Medler claimed a considerable percentage. The only information
that Gilbert Fenton could ever obtain from America was, of a shabby
swindler arrested in a gambling-house in one of the more remote western
cities, whose description corresponded pretty closely with that of
Marian's father.
There comes a time for the healing of all griefs. The cruel wound closes
at last, though the scar, and the bitter memory of the stroke, may remain
for ever. There came a time--some years after John Saltram's death--when
Gilbert Fenton had his reward. And if the woman he won for his wife in
these latter days was not quite the fresh young beauty he had wooed under
the walnut-trees in Captain Sedgewick's garden, she was still infinitely
more beautiful than all other women in his eyes; she was still the
dearest and best and brightest and purest of all earthly creatures for
him. In that happy time--that perfect summer and harvest of his life--all
his fondest dreams have been realized. He has the home he so often
pictured, the children whose airy voices sounded in his dreams, the dear
face always near him, and, sweeter than all, the knowledge that he is
loved almost as he loves. The bitter apprenticeship has been served, and
the full reward has been granted.
For Ellen Whitelaw too has come the period of compensation, and the
farmer's worst fears have been realized as to Frank Randall's
participation in that money he loved so well.
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