And down on his knees beside the sleeping Bud knelt Ted, thanking God for the wonderful Christmas Day and praying for his family.
Chapter 16
The next morning Marjorie became aware of something strained in the atmosphere that hadn’t been there the day before. She didn’t quite know what it was. It was subtle. It evaded her in glances, even loving glances. It was a kind of shy embarrassment upon the whole family. It troubled her, though she tried to put it away and tell herself she was imagining things, but it kept returning.
“No, don’t try to help wash the dishes this morning,” protested Betty. “You’re going out and you’ll get your hands all red.”
“The idea!” said Marjorie, laughing. “Give me that dishcloth! What do you suppose I care about my hands?”
“Well, you ought to care,” said Betty reprovingly. “With a particular man like that, you might be criticized. He’s critical. I could see that!”
“Well, I’m not afraid of him,” said Marjorie, “and I’m going to wash these dishes! I’d better open another box of soap powder, hadn’t I? This one is nearly gone.”
“There’s plenty there,” said Betty frugally. “I wish you wouldn’t feel you have to wash dishes and things like that all the time. I know you’re not used to it.”
“Why continually remind me of that? I suppose you judge because I do it so awkwardly,” said Marjorie, “but I’ll get over that in time, you know. What I would like to know is why you are so much more solicitous about my washing dishes today than you were before? Have I done something wrong?”
“Oh, mercy, no!” said Betty sharply. “It’s just seeing that high-and-mighty friend of yours, I suppose. Have you known him long?”
“You mean Evan Brower? Oh, yes, I’ve known him practically all my life. His mother was Mrs. Wetherill’s most intimate friend. They lived not far from our house. But he never took much notice of me till I grew up. He’s very pleasant.”
“Yes, he acted that way last night!” said Betty sharply.
Marjorie gave her sister a quick look.
“He wasn’t very nice, was he?” she agreed. “I was ashamed of him. But he’s not like that. Usually, he’s most polite. I suppose he was a little annoyed at me for running away from his mother’s Christmas party. I never dreamed he would come all the way down here to see me. I suppose they feel a little responsible for me on the Wetherills’ account, now that they think I’m all alone in the world.”
“Oh, yes?” said Betty, with an upward accent. “Well, his royal highness certainly knows how to give orders. I admired the way you held your own, but you won’t do that today, lady! He intends to give you his orders. I could see it in the corner of his eye and the droop of his lips. He means to take you home with him. Excuse me for listening, I was standing at the head of the stairs trying to get Sunny’s face clean without stopping to turn on a light, and I heard him say he was taking you home today. You’ll go, too. I can see that! And if you do it’ll be good-bye sister, all right! Are you engaged?”
“Mercy no!” said Marjorie. “Where did you get that idea?”
“Out of his masterful manner. If you aren’t, you probably will be by the time lunch is over. You ought to have told us about him before you let us all get to caring about you. It wasn’t fair, after all these years without you.”
“Betty!” Marjorie lifted her hands out of the dishwater and whirled about toward her sister.
“What in the name of peace is the matter with you, Betty?” Marjorie said, half ready to cry. “There wasn’t anything to tell. He’s just a friend of the family, and there’s nothing between us. I’m not engaged to anybody and don’t mean to be for some time, if I ever am. I’m not interested in such things yet. I’ve got a family, and that’s enough for the present.”
“Oh, yes?” said Betty again, incredulously. “Well wait till you come back—if you come back! Don’t you mean to pack your things? Or will you trust me to send them to you if he carries you off willy-nilly?”
Suddenly Marjorie rushed at her sister, half laughing, half crying, and gave her a loving shaking.
“There!” she said breathlessly. “Stop this! I’m not going away with him. I wouldn’t think of such a thing, and he hasn’t a right in the world to make me, so please be good and let’s have a nice time the way we usually do.”
