"You say your name is Fane? I see." He took out his notebook and flipped over the leaves with one hand. "Fane. Yes, Fane. Have you any relatives in the city or nearby by the name of Fane?"
A quick wary look came into the woman's eyes as she met the stern gaze of the policeman.
"Relatives? Oh no, none by the name of Fane. That is, no relatives at all in this part of the country except the Thurstons. You see, my name is really Thurston. I was a widow with one son and married a brother of the deceased, Mr. Thurston, so my name really is Thurston, and I certainly ought to go right back and be with Eden. It is my duty, you know."
But Mike McGregor walked steadily on, with his grasp still firm on the woman's arm, and suddenly he looked down into her shrinking, frightened eyes.
"Your son's name is Ellery?" he asked, quite casually, and pierced her through with those eyes that did not flinch.
"Why, yes," she simpered, trying to hide her astonishment. "Did you used to know him when he was here before? He was only a child then. I never heard him speak of you. He'll be here in a day or two, I guess. He had some business matters to settle up before he left the West, but he'll be coming on soon."
"Your son is here now," said the policeman calmly. "He must have arrived sometime yesterday, or perhaps earlier, but he is here now."
Lavira gave him a frightened glance, and he could see that her lip was trembling.
"But how would you know that?" she asked, trying to appear casual. "Where is he? I want to see him at once!"
Mike paused beside a big red police car and opened the door.
"Get in," he said coldly. "I will take you to him."
Lavira turned toward the car and suddenly caught her breath, stepped back a pace, and looked the bright red car over.
"But I can't get into that car," she said haughtily.
"Why not?" asked Mike sharply.
"But a bright red car like that! It looks like a police car!"
"It is a police car. Get in!"
"But I can't ride in a car like that! I never was in a police car in my life! I couldn't endure to ride in that. I would be ashamed all the rest of my life. I couldn't get over it."
"People have been ashamed all their lives for less than that," said the policeman grimly. "Get in!"
"Oh, no, no, no!" said Lavira. "I simply couldn't do that! Tell me where you think my son is, and I'll get a taxi and go there, but I can't go in a police car!"
"Sorry," said Mike, "if you want to go to your son, you'll have to go with me in this car. This is my car, and I'm taking you. Get in!"
There was that in Mike's voice that made the woman know she must obey. Slowly she turned and got in, forcibly assisted by Mike's big insistent hand.
"But, but, where am I going? I can't do a thing like this without knowing where I am going."
"You're going to the police station, madam," said Mike. "Your son is there. You wanted to see him. That's where he is."
"Oh!" she gasped. "But what is he doing there?"
"He's being questioned for breaking into the Thurstons' house last night and ransacking Mr. Thurston's desk drawers."
"Oh, he didn't do that," pleaded the mother. "I know he didn't. He wouldn't do a thing like that. Besides, he wasn't here last night. He was to come in on the afternoon train and meet me here. We had planned to come right on and take care of Eden. We knew she would be so lonesome!"
But McGregor rode on in silence, not even noticing by so much as the lift of an eyelash the flow of words by his side and the freely flowing tears, which he told himself grimly were only crocodile tears. For McGregor knew his crooks and didn't often make a mistake.
It was so that Lavira was ushered into police headquarters where she was greeted by the sight of her misguided son sitting in one corner of the room, in close confab with two stern-looking policemen. He sat there in front of his inquisitors filled with assurance, his one long wavy lock of hair hanging jauntily over his handsome, dejected face, like a banner, to which he occasionally gave a careless toss, but his mouth was grim and sullen as he tried to explain to the police how it came about that his fingerprints were on the window that had been jimmied open in the Thurston house, and what he was looking for in the Thurston desk drawers; also how it was that he came to have several old canceled checks in his pocket that bore Mr. Thurston's signature, and what he had been planning to do with them. His excuse for the latter, that he wanted the checks for souvenirs of his beloved uncle, did not seem to go down with the police, as they knew well by now that Mr. Thurston was neither his uncle, nor beloved.
