Courtland was very happy. Pat
looked at him enviously sometimes, yet he was content to have it so. His
old friend had not quite so much time to spend with him, but when he
came for a walk and a talk it was with a heartiness that satisfied. Pat
had long ago discovered that there was a girl at Stephen Marshall's old
home, and he sat wisely quiet and rejoiced. What kind of a girl he could
only imagine from Courtland's rapt look when he received a letter, and
from the exquisite photograph that presently took its place on
Courtland's desk. He hoped to have opportunity to judge more accurately
when the summer came, for Mother Marshall had invited Pat to come out
with Courtland in the spring and spend a week, and Pat was going. Pat
had something to confess to Mother Marshall.
Courtland went out twice that summer, once for a week as soon as his
classes were over. It was then that Bonnie promised to marry him.
Mother Marshall had a lot of sense and took a great liking to Pat. One
day she took him up in Stephen's room and told him all about Stephen's
boyhood. Pat, great big, baby giant that he was, knelt down beside her
chair, put his face in her lap, and blurted out the tale of how he had
led the mob against Stephen and been indirectly the cause of his death.
Mother Marshall heard him through with tears of compassion running down
her cheeks. It was not quite news to her, for Courtland had told her
something of the tale, without any names, when he had confessed that he
held the garments of those who did the persecuting.
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