Yes, she would
have been pleased with her lover, he knew, and that held large grains of
consolation. And so these days passed in well-accomplished duty; and at
last all the festivities were over, and he could rest.
Captain Grigsby and his father had helped him whenever they could, and an
eternal bond of friendship was cemented between the three.
"By Jove, Charles! You ought to be thundering proud of that boy!" Captain
Grigsby said the morning of his departure for Scotland on August 10. "He's
come up to the scratch like a hero, and whatever the damage, the lady must
have been well worth while to turn him out polished like that. Gad!
Charles, I'd take a month's journey to see her myself."
And Paul's father grunted with satisfaction as he said: "I told you so."
Thus the summer days went by in the strengthening of Paul's character--
trying always to live up to an ideal--trying ever to dominate his grief--
but never trying to forget.
By the autumn shooting time his health was quite restored, and except that
he looked a year or so older there were no outward traces of the passing
through that valley of the shadow, from whence he had escaped with just his
life.
But the three weeks of his lady's influence had changed the inner man
beyond all recognition.
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