"Lance, when did I ever tell you that these things you have named were important? Money? Station? Social prominence? Worldly advantages? Don't you remember that the silver and the gold are all Mine? Have you forgotten that all advantages of the world are Mine to give or take away? Do you think that a child of the heavenly King should make decisions on a foundation of that sort? Are you Mine, to follow Me everywhere, or only Mine when the world agrees with your standards?
"For pride's sake were you letting this wonderful girl slip away from you? Compelling her to go on alone perhaps? Not letting her know of the treasure of your love, which I have created to be a jewel in her life and in yours, to bring you both joy?"
The vision began to fade, but as he woke in the early dawn of a roseate sky, the words that had seemed to be spoken grew clear again. Then his common sense stepped up and offered humdrum reasoning. But as he rose and prepared for the day, he found a cheerful song was in his heart. Whatever was coming to him in the next few hours he did not know, but he could trust and not be afraid. He somehow felt that the Lord was on his side.
He thought over the situation carefully. Somehow it seemed as if he should find out from someone about whether Eden was engaged or not. But again he put that thought aside. His own wisdom was not best. The magic of the vision was still upon him. This was not a matter of reasoning things out. That was following an inward calling.
Of course, he might ask Mr. Worden, just casually, if Eden was engaged. He likely would know, if anyone did. And again he might ask Janet. But somehow he disliked to be talking over her with anyone. She was the only one who had a right to give this information, and he had no real right to get the information from any other source.
How he was going to go about this difficult business of inquiry he had not yet settled, but surely a way would open. He must not run ahead of himself, and he must not make a set blueprint to follow, for if this was of the Lord there would be a way. The main thing was to be prepared with ammunition, and a ring was one of the articles that was always associated with a matter of this sort, wasn't it? A ring, the sign that she belonged to him. How that thought thrilled him. He had never realized that anyone might belong to him. And now that he thought of it, he hadn't noticed that she was wearing a ring on her engagement finger. Wasn't that a sign that she was free? Dolt that he was! Why hadn't he thought of that before? Well, now he was going to find out just where he stood. And he was going the first thing to prepare for the siege in which he was to engage today. This morning he would go to the very best jewelers in the city and choose a gorgeous ring. Thank the Lord he had money enough put away to get a really good one. Not too large, not too showy, but good. One that she need never be ashamed to wear.
Somehow he had never realized before what lovely things diamonds were, how beautiful to handle and watch. As he looked them over and admired, he was reminded that somewhere he had read that the Eden of old, the first Eden, bore flowers made of precious stones, and someone had hazarded the thought that perhaps in the new earth, gardens were again to bear both growing blooms and flowers of jewels again. It sounded fantastic, but with a great God was anything fantastic that He chose to do?
Lance chose at last a beautiful stone, the lights in whose facets were rainbow-tinted stars and prisms, and when he took the tiny velvet box containing the lovely jewel, wrapped in white, and put it in a safe hiding place till he could give it to Eden, his heart was filled with great joy. He had not thought that just a jewel could mean so much to a mere man. But this jewel represented a great love, his love for the girl he had chosen, and whether she accepted it or not did not now enter into the question. That would be for him to find out tonight, but he would not begin to expect disappointment beforehand. He would go forward into this thing just as any other man had to go to win a wife. His own heart told him that she was the right one. He would take for granted that she was, unless she told him no, and even then perhaps he would keep on trying to win her love. He must not expect anything at once. There were many duties that day to fill its long lagging hours till evening when Lance might go to try for his fortune with his beloved. Yet he did his work tirelessly, and with precision, and took a kind of joy in it because its path led to evening.
He had called her on the telephone as soon as the diamond was safe in his possession, and asked her if he might come to see her for a little while that evening. Her voice had lilted across the charmed air filled with welcome. It almost seemed an echo of the rebuke for his lack of faith from his vision of the night. He marveled at himself that he was no longer fearful to put to the test the great hope of his heart.
"Come early," she had said. "Why can't you come to dinner? We are always hindered by so many things when we set out to have a little talk. But I just hope we won't have any more burglaries or crimes to hinder us tonight."
"Very well, I'll come to dinner. I'll be there at five o'clock. Is that too early? And then you can have dinner whenever Janet and Tabor decide."
The lilting laugh rippled out again.
"How simply super," said Eden. "We'll have a real time together, won't we?"
"We certainly will," said Lance, feeling suddenly a great deal younger than he had been since he returned from service. "And if any former friends or hateful neighbors approach and decide to call tonight, what shall we do? Shoot them on the spot, or run off and leave them?"
"No," said Eden, "we'll turn all the lights out and let Janet and Tabor tell them we are not at home to callers tonight. Because, you see," she said, growing more serious in tone, "I really have a great many questions to ask you. There are things I need to know, and I don't want a horde of neighbors barging in on us."
"Yes? Well, I have only one question I want to ask you, but it's important."
"Oh, how interesting. What is it about?"
"Well, it's too serious and involves too much to go into it over the telephone. Besides, it will take too long, and I have work up to my eyes this minute and can't stop to talk about it now. See you around five o'clock, if I can possibly make it. Good-bye!"
