Page:The leopard's spots - a romance of the white man's burden-1865-1900 (IA leopardsspotsrom00dixo).pdf/265

 makes me young again to look into your face. I've had my supper, when you've finished your confab with your Auntie, come out here in the square to the seat under the old oak, I want to talk to you on some important business."

"What have you been doing," asked Mrs. Durham.

"Building a home for her!" he cried in a whisper. He went behind the chair where his foster mother sat pouring his tea, bent low and kissed her high white forehead. "My own Mother! I'll never call you Auntie again!"

Tears sprang to her eyes, and she kissed his hand, tenderly holding it to her lips.

"Ah! Love is a wonder worker, isn't he Charlie?"

"Yes, and I can't realise the joy that lifts and inspires me when I think that I am one of the elect. It's too good to be true. I have been initiated into the great secret. I have tasted the water of Life. I shall not see Death."

She looked at him with pride. "I knew you would make a matchless lover. I envy Sallie her young eyes and ears!"

"You need not envy her. You will never grow old."

"So much the worse if we miss the dreams that fill the souls of the young," she said with an accent of sorrowful pride.