"Tabor is a member of the family," said Eden definitely.
"But who takes care of him? Not you, I hope. I should think it would take too much time for the rest of the servants to look after him, and I shouldn't suppose they would be willing to do it anyway."
"Any one of our servants would be entirely willing to go out of their way and work overtime if they could help Tabor. They all honor and love him greatly. But, of course, we have a nurse."
"A nurse? Oh! That's different, of course, but it must make a lot more work for the other servants. Who pays for the nurse?"
"Celia, for heaven's sake, mind your own business, can't you?" protested Mary Carter.
"I am minding my business. I think it's our business to protect Eden from imposition!"
But Eden did not answer. Instead, she turned toward the other girls.
"Is your aunt any better, Carolyn?" she asked.
"Oh, I guess so," said Carolyn Caton indifferently. "She doesn't whine around quite so much. I certainly do think if a person is sick they oughtn't to bother other people with it. It isn't our fault she has asthma. My dad has kept us all poor, sending her around from one doctor to another, and I don't think it's fair to the rest of us."
Eden turned to Mary Carter.
"Has your brother come home yet from the Philippines?" she asked brightly.
"Not yet. He stopped on the way to visit his fiancée. They're going to be married at Christmas. Just think of it. We're all going out there to the wedding. I think it is horrid. Spoils Christmas for me all right. In fact, I'm not even sure I'm going. There are seven parties here at home, and I'm invited to every one of them. Can you beat that, girls? And what they want to have their old wedding at Christmas for I don't understand. They're just cutting themselves out of a whole holiday every year. They can't celebrate a wedding and Christmas at the same time without losing out. Well, I may decide to take the midnight train home after the wedding and get back in time for three of the parties, anyway. Though if I do that, I'll miss out on the Western trip Dad was going to take us all on. I am not sure what I'm going to do."
Then the whole group began to advise Mary, one said come home, and one said take the Western trip.
"Oh, but you'd better come home, Mary. You don't know who's going to be here, perhaps Caspar Carvel! Imagine that! His buddy in the army wrote my cousin Catharine about it. They say he's perfectly striking looking, and he looks swell in his uniform. I think it's horrid they are going to have to give up their uniforms when they are discharged from service, don't you? They look so much handsomer in them than in civilian clothes."
They chattered on in the old way about their friends, and the service boys, and parties, but Eden caught her breath and began to look troubled. Was Caspar coming back to make her trouble? Till suddenly she remembered her new life and that this was something more she could trust to her Guide. A quick prayer in her heart, Please take over, Lord! and her brightness returned.
"I suppose you know all about Caspar, of course, Eden," said the fourth girl. "You always did. But I imagine you'll have some competition from now on. They say he's much improved and simply stunningly handsome. Looks swell in his uniform and all that, and is perfectly spiffy in his manner. They say the army has done him all kinds of good. Taken away that goody-goody attitude he had. He isn't a sissy anymore. He used to be such a lily, but he's all over that. I can testify that he can swear in a regular way now, just like the toughest guy in the camp."
"I suppose," said Eden quietly, "that a thing like war has either one effect or the other on those who take part in it."
They looked at her in astonishment. The girl who had told this had expected to horrify little quiet Eden, but here she was taking it as if she expected something like this. The others were looking curiously at Eden.
"You and Caspar used to be awfully good friends, didn't you?" asked Celia meditatively. "You used to be pretty thick, I remember."
Eden looked up and smiled quietly.
"When we were children," she said. "You know, he lived the second house below us. But I haven't known much about him lately."
"Oh, but surely you've been writing to him and he to you, every mail that crossed the ocean in his direction. Now don't try to deny that, for nobody here will believe it." This from Celia again.
"No," said Eden quietly, her voice very well controlled, with a smile that was almost amusement on her face. "We haven't been corresponding at all. I think he wrote a letter when he first went over and then got interested in other things. You know, our acquaintance was a mere schoolmate affair and never meant anything to either of us. But I really haven't been writing any soldiers during this war. Father has been rather ill, you know, and I was with him all the time. I helped him with business letters and a lot of routine work and had no time for personal letters at all. And even if I hadn't been more than usually busy, I'm not sure that I would have been interested in writing to Caspar. As we grew up I think we rather grew away from each other. We didn't always see things in the same way."
