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With the coming of the rain, the peals of thunder had grown less violent, and the wind had fallen; but those who had sought the reception room for safety found in Fran's presence something as startling, and as incomprehensible, as the most vivid lightning. Of the group, it was the secretary who first claimed Fran's attention. In a way, Grace Noir dominated the place.
Down the beach sped a galloping horse, his rider waving to attract their attention. Fran's quick wits grasped the situation. "He'll come for us!" she exclaimed. "He means us to climb this rock and wait." This seemed what the rider meant for as they scrambled up the ledge, he ceased to call and merely urged his horse to greater effort.
But, a long time afterward, I heard another sound, from the yard. I went to my window. I looked out. The moon was bright, but there was a very dark shadow about the front gate. I heard voices. One was that of Fran. The other was the voice of " her tone vibrated in its intensity "the voice of a man!" "It was not Fran's voice," Mrs. Gregory declared earnestly. "What man was it?"
"Just look at those cabbages on top of canes." The others looked and saw something answering exactly to Fran's graphic description. "Oh, yes" said Mrs. Thayne, "those are the cow cabbages of Jersey. They are common in the interior of the island. It's a peculiar kind of cabbage growing five or six feet high. The farmers pick the leaves on the stalk and leave just the head on top.
I rented it at once of course, it oughtn't to be standing there idle there's such a fragrant flower-garden I spent some time arranging the grounds as I think you'll like them. I didn't furnish the cottage, though. Women always like to select their own carpets and things, and " Fran's face was a dimpled sea of pink and crimson waves, with starry lights in her black eyes for signal-lights.
Of course Soames had assumed that the children's civilization had been one of very millions of people. A small city cannot establish or maintain a great technological civilization. He had been right. He'd assumed, even, that Fran's people were able to travel between planets. Again he'd been right.
"But, Miss Grace," he urged pleadingly, "do you think my friend, when he went back to find her and she was gone do you think he should have kept on hunting? Do you think, Grace, that he should have remained yoked to an unbeliever, after he realized his folly?" There was heavenly compassion in her eyes, for suddenly she had divined his purpose in defending Fran's father.
Mrs. Gregory followed, wondering, looking rather at Fran than at her husband. Fran's keen eyes searched the apartment for the actual source of Hamilton Gregory's acutest regrets. Yes, there stood the secretary.
"Think I'll refuse Fran's first request?" He sped upstairs, uncommonly light of foot. "Now," whispered Fran wickedly, "let's run off and leave him." "I'm with you!" Abbott whispered boyishly. They burst from the building like a storm, Fran laughing musically, Abbott laughing joyously, Jakey laughing loudest of all.
Gregory had melted away unobtrusively, and Fran, last of all, had given the piano a final bang, and darted out of the house. Gregory stood pale and miserable. It seemed as if all the world had deserted him. The future without Grace would be as dreary as now seemed his past with Fran's mother. He suffered horribly. Was suffering all that life had left for him?
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