Meanwhile, back at the Thurston house, Eden lay in her own quiet room, getting a much-needed rest. All that day she was watched over by her faithful servants, careful that nothing should disturb her.
And then the next morning, all too early for the careful plans to guard her, it was the telephone by her bed that roused her from her long refreshing sleep.
Chapter 3
"Hello, beautiful! How are you?" breezed a voice out of the past. "How are you fixed for the day? Ready to run off for a few hours and have a jolly time? I'm here on leave for the day, and I want to make the most of it, if it's okay with you."
Eden was silent for a minute or two, blinking at the instrument in startled bewilderment, unable for an instant to identify the voice, it seemed so much more mature than when she last heard it. Then it came to her. He would be older of course than when he went away to war two years ago, or was it more?
"Oh!" she exclaimed in amazement. "Why, it's Caspar Carvel, isn't it? But I thought you were away in the Philippines somewhere, or even in Japan. How grand to know you're home. How did you get here without letting us know? And where have you been all this time?"
"Oh, here and there," said the laughing voice.
"But you never wrote to us but once!" reproached Eden.
"Well, I know, I never was much of a correspondent, you know. Besides, they kept us awfully busy in the army. I just didn't have time. But anyhow, I'm here now, and I have to leave tonight. I'm due up in New York to do some broadcasting, and I can't tell when I can get back, so I thought I'd call you up. How about it? Can you give me the day, and perhaps part of the evening if we can find some good show or a nice dump for dinner and a dance? Will you go? You know it's a long time since we went gadding together, old girl, and I don't want to waste any time. Hurry up and say yes. I haven't got another nickel handy and I want to get this settled. I'll come for you in three quarters of an hour. And make it snappy. Can you be ready in that time? Wear something pretty smart. I may want to introduce you to a coupla the fellows if we happen to meet them. This all okay?"
Eden caught her breath. Could this really be Caspar Carvel? He didn't sound the least like her old friend and playmate. The handsome boy who had been her playmate in high school, and who had been almost daily running in and out of their house. She hesitated, and the voice on the other end of the wire grew impatient:
"I say! Are you there, Eden! Didn't you hear me? I'm in an awful rush, and I haven't got another nickel handy."
"But--are you really Caspar Carvel? Somehow your voice sounds so different! I didn't recognize it at first. You seem so grown up!" There was a little sad reproach in her tone.
"Well, good night! One does grow up, you know. And I guess there's no place to accomplish that quicker than in the army. Do you mind?"
There was a sharp challenge in his tone now.
Eden still hesitated.
"Why, no, of course not," she said, trying to speak naturally. "It's quite to be expected of course. But somehow you startled me. I wasn't expecting you."
"Well, are you coming with me? Get a hustle on. I only have this day, and I want to make the most of it."
"Why, Caspar, I want to see you, of course, but I couldn't go with you. Nor do all those things you suggested."
"What? You mean go dancing? You mean your dad would object to that? But surely he doesn't attempt to lord it over you the way he used to. You're of age, aren't yo
u? Or almost. I should think you had a right to do what you want to now. But anyway, if you think he would kick up a row, we could steal away to some place he wouldn't know about. Would he really make a fuss now? It's time you made a stand against such petty domineering. If you're afraid of him, I'll tell him what I think of him. Just wait till I get out there."
Eden's voice was choked with sudden tears.
"My father is not here, Caspar."
"Well then, what's the matter? He needn't know where you went. Where is he? Will he be away all evening?"
Eden took a deep breath and choked back the tears.
"Caspar, my father died four days ago. His funeral was day before yesterday." There was a deep sorrow in the girl's voice, and Caspar's lively tone suddenly hushed.