Thus appealed to, Betty put aside her bitter little flings, but Marjorie could see there was something still in her mind that fenced them apart. She sighed as she went upstairs to dress. There really wasn’t much time, for they had slept late that morning. She tried to get away from the things Betty had said, but they annoyed her.
When she went in to say good-bye to her mother in her wine red velvet dress, she felt the same thing again.
“I hope you’ll have a very nice time, dear!” said her mother wistfully. “Is this young man a very special friend?”
“Why, no, I don’t think so, Mother. He’s been a friend of the family for years. I haven’t any specials yet. I’ll tell you when I do!” And she kissed her mother and ran down to open the door as the taxi drew up.
“Bye!” she whispered toward Betty in the doorway and blew a kiss from the tips of her fingers toward her. “Don’t you do a thing toward getting dinner till I get back!”
Then she was gone.
Her father was watching her from the window.
“I’m afraid he is special,” he said as he turned away with a sigh. “Or at least he thinks he is. He has a very possessive manner.”
“He would!” said Marjorie’s mother. “He’s that kind. George, don’t you think we ought to have a talk with her about what we’re going to do next, and what she’s going to do? She asked me last night if we wanted her to live with us.”
“I certainly do,” said the father. “We oughtn’t to stand in her way. It’s going to be harder than ever, of course, now that she’s been here, to let her go, but it’s her right! That’s her natural setting now, a sort of a birthright that we wished on her! She has a position in Chicago, in social life, I suppose, that she never could have here as our daughter, no matter how successful I got to be.” He smiled ruefully. “And you know how likely that is.”
“Yes,” said the mother tearfully.
And then they sat down and talked the whole thing over, and presently Betty could stand it no longer and came up to listen. Then came Bonnie and Sunny in from playing in the snow and caught a few words, and began to cry.
“Where is ’Nother Betty?” demanded Sunny. “I vants ’Nother Betty!”
And Bonnie came close to her mother and asked sadly, “Is our new sister going away?”
At noon Ted came in. He had a job for the evening again, cleaning up after Christmas. He listened to the doleful tale. The he shook his head.
“Aw, you’re crazy!” he told Betty. “She won’t fall for that poor sap! She’s got too much sense! Come on, let’s have lunch!”
Down in the city, meantime, Marjorie was having troubles of her own. It was Evan Brower’s idea of a good time to make Marjorie suffer plenty for having gone off without leaving him her address, and for having refused to go out with him last evening, and then to show her how generous and forgiving he could be afterward.
So Marjorie was seated at a sumptuously appointed table in one of the most exclusive hotels in the city, with a stern companion who lectured her as if she were a naughty little girl.
At first she laughed it off and pleased herself by remembering what a good time she’d had yesterday.
She was wearing the orchids he had given her, but before he was done disciplining her, she wished courtesy would permit her to take them off and fling them at him.
He was not blind, however. He knew that she was looking very well indeed, and that others at neighboring tables were aware that they were a noticeable couple. In his heart he was swelling with pride over her beauty and her air of gentle breeding, though he prided himself that no small part of her distinction came from his orchids, which she
wore so graciously. But she really was going to make a very fitting wife for him, and she certainly was taking her punishment well.
At last she looked up and smiled.
“Now, Evan, don’t you think we’d better talk about you awhile?” she suggested. “What have you been doing the last week? Did you go to hear Handel’s Messiah? Was it good with the new soloists? And what did they do about the Christmas party for the crippled children? I promised to help at that, you know. Who took my place? And is your mother well? You haven’t told me a thing. And how in the world did you get away from your family Christmas party? I’m afraid you hurt your mother’s feelings terribly.”
That was an unfortunate thought. She saw it at once. Evan stiffened immediately.
“I came away. I had to. I felt that you needed my protection, and I had something to say to you.”
“But I didn’t need any protection, you know,” said Marjorie, “and I told you I wasn’t ready to talk to you.”
“Marjorie, you did a most unwise thing when you came all alone to hunt up your family. You didn’t know in the least what you were running into.”
