Mrs. Singleton Corey reached out and patted Marion on the hand, and smiled strangely.  “Yes, my dear—­I understand.  But I think you might call me mother.”

If it cost her something to say that, she was amply repaid.  Marion gave her one grateful look and fled, fearing that tears would be misunderstood.  And Jack made no move to follow her, but stayed and gathered his mother again into a one-armed imitation of a real bear-hug.  I think Jack wiped the last jealous thought out of Mrs. Singleton Corey’s mind when he did that.  So they clung to each other like lovers, and Jack patted her white cloud of hair that he had never made bold to touch since he was a baby.

“My own boy—­that I lost from the cradle, and did not know—­” She reached up and drew her fingers caressingly down his weathered cheek, that was losing some of its hardness in the softer air of the South.  “Jack, your poor old mother has been cheating herself all these years.  Cheating you too, dear—­”

“Not much!  Your cub of a son has been cheating himself and you.  But you watch him make it up.  And—­mother, don’t you think maybe all this trouble has been kind of a good thing after all?  I mean—­if it’s brought the real stuff out to the surface of me, you know—­“’

“I know.  The gold in us all is too often hidden away under so much worthless—­”

“Why, forev—­” In the doorway Marion checked herself abruptly, because she had resolved to purify her vocabulary of slang and all frivolous expressions.  Her eyelids were pink, her lips were moist and tremulous, her face was all aglow.  “I—­may I please—­mother—­”

Mrs. Singleton Corey did not loosen her hold of Jack, but she held out her free hand with a beckoning gesture.  “Come.  I’m going to be a foolishly fond old lady, I know.  But I want to hold both my children close, and see if I can realize the miracle.”

“Mother!” Jack murmured, as though the word held a wonderful, new meaning.  “Our own, for-keeps mother!”

THE END

NOVELS By B.M.  BOWER

Starr, of the Desert $1.35 _net_

     A new set of characters is here presented by the author in a
       spirited story of love and mystery intermingled with a
       Mexican revolt.

The Flying U’s Last Stand $1.35 _net_

     What happened when a crowd of farmers and school teachers
       encamped on the grounds of Flying U Ranch.

The Gringos Illustrated. $1.35 _net_

     A picturesque story of California in the days of the Forty-niners
       which is “not only entertaining, but also impartially
       realistic.”—­Chicago Inter-Ocean.

Good Indian Illustrated. $1.35 _net_

     There is excitement and action on every page....  A somewhat
       unusual love story runs through the story. Boston
       Transcript.