"Oh!" he said, aghast. "Oh, you don't mean it! You see, I didn't know it. I ask your pardon for barging in this way. I'm sorry! Was he sick for long? Somebody ought to have told me. But I really haven't seen anybody from over this way in a long time. I hope you'll understand. Of course, I don't suppose you feel like having fun right away. I understand. Perhaps you'd rather I didn't come over today."
"Oh, no, I'd like to see you," said Eden gravely. "I have been wondering what had become of you. Nobody seemed to know."
"Okay, I'll be over for a little while. Bye-bye!"
Eden dropped back on her pillows and lay there staring up at the ceiling. Was that really her old friend Caspar? How strangely different he seemed. Even after she had told him of her father's death his voice was hard and unsympathetic. The words were all right, but he sounded as if he were in a world that was not hers. Of course, that was what people were saying war did to the boys, though some that she knew had come home quite changed in another way, more reliable, more gentle, and sometimes grave.
Well, but this wasn't fair to Caspar. Judging him before she had really seen him at all. It would be natural that one would change to some degree when taken out of a home environment and put among a lot of tough fellows. Although, of course, they were not all tough. Well, she would put such thoughts aside and try to wait until he came, and then perhaps she wouldn't feel he was changed so much after all.
But as she rose and went about the matter of dressing, the brief conversation over the telephone kept lingering in her mind. The way Caspar had spoken of her father, so disrespectfully, suggested that she get out from under his care. How terrible for him to speak that way! Why, he used always to admire her father, to look up to him! And her father had always been so nice and kind to Caspar. Had he forgotten all that? Didn't he remember how her father had gone with him to see the man at the apartment house after he broke two of their windows in the basement, and paid for the windows, and then let Caspar pay him five cents a week out of his allowance until it was all paid for? And Caspar had been so pleased and had understood why Dad didn't pay it himself, because it wouldn't be good for Caspar to get away without paying for his own carelessness. Caspar used to be such an understanding boy. Oh, he couldn't have changed that way. He used to come to Dad for help in things instead of going to his own father, because his own father simply got angry with him and took away his allowance for a while. Well, anyway, she mustn't judge Caspar until she saw him face-to-face and talked with him, and found out whether he was really the fine, upstanding boy he used to be in the days when she thought he was everything a young man should be.
Of course, she had been much upset that he hadn't written to her as he had promised to do, but she had excused that because she knew Capsar hated to write letters. And gradually she had learned to forget the heartaches that had come at first after he went away, and told herself that she was too young to break her heart because of a schoolboy who had forgotten to write letters when he was off fighting battles. And so the days had gone by and the memory of Caspar had gently faded from her thoughts. And now suddenly, with the sound of his voice, the whole vision of his handsome, vivacious face, his fine flashing eyes, his alluring smile came over her, and in spite of all her common sense and her definite resolutions that she was done with Caspar, she couldn't help an excitement thrilling in her veins. Somehow it was great to have her old friend coming back just when she was sad and lonely over the loss of her dear father. She hurried in her dressing to be ready when he should arrive. If he had not much time, she must be ready to see him at once, and of course she must hurry down and tell Janet that he was coming and would likely stay to lunch.
Then right in the midst of her thoughts the telephone rang again.
"Hello, Eden, this is Cappie again. I'm sorry as the dickens, but I find I'll not be able to come this morning. I've just met some old friends, and they are determined I shall go to lunch with them. One of them is my old buddy in the army, and he's going back overseas tonight, so you see, I've simply got to stay with him and see him off."
"Oh!" said Eden coldly. "Then I'm not to see you at all. Is that what you mean? Well, I'm sorry, but of course it's all right."
"Oh, no, I didn't mean that," said the young man amusedly. "You didn't think I'd come all the way down from New York just to see you, and then go off without seeing you, did you?"
"It sounded like that," said Eden with dignity.
"Well, I always was a bungler when it came to talking. Of course I'll be around as soon as he leaves. I haven't found out what train he takes yet, but I'll be seeing you. How about early this evening?"