“We won’t go into that!” said Marjorie coolly. “I ran into the happiest thing that has ever come into my life thus far, and I’m glad I came.”
“Do you think that statement is kind or fair to your adoptive parents? Do you think you are being loyal to dear Mrs. Wetherill, who so adored you?”
“Yes, Evan. I do. I do not love her less because I found my birth mother to love, and it was at her suggestion that I took up this matter at all. Now, will you please not talk any more about it? Someday you will learn, I hope, how wrong you are, but at present I would rather not discuss it. Let’s have a nice time together until you have to go. Don’t you think my orchids are lovely with their creamy leaves against this dark red velvet?”
“They certainly are,” said the young man half grudgingly. “I had begun to think you didn’t care for them.”
“Care? Why, I love them! They are such wonderful specimens, and it was so nice of you to send them to me when I was away. I was proud to have them. We all enjoyed them a lot.”
The young man was silent for a little, studying her. He didn’t exactly care whether the rest of her family had enjoyed his flowers or not, and he was pondering whether to tell her so, but he had been steadily working along such lines for a half hour now and had got nowhere; perhaps he had better try a new tack.
“I’ve brought you something else,” he said with a swift change of manner and a lighting of his eyes. “Something that is just for yourself. I hope you’ll like it.”
“Oh, but you shouldn’t, Evan,” she protested. “The orchids were enough! They were wonderful. I love having them, especially to wear today, too.”
“Well, this is something very special,” he said with an engaging smile. She thought to herself that he was handsomer when he smiled than when he was trying to lecture her. He had a nice smile.
He put his hand in his pocket and pulled out a tiny velvet case, of the color of violets. She looked at it and an anxiety entered her soul.
“Oh, Evan, not some great gift now, please. I don’t somehow seem—ready—” She gave a half-frightened glance at the box, perhaps divining what it held.
But he handed it across to her, smiling.
“Open it!” he said. “I want to watch your face when you see it.”
There seemed nothing to do but take it and open it. She held the little box gently in her hand as if it were a living thing that she might hurt, and hesitated, looking at him and trying to think what to do. Then she touched the pearl spring and disclosed the wonderful blue diamond set in a delicate frostwork of platinum.
For an instant she caught her breath at its beauty, for it was a charming ring. Then suddenly the trouble in her eyes grew definite, and she shut the cover down sharply with a snap.
“Oh, Evan! Please! You ought not to have done this! Not now, anyway! I told you I could not think of such things now. Please! I’m sorry, but I couldn’t take that!” She handed it back across the table, but he did not move to take it.
“Please!” she insisted. “I could not take a thing like this until I was sure!”
His face was haughty and frozen.
“And why aren’t you sure?” he asked. “It’s been nearly ten days since I asked you to marry me. You’ve had plenty of time to think it over.”
“No,” she said firmly, “I haven’t. I’ve had other things to think about and settle. They had to come first before anything.”
“Well, haven’t you got them all settled?”
A gleam of something like joy flitted across her face, but she shook her head.
“Not all, yet.”
“How long will it take?” There was a trace of anger in his voice.
“I’m not sure, but when I come home, I can talk with you about it. I shall know then what I am going to do.”
She laid the box down definitely on the table between them and sat back with finality.
“Well!” he said, after studying her face a minute, “it won’t be long then, for you are going back with me on the plane that leaves at three. We can talk about it on the way.”
“Oh, no!” said Marjorie. “I have no idea of going back today. And I have asked you, both today, and back in Chicago before I left, please not to talk about this now. I must settle several things in my own mind before I shall be able to talk with you.”
“But I love you, Marjorie!”
She studied him rather hopelessly for a minute, and then she said, “If you truly love me, won’t you prove it to me by putting that ring back in your pocket and just sitting there and talking to me in a pleasant, natural way as you always have done, without any perplexing questions or anything? Just let’s talk!”
