Eden shook her head.
"I'm not sure," she said. "I dimly remember sitting on my mother's lap and putting my hand on something on her wrist, and saying, 'Pitty, pitty.' At least there is a story in the family to that effect, and I've heard it so much that it may be I just imagine I remember it. And it might have been the bracelet. I don't know."
"It were!" announced Janet, arriving quietly in the room. "Ye was settin' on yer mither's lap an' playin' wi' her bracelet, an' they was one o' the verra first words ye spoke. 'Pitty, pitty.' An' yer feyther was that pleased! An' thet's the verra bracelet. I mind it well."
So they went down the line of jewels. Some Eden vaguely remembered having seen before, others she knew nothing about, but all of them were familiar to Janet, who had often helped Eden's mother put her treasures away carefully.
"Well, that's about it so far. All single jewels in the list are found, except a few rubies, and they may turn up in the possession of the two crooks. We are going to search them again carefully. But they have enough on them already to definitely put them in jail. In fact, it will be necessary, for we have checked on their movements out West and find that the boy had once before escaped from confinement there, where he was being held for trial for forgery and complicity in robbery. I'm afraid they are really hardened criminals."
Eden shivered a little and looked distressed.
"Oh, why do people want to be like that?" she said. "I never did like them, nor enjoy having them around, but why do you suppose they choose to be that way? Were they born so?"
"Well, yes, I suppose they were. That is, they were born with a sinful nature," said the young man thoughtfully, "the same kind of nature we all have of course, only some of us choose to sin in more respectable ways." He smiled disarmingly. "People don't have to be crooks unless they choose to be. We don't have to follow every evil thought that comes to us. They know the things they plan to do are wrong, but they want to do them. They take a chance that they can get away with it. This time they didn't get away with it."
Eden looked at the young man with interested eyes.
"That sounds a little like something I was reading just now in this book that was sent to my father."
"Why, yes, I suppose it must. I was just noticing the book in your hand. I've heard of it and often wanted to read it. As soon as I get settled into real living, since army days, I want to do some reading. Just now I haven't time, but from what I've heard about that, you'll find it a great book. Don't you?"
"Oh, I haven't read but a few pages yet. I was just looking it over, and it seemed quite new and strange to me. If it hadn't been sent to Father's address, I wouldn't have known whether to trust it or not, but I rather think he had ordered it himself. You see, I was really wishing for a different kind of book when I first opened it, and then I got interested. But perhaps you would know of a book I could get to answer someone who doesn't believe in God anymore. Is there such a book? Surely there must be somewhere. There are so many good people and so many fine churches."
The young man looked at her with quick surprise and a gentle pity.
"Oh, yes, there are books, plenty of them. Of course, the Bible is the crowning book. But did your friend ever believe in God?"
Eden cast him a puzzled look.
"Why, I suppose he did," she said as if she were trying to think back to the past. "He joined the church at the same time I did. Aren't all church members supposed to believe in God?"
"Yes," said the young man sorrowfully, "supposed to believe. But they do not always do it. Sometimes they do not even know what it is to believe. They are just accepting a general belief that is popular among their friends. Jesus Christ means nothing at all to them. I know a lot of ex-Christians like that myself; some of them were never taught, or had never been introduced to the Lord Jesus. Of course, that is the best proof that there is a God, if you know Jesus Christ. When one really knows Him, he can never doubt again. Do you mind my asking if you know Him?"
"Oh," said Eden with distinct trouble in her eyes, "I don't know. I--supposed I was all right. I never really heard anybody put it that way. I didn't know it was possible to know the Lord till you got to heaven. How could you know Him on this earth?"
And it was just at that moment that Tabor, who had answered a ring on the telephone, came in to say: "Beg pardon, sir, but there is a call for you on the telephone. They said it was urgent. The speaker was about to catch a train."
"Oh, will you excuse me a moment, Miss Thurston?" said the young man, and he hurried to the telephone in the hall.
Eden stood pondering what he had been saying, amazed that a young man of his age and standing should be so earnestly interested in religious matters. Perhaps he would be able to help her perplexities. Then he hung up the receiver and returned to her.
"I am sorry to interrupt our conversation just at this point, but this message was urgent and I must go at once. May I talk to you again sometime about it?"
"Oh, yes," said Eden. "I want to know very much what you were going to say."
"Very well, then, I'll be seeing you later. Soon, I hope. Good night!" And he was gone, leaving a great wonder in her heart and an intense admiration for a man who could speak in this assured way of the things of God. Then she went back to her book, and somehow it became more alive and real than before she had had that talk with the lawyer.
Chapter 7
"Janet, what d'ye think? Will that impertinent boy Cappie come back again, or are we rid of him fer good?"
"Well, Tabor, I dootna he'll coom back soom toime, if not richt at oncet. But he was pretty weel astonished at the way my leddy treated him. I canna blame her, fer he was juist awfoo' talkin' they wy about the master an' the master not dead a week yet, an' him allus sae kind tae the lad 'fore he wint awa' tae war. He showed no tender feelin's at all, either fer my leddy, ner him. An' as fer his Maker, I cower a' hoo he could lift oop his head an' speak like thet. Do ye nae think he'd been drinkin', Tabor?"