And if a man can lilt, Lance Lorrimer's voice certainly lilted on that farewell word.
Eden hung up and stared at herself in her mirror. Her cheeks were a lovely rose, her eyes like two stars. A bar of sunshine crashing in at her window sprinkled sparkles on her curly hair.
Of course, she told herself, this doesn't mean anything but a pleasant call. I mustn't get silly and spoil it all. He is just tired. He said he was, and he's coming to have a congenial talk. But I like that better than anything else, and I mean to fix things so we won't be bothered with outsiders. I know the Wordens are going to some cousin's wedding over in New York tonight, so they won't come, and there isn't anybody else likely to bother. I'll manage so we won't be annoyed for just one night, even if I have to get Mike and his policemen to help me out. She giggled softly to herself.
She stood there a minute thinking, and then she danced down to Janet, who was polishing silver in the butler's pantry.
"Janet," she said, and the lilt was still in her voice. Oh, Janet knew a lilt when she heard one. This was the same lilt that Eden's mother once had in the days when Eden's father was courting her. She loved it. For a long time she had been waiting for a lilt like this to come to her beloved nursling, watching and waiting and hoping, but fearing, too, that it might be brought there by the wrong lover. So now she turned sharply at the sound and held the spoon she was polishing in midair while she stared at Eden.
"Janet, I'm having a guest to dinner tonight."
Janet fairly trembled with anxiety. Had that dratted New Yorker come back again, and had he really won her "leddy" at last, after all his palavering?
Janet's face stiffened into disapproval, even in spite of the soft pretty color on her girl's cheeks and the stars in her lovely eyes.
Then Eden caught the look in Janet's eyes and broke down laughing.
"Oh, don't put on that disapproving glower, Janet dear. It's somebody you like. I think--I guess y
ou like him very much, though you've taken great care not to say too much about him. Janet, Lance Lorrimer is coming to dinner and to spend the evening, and I want you and Tabor to shoo off the neighbors and try to let us have a little peace. We want to talk awhile about important questions without being interrupted; and we want to read aloud and maybe sing a little, so if any kind of mob comes barging in, just say we're busy with some business tonight and can't see anybody. Tell them to come again, and to call up before they come, or something. I can trust you to get by with it."
"Oh, bless the bairn! Thet's somethin' quite diff'runt. Sure, he's yer lawyer, why shouldna he? Whut d'ye want fer the menoo?"
"Oh, something nice. I'll let you order that. There'll have to be scones, of course, because he likes them terribly."
"Yis. Scones, ov coorse!" said Janet, beaming. "An' whut will ye wear, my lamb? Let it be something light and cheery. Ye ken yer feyther allus craved tae see ye in happy things, as he ca'd thim."
Eden gave her a bright smile.
"Why, yes, Janet. That's a happy thought. I'll wear the light blue wool frock with the white fur on the neck that he loved so much. He used to call that my 'happy dress,' you remember?"
"I mind," said Janet. "It was al'lus the best thing ye wore."
"I'm awfully silly, Janet, don't you think? But I haven't dressed up in so long that it really seems like a sort of holiday night. Just a little evening of business, of course, but why not make it cheerful?"
"Why not?" said Janet with satisfaction, hurrying to finish the silver and get it away so she could go and tell Tabor that there was coming a tiny ray of sunshine into the house after the storms of the winter.
But this is ridiculous! said Eden to herself, as the afternoon waned. The house had been put in spic-and-span order, and she had got dressed in the soft blue frock her father had loved, with the line of white fur in the round of the neck and finish of fur on the comely little sleeves against the white rounded arm. This is just ridiculous! What a fool he will think I am, if he notices at all. To dress up this way, just for a bit of religious conversation and maybe a spot or two of business. Just plain ridiculous! But I like it, and I'm going to get fun out of it. And I think Daddy would like me to be a little happy, too, for a while. This is someone Daddy surely would like, and I'll sort of feel that Daddy is here with us tonight.
Eden had elected to bring her guest to the library, because that was the room where she and her father used to sit so much and because strangers did not often come there.
So, though Eden had not said anything about it, the servants had an uncanny way of figuring out her wishes, and a little before five o'clock there was a fire laid in the library, and the curtains were drawn closed in the living room opening from it. There was a dim light in the hall, as if the family were all out. Tabor knew his business, and he and Janet were often in league to run the house in the most acceptable manner possible, according to their lights. And their lights were lit from the taper that their Lady Eden carried as she walked her pretty ways.
And when it's over, thought Eden, looking wistfully into her mirror because there was no one else to whom she cared to confide these thoughts, not even Janet, I'll be most terribly lonesome, I just know I will. Because the other people I know are so silly and uninteresting to me. But maybe I can get acquainted with some of those nice young people we met at the first meeting I attended and be a 'regular guy' myself. I mean a really happy, unlonely Christian. Well, here goes. There is the doorbell. I'll run downstairs and meet my guest.
And so she dawned upon him, running down the stairs in her pretty soft blue dress, with a wreath of sparkle in her hair like little bright leaves from a fair tree and her small feet twinkling in her slim silver shoes.
