[The Re-Creation of Brian Kent by Harold Bell Wright]@TWC D-Link bookThe Re-Creation of Brian Kent CHAPTER VIII 11/12
Her brother from far-away Buenos Aires had sent it to her, saying that it would help to keep her during the closing years of her life; and she had added it to her small savings with a feeling of deepest gratitude that her last days were now fully provided for.
And she had received from the bank no acknowledgment of her letter with its enclosures. Taking up the paper with hands that trembled so she scarce could distinguish the words, she read the paragraph again. Suddenly, she recalled the man's puzzled expression when she had told him her name, and she seemed to hear him say, again, "Wakefield? Wakefield? Where have I seen that name ?" She looked at the date of the paper.
Beyond all doubt, the man sleeping there in the other room;--the man whom she had saved from a suicide's end in the river;--whom she had nursed through the hell of delirium tremens;--whom she had yearned over as over her own son, and for whom, to save from the just penalty of his crime, she had lied--beyond all doubt that man had robbed her of the money that was to have insured to her peace and comfort in the closing years of her life. Carefully, Auntie Sue laid the garment she had just mended with such loving care, with the rest of Brian Kent's clothing, on the near-by chair.
Rising, she went with slow, troubled step to the porch. There was no moon, that night, to turn the waters of The Bend into a stream of silvery light.
But the stars were shining bright and clear, and she could see the river where it made its dark, mysterious way between the walls of shadowy hills; and borne to her ears on the gentle night wind came the deep, thundering roar of the angry waters at Elbow Rock. For a long time she stood there on the porch looking into the night, with the light from the open door of her little house behind her; and she felt very lonely, very tired, and very old.
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