Well, God bless 'em. I--I
'ates to think wot the show will be without 'em. Come on; let's get
back to bed."
And so it was, many days afterward, that David Jenison came "looking
them up," only to find that they were gone and that no one could tell
him whither they had fled. It was significant that Colonel Bob Grand
was not with the show; he had gone away in a great rage when the
discovery of the flight became known to him. Tom Braddock, strangely
sobered and bleached out by a tardy remorse, went about mechanically
in the management of the show which he no longer owned.
Joey Grinaldi delivered two precious, carefully preserved missives
into the hands of the distracted Virginian.
One of these letters said that the writer would wait for him to the
end of time, loving him always with all her heart. The other, much
longer, came to its conclusion with these words, written by a wise,
far-seeing woman whose heart was breaking:
"... And now, David, good-by. We love you. Be content to let us go
temporarily out of your life, if not from your thoughts or your heart.
Always think of us with love and tenderness, my dear boy, as we shall
never cease to think of you.
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