"No," said the old servant, "he gave no sign of drink. That is, I didn't smell it on his breath when I he'ped him on with his topcoat. Besides, it's not likely he would come here with that on his breath, knowin' how the family feels about young men drinkin'!"
"Weel, he kens juist the same hoo they feel aboot God, an' yet he spoke oot like a regular heathen."
"Yes, I know, but that's the way a lot o' the kids are talkin' now. They learn that in school. They think it's smart. My niece's boy was talking some like that the last weekend when I was home, an' he's only a high-school kid. He said the teachers okayed talk like that. That is, he said some of the teachers talked that way right in class. Though when I narrowed it down, he owned up there was only one teacher of the whole lot talked that way and laughed at the Bible."
"Dear me!" said Janet. "Whut air we coomin' tae? Nae wunner the master dreaded tae leave his wee bairnie alane in the worl' like this. I hoop thet Carvel lad stays in the army. We dinna want him around here, mooch as I useta loike him when he was a slip of a lad. But he niver was a match fer our young leddy. I'm certain bein' in the war hasna improved him ony, though I will say there are some as is quite fine and different since they coom back."
"Yes," agreed Tabor, "I reckon it has improved some, made 'em more thoughtful-like an' considerate. That young lawyer seems a nice sort. Where does he come in? I don't seem to remember him around here before the war."
"Nae. He wasna. Marnie the oopstairs maid says she heard he's the soon o' an ole frind o' Meester Woorden. He was stoody'in' law afore he enlisted, an' whin he goot back, Meester Woorden sint fer him an' took him intae the firm."
"So! That's the way of it! Well, he's some man. I'd like to see our young lady get a man like that."
"Weel, he do seem loike a braw laddie. But it'll be the way the Lord plons," said Janet with a sigh, as if she were a little dubious how that would turn out and would like to get her own hands on the planning.
But over in her own room Eden was deep in her book, and as she read fur
ther and further, she kept recalling the words of the young lawyer and was more and more impressed by what he had said, wishing he were here now so that she might ask him a few questions. Strange it was, how a young stranger had been able to impress thoughts upon her just when she was perplexed about these things. How very different he was from Caspar. It somehow seemed more and more as if Caspar hadn't really grown up yet, or perhaps she should say he had grown undesirably.
And a few blocks away in a small pleasant room on the tenth floor of a modest apartment house, young Lorrimer was preparing for rest after a long hard day. He was reading his Bible, jotting down a few notes in his small diary, thinking of the sweet girl who had asked him such unexpected questions, looking up a book he thought she might like to see, and at last kneeling to pray for her, his heart more deeply stirred for her than perhaps it had ever been stirred for any other person. And that was strange, because he scarcely knew her at all, and from what he knew of her station in life and her fortune, she wasn't at all a girl on whom he would have felt he could fasten his interest.
He puzzled over the idea for a moment as he prayed, and then he thought to himself, Of course not, but that need not hinder my interest in her salvation, and I don't believe she quite knows what it is all about. Teach her, dear Father!
***
Those were strange days that followed. Eden spent much time in her room reading the wonderful book that she had found, growing more and more filled with interest in it.
But often she was interrupted by the coming of old friends. Three sweet old ladies who used to know her mother, and who, though they had not kept much in touch with Eden since she had grown up, felt a duty toward her for old friendship's sake. They all talked of the old days, and fairly purred over her state of loneliness, and wished she would come and see them. It was all a little hard to bear.
Then there were a few older men, intimate friends of her father's. These she knew better because they had been often at the house when he was living, and she liked them and was glad to see them. But through it all she was thinking now and then of the book she had been reading, and wondering if these people knew the doctrines the book had talked about so simply, as if everybody knew.
There were other callers in the afternoons, girls she knew well, some coming shyly in, some boisterously, because they hated the idea of death and didn't exactly know what to say, especially because Eden had always been so devoted to her father and they felt she must be now in the depths of despair without him. They spoke of having seen Caspar, wondered if he were still in town or had gone back to New York. Some of them had hoped perhaps Eden would be out and so the day of calling on her might be postponed. Eden was such a reserved girl and seldom reacted as they would have done. They were sure she would not burst into tears and weep hysterically, or would never be giddy or gleeful. But they felt uncomfortable. Of course, they were sorry for her, but they did not feel they knew her well enough to be sure how she would meet them. Of course, they were relieved when they found she was just her old sweet self, with no sign that she had met with a hopeless disaster, no mark of shock on her lovely face.
A few of her old boy friends came in the evening, in groups of two or three. They made a good deal of noise and rollicked quite a little to cover up their embarrassment, but Eden understood. They had been good friends of her father, too. Some of them had been in the bank. She knew that they mourned for her father, who had always been so kind to them, and she was smiling and pleasant with them, trying to act as she knew her father would wish her to do and make them feel comfortable. She appreciated their coming and knew it had been hard for them.
