Pearl's own time for tears came when her mother began to tell this new
and sympathetic friend of how she became so much attached to her rescuer
that when she knew he would not be coming to the West with them, but
going off to the wildest region of the far North, her health became
impaired; and that it was only when Mr. Robinson promised to come back to
see her within three years that she was at all comforted. And how, ever
since, she had held the man in her heart and thought of him every day;
sleeping as well as waking, for he was a factor in her dreams!
Stephen was more than ever moved, for the child's constancy touched her
as well as her grief. She strained the little thing in her strong young
arms, as though the fervency of her grasp would bring belief and comfort;
as it did. She in her turn dried the others' eyes. Then Mrs. Stonehouse
went on with her story:
'We were at Banff, high up in the Rockies, when we read of the burning
and wrecking of the _Dominion_. It is, as you know, a Montreal boat of
the Allan Line; so that naturally there was a full telegraphic report in
all the Canadian papers. When we read of the brave man who swam ashore
with the line and who was unable to reach the port but swam out across
the bay, Pearl took it for granted that it must have been "The Man," as
she always called Mr. Robinson. When by the next paper we learned that
the man's name _was_ Robinson nothing would convince her that it was not
_her_ Mr. Robinson. My husband, I may tell you, had firmly come to the
same conclusion. He had ever since the rescue of our child always looked
for any news from Alaska, whither he knew Mr. Robinson had gone. He
learned that up away in the very far North a new goldfield had been
discovered by a man of the same name; and that a new town, Robinson City,
began to grow up in the wilderness, where the condition of life from the
cold was a new experience to even the most hardy gold miners. Then we
began to think that the young hero who had so gallantly saved our darling
was meeting some of his reward . . . !'
She paused, her voice breaking. Stephen was in a glow of holy feeling.
Gladness, joy, gratitude, enthusiasm; she knew not which. It all seemed
like a noble dream which was coming true. Mrs. Stonehouse went on:-
'From Californian papers of last month we learned that Robinson, of
Robinson City, had sailed for San Francisco, but had disappeared when the
ship touched at Portland; and then the whole chain of his identity seemed
complete. Nothing would satisfy Pearl but that we should come at once to
England and see "The Man," who was wounded and blind, and do what we
could for him. Her father could not then come himself; he had important
work on hand which he could not leave without some preparation. But he
is following us and may be here at any time.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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