At a point in the murmured
interview, he had looked beyond them to the darkened spot where she
sat. Then Daddy John and David had come to her and told her that if
she wished they would turn back, take her home to Rochester, and stay
there with her always. There was money enough they said. The doctor
had left seven thousand dollars in his chest, and David had three to
add to it. It would be ample to live on till the men could set to work
and earn a maintenance for them. No word was spoken of her marriage,
but it lay in the offing of their argument as the happy finale that the
long toil of the return journey and the combination of resources were
to prelude.
The thought of going back had never occurred to her, and shocked her
into abrupt refusal. It would be an impossible adaptation to outgrown
conditions. She could not conjure up the idea of herself refitted into
the broken frame of her girlhood. She told them she would go on, there
was nothing now to go back for. Their only course was to keep to the
original plan, emigrate to California and settle there. They returned
to the fire and told Courant.
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