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Updated: July 20, 2025
"Would they want me to go?" asked Steven anxiously. "It may be so; I cannot tell." Steven looked up timidly. "I've been wanting all day to say thank you, the way I feel it; but somehow, the right words won't come. I can't tell you how it is, but it seems 'most like sending Robin back home for you and Mr. Estel to have him.
He was burning with a feverish anxiety to know about Robin, but the driver whom he questioned could not tell. "Mrs. Estel will be down presently," was the message with which he was ushered into the long drawing-room. He sat down uncomfortably on the edge of a chair to wait. He almost dreaded to hear her coming for fear she might tell him that the Piersons would not give Robin up.
Estel he had no definite idea of what she could do to help him. It had never occurred to him for an instant that she would offer to take either of them to live with her. He thought only of that afternoon on the train, when her sympathy had comforted him so much, and of her words at parting: "If you ever need a friend, dear, or are in trouble of any kind, let me know and I will help you."
Week after week he watched and waited, but the blinds were always closed, and he saw no signs of life about the place. Then one day he saw a carriage stop at the gate. A lady all in black stepped out and walked slowly towards the house. Her long, heavy veil hid her face, but he thought he recognized her. He was almost sure it was Mrs. Estel.
There was another long pause, while he turned his head away and looked out of the window. "Think what a lifelong happiness it is in our power to give those children! Dora, can't we make room for both of them for her sake?" Mrs. Estel hesitated, then laid both her hands in his, bravely smiling back her tears. "Yes, I'll try," she said, "for little Dorothy's sake."
A spirit of thanksgiving was in the very atmosphere. No one could see the overflowing happiness of the children without sharing it in some degree. More than once during dinner Mrs. Estel looked across the table at her husband and smiled as she had not in months. Along in the afternoon the winter sunshine tempted the children out of doors, and they commenced to build a snow man.
Sometimes he smiled when she told some story that made Robin laugh out heartily, but it seemed to her that it was because the little brother was pleased that he laughed, not because he listened. Presently Mrs. Estel touched her on the shoulder. "The time is almost up. I am going to ask your father to bring my things in here.
Estel was listening to little scraps of history that made her eyes dim and her heart ache. "Do you mind telling me your name?" she asked at length. "Ellen, ma'am." "But the other," continued Mrs. Estel. "We're not to tell, ma'am."
"Oh, does he really want me, too? It's too good to be true!" Steven was kneeling beside her now, his eyes shining like stars. "Yes, we both want you," answered Mrs. Estel. "You shall be our own little sons." Steven crept nearer. "Papa and mamma will be so glad," he said in a tremulous whisper. Then a sudden thought illuminated his earnest face. "O Mrs. Estel!
Soothed by her soft hand smoothing his hair, and exhausted by the heat and his violent grief, he fell asleep at last. It was almost dark when he awoke and sat up. "I must leave you at the next station," Mrs. Estel said, "but you are going only a few miles farther. Maybe I shall see you again some day."
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