"Oh, but that's too bad, Eden," said Mary Carter. "You always looked so swell together. You made a stunning-looking couple, and I always supposed that, of course, you two would be married sometime as soon as Cappie got home from service. It really is a shame to break that up. Such a swell-looking couple!"
Eden laughed amusedly.
"That's scarcely a reason for selecting a life companion, is it?" she asked with a grim little twinkle about her mouth. "But you'll have to change the pattern of your imaginings. There is not the slightest possibility that this one will ever happen."
"But, Eden, you'll come to our little party, won't you?" pleaded Carolyn. "It really wouldn't be complete without you and will just spoil it for us all. You aren't such a stickler for convention. It's to be a very quiet affair, strictly for the service boys, and no one would think it out of good form for you to come with us and help. Even people who are closer to a family death than you are would think it is all right. Anything you do for the servicemen is sort of a religious duty, you know. It is patriotic besides, you understand, and that's even greater than a religious reason, isn't it?"
"Is it?" asked Eden, lifting her delicate eyebrows. "Why?"
"Oh, mercy! Eden, you don't mean you don't believe in being patriotic, do you?"
"Oh, no," said Eden. "Of course it is right to be patriotic, but it rather amused me to hear it compared in that way, putting it ahead of religion."
"But, don't you, Eden? Don't you think patriotism is the greatest on earth? I think patriotism is religion. It is religion made practical. It is religion being lived. Don't you see, Eden?" said Mary Carter.
"Well, I suppose it ought to be, but it seems to me that a lot of the things some people call patriotism is just doing what everybody else is trying to do; only everyone is doing it in a different way, and no two agree."
"I don't think you ought to talk that way. See how everybody is sending Christmas boxes to soldiers. Don't you think that is religion, Eden Thurston?" said Carolyn.
"Why, no, not exactly," said Eden. "It's doing a kind act to give the people they love and a few others a pleasant taste of home, but this is not exactly what I call religion. In a way it's the outcome of religion. But real religion is trying to make other people understand what a wonderful God we have, and how He died to save us, and how He wants us to live our lives surrendered to Him. Dying with Him to sin so that we might have a right to His risen life. I've been interested in studying that. But, of course, I believe in sending Christmas boxes and all that. Say, Florence, did your sister get home from Italy? She was WAC, wasn't she?"
"Yes, she got home, but she got married before she came, so she has a home of her own now, and we don't see her much anymore. But say, I think it's going to be very exciting, having all these servicemen home to our Christmas party. You'll come, won't you, Eden? There's no real reason why you shouldn't, is there? Nobody will think it strange. Your father was always one to want to help every good work
."
"I'm not sure I can," said Eden. "I'll see how our invalid is by that time."
"But surely you wouldn't stay away because of a mere servant, would you?"
"That depends on how he is," said Eden, smiling. "But say, girls, I have a box of the most delicious chocolates here, the best I've been able to get all summer. Don't you want some? Wait! I'll get the box." Eden sped up the stairs and brought back a full box of candy that one of her friends had sent to her. And so with delicious bits of confection they sat and talked, and now they turned to the present-day news.
"Say, girls," said Florence Homes, "there are some perfectly spiffy men coming back, and they're not all of them married, either. There's a young minister over at the First Avenue church. They say he's very eloquent, and he had stacks of good stories about the war. It seems he was a chaplain."
"Oh, a chaplain!" sneered Celia. "I couldn't be bothered to go out gunning for him. It would bore me to death. Religion again. Eden, you'd better turn your talents toward him. He might just fit in with your ideas."
"Sorry," said Eden, smiling. "I'm afraid I don't want anybody I have to go out gunning for. That wouldn't be my idea of a good start in life."