Then there were two or three of the older fellows from the bank who came, singly; most of them had something pleasant to tell her about what her father had done for them, some pleasant remembrance of him while they had been working under him.
Each time when it was over and they were gone, Eden had a lovely warm feeling that she had been with her father for a little while. It was so beautiful to hear them praise him and show that they so fully realized his worth. It spread a healing balm over the sore wounds that her former friend Caspar had so thoughtlessly caused.
It was four days later that Mr. Worden, her father's confidant and friend, returned. He came at once to see her. After she had had a talk with him, she felt greatly strengthened to go on in the way that her father had planned for her, and not at all apprehensive concerning the Fanes. Mr. Worden assured her he would look after them. Their trial was to come off in a few days now, and he personally would talk with them both and see if he couldn't knock some sense into them.
It was while they were talking together, however, and she was just feeling so happy and comforted, that the telephone rang and Mr. Worden was wanted at once. It was young Lorrimer talking, and though he tried to make his words most guarded, Eden, who had followed to the hall to give a message to Janet, could not help hearing a little, and so she stood with wide-open eyes and a frightened expression on her face, her hands clasped over her heart.
"Oh," she said as Mr. Worden hung up the receiver and turned toward her, "something more has happened at the police station, hasn't it? I heard the word escape. Tell me, please, what it is. You needn't be afraid. I don't get frightened, you know. But I like to understand thoroughly, and then I won't make so many mistakes."
Her old friend smiled.
"I know, Eden. You wouldn't be your father's own daughter if you weren't like that, of course. But this is nothing that need worry you anyway. It only concerns the police. It is entirely out of your hands."
"But who has escaped?" insisted Eden. "Ellery or his mother?"
"Well, both of them," admitted the man, "and they haven't quite figured out how it happened. They thought they had them safely guarded. But they'll soon be caught, of course, and then we'll see that there are no more pranks played on the law."
Then the telephone rang again, and this time it was Mike.
"Miss Eden, could I speak with Tabor a moment? Somebody seems to be using the kitchen telephone, and this is urgent."
Tabor was on the spot at once.
"Tabor speaking, Mike. What? You don't say. Right-o, Mike, I'll check on the cellar, and the garage and the outside shed. Yes, there might have been some old coats and other things that were used by the gardener. Do you think they would dare come here again?"
"Sure. They'd think it was the last place we would look for them. Where else could they go in a hurry? No hideouts around here that aren't watched. That old lady is clever. She got around her keeper by pretending to be very sick. She asked to have her son sent for. Thought she was dying. Two guards brought the guy over, and she had another bad spell with her heart, almost died. Manda, our guard woman, went for water quick, and when she got back they were gone. How they managed to get out is a mystery. They musta had this all planned before they began this show. Better check on your place right away. Put Janet wise, too. And take it easy; they're smooth. They aren't new at this job. Better keep yer gun handy, but watch out how you use it. I'm sending two of my men over. They are on their way now. So long!"
Tabor did not wait to convey the intelligence. He vanished toward the kitchen. But Eden and her caller had heard enough to understand.
"Oh!" said Eden. "How terrible Daddy would have felt if he had known we were to have a thing like this to go through!"
"Well, it's a mercy he didn't know. It would have distressed him, of course, but we'll take care of you and your interests, child!"
"Of course! I know," said Eden, smiling. "Only it seems so awful that two people we have known, no matter how disagreeable we thought them, should turn out to do things like this. Do you know, Uncle Worden, I never realized what sin was before, nor how much of it there could be all about us when we didn't see it ourselves."
"Yes, that is certainly true," said the man thoughtfully. "But you, kitten, ought not to have to think about sin. It will never touch you. You are not a sinner."
"Oh, but I am, Uncle Wo
rden, and I've just found it out!" exclaimed Eden. "I found a book of Daddy's, one he had just sent for, and I got to reading it. I think it is a theological book. Father was interested in such things, you know, and I've been very much interested in it myself. I find that the Bible says that we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God, and that nobody is able, in themselves, to please a just and righteous God. That Jesus Christ was the only one who never sinned. Of course, in a way I knew that from Sunday school when I was a child, but I never realized it before. But the thing I can't understand is why people, when they get old enough to understand, should deliberately choose to be sinners instead of wanting to follow God and be saved. Why, for instance, should Mrs. Fane start out to do what she must know is wrong, instead of teaching her boy to do right and doing right herself?"
"Well," said Mr. Worden, somewhat perplexed and very much embarrassed over her questions, "I don't know that I can answer that. Your father was always one who could study up deep problems like that and find the answers, but I always had to be content with just following out the line the church has marked out for us. That seemed easiest and best. But maybe this Mrs. Fane did this because she loved her son and wanted to save him. Or maybe he and she both wanted things they couldn't afford to buy and so they took the dishonest way to get them. That must be the explanation. However, don't you think maybe we ought to call up and see if there is anything more we can do to help find these people? We certainly don't want them hiding around this house all night. I wouldn't think of allowing you to stay here under any such circumstances. There! There goes the phone again. Perhaps that is my man Lorrimer again. Shall I answer?"