now, managing that part of John Desmond's immense business, and next year he will be in London, so that you may say we will all be reunited again. Hugh entered Sandhurst, and is now a very handsome young soldier, much in love with his profession. But as soon as Aline and he had settled down after their marriage Mr. Desmond set about restoring the ancient glories of Brandon. Bit by bit, and with the utmost reverence, the dear old house was restored, and made more beautiful than our wildest dreams could have imagined.