"Oh, but she doesn't need to go out and drag them in," said Carolyn. "She has them all provided for her. Look at the new lawyer her old guardian has just taken over. Girls, have you seen him? He's stunningly good looking, and they say he's not only handsome but awfully clever. I give you a fair notice, Eden, I'm going out for that Mr. Lorrimer, and you needn't say that he belongs to you for I won't take no for an answer. My dad says that he's the brightest man he's seen in an age, and he'll make his mark in the world before long and don't you forget it. Here's where I give notice that I've picked him out."
"I'll bet Eden hasn't even seen the gentleman," said Mary Carter. "She hasn't entered the warpath yet. Give her a couple of years more and she'll wake up and take notice."
"It will be too late then," said Celia. "All the eligible ones will be married by that time. She'll have to take up with some divorced guy, or a widower with seven children."
Eden was smiling at their jokes and trying to keep back her indignation at some of the things they said, but she kept her poise and said very little.
"Have you met this Lorrimer fellow yet?" asked Mary Carter, looking her straight in the eye and hoping to make her change color, but Eden kept on smiling.
"Oh, yes," she said quite casually. "He's very pleasant."
"Is he married yet? Or engaged?" asked Carolyn eagerly.
"Why, no, I don't think so. But, of course, I didn't ask him," she finished amusedly.
"Well, I don't think you were very clever if you couldn't find out in one interview," said Celia. "Me, I always know at once. They bear the stamp right on their faces: bachelor, married, married and divorced, widower. A really smart girl can tell."
"Why bother?" asked Eden amusedly. "Eventually you'll find out if you're interested. After all, young men aren't the only interest in life. What are you all aiming to be? Businesswomen, artists, writers, poets, doctors or lawyers?"
The girls groaned in chorus.
"What do you think we are?" they said. "We're out for a good time. The war has been bad enough while it lasted, though at least it was exciting and you never knew whom or what you would meet next. But as for settling down into businesswoman or a doctor or a lawyer, I'm not interested. It would bore me to extinction," said Mary. "What are you going to be, Eden?"
"I'm not sure yet," said Eden thoughtfully. "I think I'm going to wait until God shows me what He is planning for me."
There was a sudden silence then, an awkward silence, the room filled with embarrassment.
"Oh, heavens!" said Celia. "Girls, do you know what time it is? If we don't go this minute, we'll be late for that train the two marines are coming on. Want to go with us, Eden?"
Eden smiled.
"No, thank you, I believe not," she said. "I promised to help Janet for a few minutes, and I thought I would sit with Tabor for a while if he is awake. Come and see me again, girls, and thank you for all this pleasant gossip. I find I was rather behind the times with some of it."
"Well, you're a dear, anyway," said Mary Carter, "even if you are terribly puritanical."
"Well, I guess it takes all kinds of people to make up a world," said Carolyn. "But say, Eden, why can't you--oh, not right away, of course, but after a little so nobody's formal ideas will be shocked--have a little party and somehow manage to get hold of that young lawyer Mr. Worden has with him. Invite us all, so we can meet him? I've really quite a crush on him. I could go for him in a big way."
Eden smiled gently.
"I'm sorry, Carolyn," she said pleasantly, "but I really couldn't do anything like that. Not now anyway. But I'll be glad to introduce you if I happen to be around when you meet him. Of course, I've met him on business."
"Oh, my goodness, Eden, how do you manage to be so calm and collected about everything? Don't you ever get a crush on anybody?"
Eden really laughed then.
"Why, perhaps I did when I was a kid," she said. "I just don't remember. But after all," she laughed, "I've rather serious things to think of the last two years, and I suppose I'm growing up."
"Oh," laughed Celia, "I hope it's not that bad. Be your age, girl, and don't let a few troubles get you down. If you do, you'll get old before your time, and life isn't so awfully blithe that you can afford to pass up a good-looking young man."
Celia went over to the mirror, fluffed up her hair, got out her compact and touched up her lips and complexion. Then she turned back with even a more insolent expression on her face than before.
