Barney arrives in the clanking car the next afternoon and demands his wife without preamble while Uncle Benjamin beams at prophecy fulfilled. Valancy, pale and dressed in ugly gingham, tries to refuse the meeting, but she knows Barney will not leave. In the parlour he catches her, protests the divorce talk, and insists he loves her, pointing to the train moment as proof. She pushes him away, citing pity, Ethel Traverse, and the story his father told.
Barney then tells his own history: humiliation at school over the patent medicines, a friend who betrayed him, and Ethel's line that his money would gild the Pills. He fled to the Yukon and then to Mistawis, distrusting love until Valancy married him without knowing the fortune. He explains the terror on the night of the switch, the note he found, and his plan to take her to specialists.
She still will not believe the gentle version. He erupts at what he calls her Stirling pride. She stares into the furious face, laughs, and calls him darling, because he would not be so enraged if he did not mean it. He catches her up. Uncle Benjamin, who has been frozen at the keyhole, tiptoes back and announces that everything is all right, already planning to make Doss his sole heiress. Mrs Frederick gets out the family Bible and enters the marriage.
Coming Up in Chapter 43
Still in the parlour, Valancy will ask whether his father was right about Ethel Traverse. Barney will laugh at Redfern's talent for saying what should stay unsaid, then offer Mistawis, a modest house, and one vow: never to throw the proposal back at her.