A perfect setting for the diamond! But the thought did not come to Lance at first, only the wonder of her beauty and the amazing fact that he was daring to come and seek her as his own. And there he stood looking as if she had been some angel suddenly dawning upon him. Of course, he hadn't before been seeing her in gala clothing; she had worn just plain go-to-meeting suits.
Tabor had opened the door before Eden was down the stairs, and she could see by the way Tabor stood and the look he gave that he was giving her guest all honor, as if he were one he greatly admired.
But suddenly Eden felt shy, as if this were at once some august presence and she had been too forward to be asking him to dinner, when he had only asked to call. Had she been too eager in her approach?
And then she saw that look in his eyes, and it warmed her frightened heart and brought the bright color to her cheeks, giving her courage to go forward with her pretty program.
So Tabor took his coat and hat and the box of flowers that Lance had brought.
"They say those are Christmas roses," he said, smiling at Eden, as she reached eagerly over to take them. "They wouldn't be my idea of Christmas, but somehow they reminded me of you."
"Oh, how lovely!" she exclaimed delightedly. "How exquisite! They're just the shade of pink I love. Will you put them on the table, Tabor? And here, I'll keep this precious bud to smell. What delicate perfume! It seems as if it were specially made for just this color of rose."
She took one lovely bud and held it in her hands, bending her head to get the fragrance as she led the way into the living room where she meant to stay till dinner was announced. And as she went a great shyness came upon her, so that she was almost afraid of the evening that she had allowed to mean so much to her lonely young self.
Tabor took the roses ceremoniously and carried the box away gently to Janet as if it had been a baby. And Janet quickly spirited away some flowers she had bought to decorate the table. So Lance's roses shone in all their delicate beauty and filled the good old nurse's heart with comfort. She took an instant out of her ceremonies by which she was conducting the preparations for the meal, just to stand with folded arms and gaze at them, as if they had been dropped down from some heavenly sphere.
"He's all richt," she murmured to herself with shining eyes. "He's a bonny-heirted mon."
"What's that, Janet? Did you say something?" asked Marnie, who had come in to bring the celery.
"Oh, it's juist thae roses," she explained embarrassedly. "He broucht thim."
"Oh, did he? Aren't they lovely," exclaimed Marnie. And then she went and told the cook, and the cook came to see them. Then came Tabor and beamed above them all. His household was pleasing him tonight.
Over in the living room the two young people sat politely as if they were almost strangers again, Eden tapping one silver shoe and smiling into the delicate rosebud. And Lance watched her silently, thinking that she did not need a diamond to set her off. She was jewel enough without it. She and the rosebud at her sweet lips. It had been the flower after all, the living flower, that had provided the finish to her dress. The flower, not the jewel.
The talk they made was not much, just pleasant little fragments of speech, meant to tide them to the great business of the evening, and Eden began to feel her heart fail again lest they were dropping back to be strangers. Only their eyes were not strangers. They looked deep into each other's soul now and again, and their smiles were there, expressing pleasant flattery. Yet somehow they were content to let the time drift slowly by, coming as it would, as God sent it in His beautiful deliberate way.
Then Tabor came in and dinner was announced.
Lance arose and bowing low offered his arm to the lady, showing that in spite of all his forebodings he was highborn. And all these little things were noted down in his favor by the two servants whose loving, critical eyes were not missing a thing that went on.
It was early when they sat down, but the dinner was served deliberately, and rather formally, in spite of the scones that were on hand as promised. Both servants were pleased that the meal opened with a reverent grace spoken by the guest, with Janet and Tabor standing, and Marnie and the cook standing at the crack of the butler's pantry listening delightedly. Old times were coming back again, and
the old master, if he were able to look back to the world he had left, would be well pleased.
It was as if those four servants had an uncanny insight into the little white box that was reposed in Lance Lorrimer's pocket.
When dinner was over, the two young people were more at their ease, for they would soon be out of sight of those adoring servants and by themselves.
They went straight to the library now, followed solemnly by Tabor carrying the crystal dish of roses. He set them down on the old master's desk, as if to represent his presence in the room and grant a blessing on the evening.
Tabor had seen that the fire was lit and burning brightly before they came in. Eden stood a moment warming her hands, and her guest stood cozily near on the hearth.
"Now," she said, "you said you had a question to ask, and I have a lot of them. Suppose you begin, will you? Since there is only one of yours, I'm sure we'll soon get to my questions."
Lance gave her a twinkling smile.
"I'm not so sure, little lady," he said. "At least, I hope not." He hesitated an instant. The words he wanted to say seemed to come in a rush and then suddenly catch on something in his throat. "But my question involved a statement first. It is short, but it means a lot to me." Then he turned and looked deep into her eyes. "I came over tonight to tell you that--I love you! And my question is 'Will you marry me, dear?' "
Eden was looking up into his eyes with almost a glory look in her own that gave her assent wordlessly.
The love in the young man's eyes almost overwhelmed her; it was so strong and tender. Suddenly his arms went out and drew her to him. For a long moment they stood so, her face against his shoulder, his arms folding her close. Then Lance stooped and laid his lips softly on her hair, eyes, and forehead, and finally she raised her head and their lips met.