On the whole Eden was glad when the crowd left and she could draw a long breath and relax a little. Then she hurried back to see how Tabor was and found that he was better, was lying there quite comfortably, with somewhat of the old expression on his face. That was a relief, though he was still very weak. He had lost a good deal of blood from his wound before they found him, the doctor said. But his concussion was clearing up nicely, and they had pretty well calmed his mind about lying in the servants' dining room and being waited on, when he had always for so many years waited on other people.
But his eyes lit happily when he saw Eden.
"So sorry!" he murmured. "Make--so----much--trouble!"
"Oh," laughed Eden happily, "that's all right, Tabor. We're glad to have a chance to get it back on you a little for all the years you've waited on us, and I'm quite sure I've made a lot of trouble ever since I was born. So I'll be happy if I, or we, can do a little something for you. You've been wonderful to us all these years, Tabor, and wonderful to my dear father. I'm so glad you are feeling a little better. We hope you will soon be well again. But meantime, be as good a patient as you have been a helper, and everything will soon be all right again."
Tabor smiled.
"My lady, you have always been a dear child! I am honored." And the look he gave her was a heartening cheer to her lonely young heart.
The next day Tabor was so much better that the doctor let Mike come to talk with him a few moments and ask him a few questions. Ellery was being searched for most carefully, and the authorities were anxious to talk with Tabor to see what his testimony would be.
"It was Ellery Fane all right," said Tabor, rousing at the question and speaking slowly. "I only caught one full glimpse of his face. Then----it all--went dark--and that sharp pain in my back! But it was Ellery, and I heard him say he was going ta--kill me!" The doctor was standing by and signed to Mike that was enough, so Mike said, "Okay, old friend! That's enough! Glad you're feeling better. So long!" And the session ended. But the search went on, extending over even wider territory as time went on.
Then old friends began more and more to run in to see Eden. Girls she had known all her life. Some brought real joy and comfort, and some were unpleasant developments of the modern times. There were only a few that Eden really enjoyed. But much of her time was taken up helping t
o make the hours pass pleasantly for the old servant. She discovered that Tabor liked to have her read to him. He even asked for a chapter in the Bible Sunday morning and thanked her gratefully when she had finished. And then one day after consultation with the doctor, she took her little radio down beside Tabor's bed and turned on a Christian song service, and the light in his old eyes showed that he fairly felt he was in heaven. It was while this was going on one afternoon that Mrs. Rollin Sturtevant came to call, just a formal expression of sympathy in the loss of Eden's father she meant it to be, for she had been away on a trip when he died. But she sat in the little reception room by the front door and waited all of five minutes while Eden was finding the right station for Tabor to listen to.
Then Eden hurried up the hall and came in to welcome her infrequent caller.
"Oh, my dear, did I interrupt you in something?" she asked as she arose to greet Eden.
"Oh, no," said Eden, smiling. "I was just finding the right station on the radio for Tabor to listen to the music. He's very fond of the hymn singing hour."
"Hymns! How terrible! I should think that would be so gruesome! Aren't you afraid you'll make him morbid? And he ought to have some consideration for you, asking for that sort of thing. You can't help hearing it all over the house."
"Oh, but we love it, all of us," said Eden with shining eyes. "I can't see how anybody would become morbid with hymns. Won't you sit over here, Mrs. Sturtevant? This chair is much more comfortable than the one in which you were sitting. You've been on a trip, haven't you? I suppose you had a lovely time?"
"Oh, yes, well enough, though we had to spend so much time waiting for trains even when we had reservations. They just wouldn't let us get on our train sometimes, because they had so many of those service boys to take. I declare, I don't see why they had to favor them so much. After all, the war is over and they are getting home, aren't they? They ought to be glad to have to wait a little when they know that. They don't own the earth, do they, even if they did go off to fight? And, of course, you know those boys wanted to go. Most of them would have been brokenhearted if they had been made to stay at home and do a little honest work. But, really, Eden, I was ashamed that I had to be away at the time of your father's funeral. And I didn't know of it until it was too late even to wire flowers."