Page:Arthur Stringer-The Loom of Destiny.djvu/143

The Honour of Hummerley down in the library. A few moments later Tiddlywinks heard some one open the door very softly, and the first thing he knew, somebody was crying over him. It was his "Heart's Desire." Then the two got down on their knees and said their prayers together, for she was still a young woman, and had been very lonely. After that she drew him to her breast and murmured mother nonsense to him until he fell asleep, and there was even a tear or two on her face when she finally tucked him in.

But what Harrington Hummerley and his mother talked of when she went down to the library again, no one shall ever know, although the next day a long, tear-stained letter was on its way to South America, where a certain grey-eyed major was building one of his wonderful canals. As for the Ogre, he went away and never came back again, for Hal was tackle in his college team, and when a Princeton "Tackle" once knocks a man down—well—he never comes begging about for a second experience. 131