"But I thought you wanted to go dancing," she said sweetly. "Don't let me hinder you."
"Oh, see here now, that's all off. Of course I wouldn't expect you to go out having fun when you had just had a death in the family. I'm not that crude. And I certainly do want to see you like the dickens. I've been thinking about you all the way home. Yes, I'm all kinds of sorry I had to meet up with this buddy of mine and be hindered in coming directly to you. But you see, I kind of felt under obligation to him on account of things he did for me when I was wounded. But say, are you going to be in this evening?"
"Why, yes, I think I probably shall. Yes, of course, come when it's convenient to you. I'll be very glad to see you." But her tone was cool.
"All righty, I'll be there, and I'm just crazy to see you."
So with a hasty "So long," Caspar hung up, and Eden went back to her precious letters.
The last letters of Mrs. Thurston were written from a hospital. They were full of tender love for her husband and anxious premonitions for her little Eden. And now Eden could read between the lines and sense that her mother knew that her health was in danger and that she might soon be taken away.
There were only a few letters left now, and her heart was longing to read them all and get to know this mother who had gone from her so long ago that she could not remember anything about her but a vague lovely face and a gentle touch.
Curiously enough, the last three letters were filled with a kind of exultant joy in her husband and an overwhelming longing that her little girl might grow up in such a wonderful life as hers had been. And in one letter she said:
I have been praying lately that our little Eden when she grows up may find as fine a man as you are, my beloved. I have been praying much about that and hoping that as she grows up we may be able to teach her that she must take time to be sure about choosing a mate. That she must not be taken by the first handsome face, or a man with wonderful manners, or social standing, or riches, or honor, or physical charm. She must wait and be sure before she joins her life with another life. I shall try with all my heart to make her understand what real love is and that she must not hastily fancy herself in love with somebody who may turn out to be utterly selfish and bring her nothing but sorrow. Oh, I pray that may never be for my little rosebud of a girl. A girl that has such a wonderful father as my beloved should also have just such a wonderful husband.
And now the letters brought a new note, a foreshadowing of change, as if the mother was trying to prepare her dear ones for her going.
In the very last letter she said:
And if it should be that
I may have to leave our baby girl before it is time to make her understand how important it is that she should choose the right companion for life, I am asking you, my beloved husband, that you will tell her most carefully, warn her, impress upon her that she must go cautiously and not think of marrying anyone whom she does not love implicitly. And even then, she must not accept love that is not from a man who is good and right and true.
Eden sat for a long time, reading that letter over again, and looking off out of the window, thinking. And then the vision of the handsome boy who had been Caspar Carvel came to her questioningly. Suddenly she realized that when Caspar went away to war she had looked upon him as a man she would eventually fall in love with. Not that he had ever said a word of any such thing to her, or that she had ever put such a thought into logical form even in her own mind, but she had viewed him in her innocent thoughts as a young man who would someday be a friend of whom to be proud. That was how she put it. And why, now, since this brief talk over the telephone, should there be any question in her mind of his suitability as her close friend? She couldn't quite tell, but the very form of his address had seemed crude and overfamiliar. And yet that was absurd of course, for they had been very close friends as children, as students in high school, a merry, friendly companionship. Nothing sentimental about it. And he hadn't even written her, just a careless little scrap of a letter, mostly jokes couched in army slang. Well, she would have to wait and see what he had become before she let him take even his old informality with her. She could be friendly, yes, but that was all till she knew him well.
But having gone so far in the analysis of her old playmate, she had a definite feeling of sadness, a sense of loss. Something that she had taken for granted was gone, something that had belonged to her, that had been of real value. Or was it?
Then she gathered up some of the letters that had touched her most and read them over again; as if, were her mother alive, she might have gone to her for advice. What would her mother think of the present Caspar? That would be something that she might always ask when she had any important question to decide. What would Mother say?