He looked at her keenly for a minute, and then he said quietly, with an inscrutable mask on his face, “Very well. What shall I talk about?”
Marjorie knew by his tone that he was angry, but she could not help it.
“Oh, anything! Suppose I ask you a question. It’s something I’ve been wondering, Evan. You were brought up a good deal as I was; you’re in the same church, and active in it. What do you believe about being saved? Did you ever know there was a way to tell definitely whether or not you were saved? Because I never did till a few days ago, and I’ve been wondering if it was my stupidity or if it was a lack somewhere in the teaching? Have you ever thought about it?”
He looked at her as if she had suddenly gone crazy.
“Saved?” he said. “What in the world do you mean?”
“Why, saved from your sins. Fit to go to heaven, you know, when you die. I have always supposed that you had to be as good as you could to get to heaven, but you couldn’t be sure you were going to get there even then till after you died. Didn’t you?”
His face softened, and he spoke to her as if she were a sick person or a very young child.
“My dear! I am afraid the long strain of nursing Mrs. Wetherill, and then seeing her die, has been too much for your nerves. I thought there was something the matter with you before you left home. I thought you did not look well, but I never suspected you were growing morbid. I’m sorry. I should have been more gentle and tender with you and tried to cheer you up. Come home with me now, dearest, and let me try to make life bright and cheerful for you and help you to forget the fearful shock you have had.”
“Oh, no,” said Marjorie, looking up brightly, “you don’t understand me. I’m not in the least morbid. In a way, I’m happier than I ever was in my life before, because I’ve found that I have a Savior from sin, and that there is a way to know without a doubt that I am saved and needn’t go all my life with that worry even in the back of my mind! It’s all plainly written in the Bible, only I never searched it to find out before. I was only wondering if you have known about it all the time, or if you don’t know it yet?”
He studied her face with vexed, unresponsive eyes a moment, and then he said coldly, “S
o, that’s the line of your new family, is it? They are fanatics!”
She sprang up as if he had struck her, and her eyes grew suddenly alien.
“No, Evan, you are mistaken! My family are not fanatics. I do not know yet whether they even know this or not. Except my brother Ted. He is a Christian, but he is not a fanatic. But I heard this in a sermon, and then I read it in the Bible. It is there quite plainly, if you will hunt for it.”
She was speaking almost haughtily, as if he were a stranger. Then she glanced down at her watch. “And now if you will excuse me, I will take a taxi back home. I have something else to do at once, and you will be going to the airfield soon. I will let you know when I get back to Chicago. Good-bye!”
She flashed a distant little smile at him and walked out of the dining room.
He followed her, of course, instantly, his face haughty and indignant, but he summoned a taxi and put her in.
“You are very headstrong!” he said as he gave her hand a cold, hard grip. “I didn’t dream you had it in you to be so hard. When are you planning to return?”
“I’m not hard, Evan, really. Only you’ve said some things that were rather difficult to bear. But we’ll talk about that when I get home. I shall probably come a few days after New Year’s.”
Evan watched Marjorie gravely as the taxi took her away into the light falling snow, his own face stern, reproachful. Well, he had done his best. She would have to go her own gait and learn her lesson.
As the taxi rounded the corner and went away out of sight, a wild idea of taking another and following her, compelling her to listen to him, to make her accept his love and let him have a right to protect her came to him, but his natural restrained nature told him that would be very bad policy if he ever hoped to train her to be a sweet, submissive wife. It was only a week till she would return anyhow, and it would be far better to let her see how she had jeopardized such a love as he intended to give her. She would come to her senses. She wouldn’t keep this up. She was young and out from under discipline and a little skittish. This religious line, of course, was bad for one like Marjorie, with an already uncomfortably keen conscience, but once she got home, he would see to it that she had something to offset such nonsense. The best thing he could do now was to take a plane home and get some work done, laying his plans for a campaign against her return.