"Old Rock lonesome!" he protested. "Not a bit of it, Virginia. There are lots of interesting things to do. We can take grand tramps." In his enthusiasm for his home town, Joe forgot his game leg. "Some evening, I'll take you down to the big granite bowlder, from which the town gets its name, on the shore of the pond. We can get on top of it and watch the moon come up over the tree covered hill on the other side until it makes a shimmering pathway across the water and turns the old white church on the hill into a castle of silver. I love to sit there and watch the lights of the village go out, one by one. It's lovely then. The only sounds are the song of the crickets, the distant tinkle of a sheep bell, the splash of a leaping bass or maybe the hooting of an old owl. It is a beautiful place, Virginia, and with you there it would be wonderful." [Illustration: "'I THINK THAT I SHALL LOVE IT,' SHE SAID SOFTLY"] She listened to his words, her eyes big with interest, and a new happiness struggling in her heart. "I think that I shall love it," she said softly, and, after a moment's hesitation, "How long--how soon will you be able to come, Joe?" An attendant approached to take the injured motorcyclist back to the ward. Virginia hastily withdrew her hand from Joe's grasp and immediately gave it back to him, when he cried, "Not good bye but until we meet in Old Rock." As she watched the attendant wheel the injured man away and turned to leave the hospital grounds, the girl was wonderfully cheered, and her mind accepted Joe Curtis's picture of Old Rock by moonlight as conclusive evidence that this ancient village was not lonesome. CHAPTER XVI VIRGINIA MUST GO Virginia sank limply into the parlor car seat. After a moment she raised herself and looked out through the wide window upon the busy platform of the South Ridgefield station. Serena and Ike waited by the car nervously, endeavoring to locate the position of their mistress by peering into the coach. The old negress was publicly weeping. As they caught sight of the girl, the train started and with rapidly increasing speed moved down the platform. Ike grinned a cheerful farewell while Serena screamed her adieu, and, as if unable to bear the separation, started to waddle along with the train, frantically waving her black hands. Virginia signaled back and shouted embarrassed little good byes, subconsciously aware that they would be heard by no one except her traveling companions. As the two negroes were swept from her sight, a feeling of utter loneliness wrapped her in its gloomy folds. Pent up tears flooded her eyes, and so, through a mist, she saw at the end of the platform a man and woman, waving handkerchiefs from an automobile, who looked remarkably like Hezekiah Wilkins and Mrs. Henderson. Likewise, through a curtain of moisture, when the train crossed the bridge, she perceived the stranded _Nancy Jane_, symbolical of her own wrecked efforts.