She says you're the only man in Gumbolt as treats her like a lady." Keith was both pleased and relieved.
A week or two after Keith had taken up his abode in Gumbolt, Mr.Gilsey was taken down with his old enemy, the rheumatism, and Keith went to visit him.

He found him in great anxiety lest his removal from the box should hasten the arrival of the railway.

He unexpectedly gave Keith evidence of the highest confidence he could have in any man.

He asked if he would take the stage until he got well.

Gordon readily assented.
So the next morning at daylight Keith found himself sitting in the boot, enveloped in old Tim's greatcoat, enthroned in that high seat toward which he had looked in his childhood-dreams.
It was hard work and more or less perilous work, but his experience as a boy on the plantation and at Squire Rawson's, when he had driven the four-horse wagon, stood him in good stead.
Old Tim's illness was more protracted than any one had contemplated, and, before the first winter was out, Gordon had a reputation as a stage-driver second only to old Gilsey himself.
Stage-driving, however, was not his only occupation, and before the next Spring had passed, Keith had become what Mr.Plume called "one of Gumbolt's rising young sons." His readiness to lend a hand to any one who needed a helper began to tell.