"Men drift away from these things," he continued, with something of an
effort. "I have drifted too far. But, Jean, will you always remember
this, that when I am at my best, I come back to the things my mother
taught her boy? If anything should happen, you will remember?"
[Illustration: "If anything should happen, you will remember?"]
She clung to his arm. She had no words. Never again was she to hear
the chimes without that poignant memory of her father begging her to
remember the best--.
"I have been thinking," he said, out of a long silence, "of you and
Derry. I--I want you to marry him, dear, before I go."
"Before you go--Daddy--"
"Yes. Emily says I have no right to stand in the way of your
happiness. And I have no right. And some day, perhaps, oh, my little
Jean, my grandchildren may hear the chimes--"
White and still, she stood with her face upturned to the stars. "Life
is so wonderful, Daddy."
And this time she said it out of a woman's knowledge of what life was
to mean.
They went in, to find that the Connollys had retired. Jean slept in a
great feather-bed. And all the night the chimes in the College tower
struck the hours--
In the morning, Jean went over to the church with Mrs.
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