"We were kept back by the storm," he said. "Oh, how I fretted and fumed
lest I should arrive too late! And Mary Champion, how is she? Is she
maid or wife or widow?"
"She never married, for your sake, Uncle Luke," I said, speaking up
boldly. "You will see her to-morrow morning."
Then I saw that he still wore his heavy cloak, and I made him take it
off; and he put his mother in one chair and his father in another and
sat down between them, and I came and sat on the rug at their feet.
"We thought you were dead," his father said, looking at him with an air
of beatitude.
"_I_ never did," said the mother. "And Maureen did not. Nor did Mary
Champion. Luke, Luke, why did you stay away so long?"
"Because I thought I was best dead, little mother. Because I thought I
should have to stand my trial for murder if I came back. I have lived in
the waste places of the world since I left you, or I must have known. I
say waste places, yet they are beautiful, fruitful places of the earth;
only there are few white men there and those adventurers. For beauty and
kindliness it was the Garden of Eden; but there has never been a day
when I was not sick for Aghadoe."
"And how did you know at last?" his father asked.
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