The moment it grows dark on
the night of his twenty-fifth birthday, I'm going to take him into my
father's room and turn it over to him."
He had listened to her patiently, a little wearied by her unusual flow of
words. Now he came out of his apathy with a jerk. He laid his hand on
Elizabeth's shoulder and turned her so that the light shone full in her
face. Then he studied her.
"What do you mean by that, Elizabeth?"
"Vance," she said steadily, but with a touch of pity in her voice, "I
have waited for a score of years, hoping that you'd settle down and try
to do a man's work either here or somewhere else. You haven't done it.
Yesterday Mr. Cornwall came here to draw up my will. By that will I leave
you an annuity, Vance, that will take care of you in comfort; but I leave
everything else to Terry Colby. That's why I've changed the room. The
moment it grows dark ten days from today, I'm going to take Terry by the
hand and lead him into the room and into the position of my father!"
The mask of youth which was Vance Cornish crumbled and fell away. A new
man looked down at her. The firm flesh of his face became loose.
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