And so at last Louella departed. Making excuse, however, to return to search the floor and her chair for a possible dropped handkerchief she was sure she had with her when she came. And during her careful search she had opportunity to see that the telegram was still on the mantel, and Margaret Graeme had been as good as her word and had not taken opportunity to open the envelope as soon as she had left. That was what she had hoped to catch her doing, and then surely she might be able to discover to whom it had been sent.
But Margaret was sitting there serenely where she had left her, still thoughtfully, almost wearily, knitting. Louella always did make her very weary. Her mind had to be so keenly on the alert to avert disasters of one sort and another, especially the leaking out of private family matters that Louella ached to discover and broadcast.
So at last Louella was gone, and Margaret might draw a free breath. She walked to the window to see her going down the hill toward her hotel—just to make sure she would not be returning within the minute.
Rodney came in a little while later and read his telegram. “Has Chatty been here yet today, Mom?” he asked as he cast his eye about the room and noted Louella’s favorite chair brought in from the other room and placed to good advantage for conversation.
“Chatty” was the nickname given the unloved cousin in derision. The mother smiled. “Why yes, how did you know?”
“Isn’t that her ball of yarn under the chair and a handkerchief with red cherries around the border? They could belong to none other than our garrulous relative.” He grinned, and the mother smiled sympathetically back again.
“Well, Mom, that telegram is my bid to come down to Washington next week and broadcast, but don’t tell her, in case she comes back to find out what it was.”
“Oh no, of course not,” said the mother with a twinkle. “I’ve already had my troubles to keep her from opening the envelope and discovering for herself what it was.”
“Brave woman. I’ll pin a medal on you for that,” said the boy, stopping over and planting a kiss on his mother’s smiling lips.
Jeremy stood at one side grinning and watching them. “What do you suppose she wants to know for?” he asked. “Is she just curious, or did she have some ulterior motive?”
“I’m sure it would have been ulterior, whatever the reason,” said Rodney with a wry grin.
“Well, if you ask me, Rod,” said Jeremy, “I think she was gathering fodder to feed to your old flame, Jessica.”
“What?” said Rodney, looking at his brother sharply. “What makes you say that? Have you got some information you haven’t told me about?”
“Not definitely, but I know the habit of the woman—or perhaps I should say women. What do you suppose your former fiancée is hanging around here all this time for, anyway? I understood she was only here for a day or two, didn’t you?”
“I didn’t understand anything about it,” grouched Rodney. “I wasn’t interested.”
Afterward, upstairs in their room together, Jeremy said loftily, “Well, if I might advise, I should say it might be to your advantage to find out what’s going on, brother. You know that baby isn’t one who ever does anything without reason, and it’s just as well to find out and take the sting out of it before she gets in any of her deadly work.”
“Hm!” said Rodney thoughtfully. “Perhaps you’re right. I’ll look into it. But you understand, Jerry, I don’t want to be connected with Jessica in any way. I’ll look into it, but it will have to be through you or somebody else. I simply will not have anything more to do with that double-crossing, slippery little sneak. She is not to be trusted for an instant, and I want nothing more to do with her. Not even to stop her connivances. However, I’ll take some means to let her understand that it is of no use to try anything more with me, and I feel it in my soul she’s plotting something of that sort and is trying her best to make that silly cousin of ours help her get it across.”
“Well,” said Jerry, “I’m glad you see that much. I certainly am. I was afraid there one time you were going to feel sorry for the poor little brat, the way you used to do sometimes when you caught her in one of her flirtations in high school, and then she turned weepy on you and you made up with her.”
“Yes, I know,” said Rodney with his brow in a heavy frown. “I was a fool then, but I’ve found it out now. I didn’t spend all those days and nights up in the sky with nobody but God and the enemy around for nothing. I found out a lot of things about myself, even besides my sins. But Jerry, you were only a little kid in those high school days, just in the freshman class. How did you know anything about all that?”
“What do you think I was? Dumb? I reckon I saw a whole lot that you didn’t even know. I saw, and I heard, and I watched, and I grew up watching. And maybe I did worry a lot about my big brother. For I didn’t trust that sleek hypocrite of a girl, not one little bit. I saw and heard a lot more than you thought I would, and I’m not meaning mebbe.”
Rodney studied his brother’s face searchingly for a minute, and then he said, “I’ll bet you did, kid, and the more fool I was that I didn’t see it, too. Yes, with the kind of mother I’ve got, I ought to have seen it myself, first off the bat. Thanks, awfully, kid, for having seen it and stuck by me and kept your mouth shut. But now I hope I can get by without any more contacts.”
“Well, it may be so,” mumbled Jeremy, half whistling as he talked, “but knowing that gal as I’ve watched her, I think not. I think she means to get it back on you yet, unless you’re mighty cautious, lad.”
“I guess you’ve forgotten something, haven’t you, buddy? I’ve got a Lord now, and He’s keeping guard over me. ‘He’ll not let my soul be lost,’ you know, ‘He will hold me fast.’ ”
“That’s right, brother, I forgot you had that now. The enemy may be strong, but he can’t get by that defense. I say, Rod, it’s something great, isn’t it, to be at home again and to live this new life together, with a Savior like ours? Able to keep, and to present us faultless! Sometimes I just revel in that thought, ’able to keep’ and to present us ‘faultless.’ ” And then in the dimness of the hall as they started downstairs for lunch, the two brothers felt for each other’s hands in a strong happy clasp of rejoicing.
Chapter 14
But the next day there were letters and phone calls, some of which sought to change the bright future and good times the young people had planned.
The letters were for Diana. One from her mother, saying she was so glad that her daughter was having a delightful visit with her old college mate, but wasn’t she almost ready to come home? Didn’t she realize how many lovely affairs she was missing, how many old friends were home on furloughs, who would be going back again overseas, perhaps for a longer stay? And they were being given parties. There were even a few weddings, unexpectedly soon, weddings in which of course Diana must participate. There was Rush Horrmann’s and Lannie Freeman’s wedding. She mustn’t miss that, and Lannie had just called to say she wanted Diana for her maid of honor. And there was a simply huge affair for the Red Cross Drive. She mustn’t miss that on any account. She owed that to her mother who was president, even if she were not interested on her own account.
“And then my dear,” went on the mother, coming gently to the crux of the matter in her last few sentences, “do you realize at all how you are treating poor dear Bates Hibberd? Does that seem quite fair to him that you should go flying off after an old college mate, just at the time when Bates was coming home with new honors? And he has always been so devoted to you. Why, he confided to me only yesterday that he had hoped to get you to name the day while he is home this trip and was planning to coax you to get married right away. And just think, my dear, how much you’ll be missing of pomp and ceremony if you should happen to wait so long that the war would be over and you couldn’t have a real military wedding. Uniforms do make a wedding so picturesque, you know, and it would be simply calamitous if you were to miss that. I could never forgive you. I was looking at Bates yesterday wh
ile he was talking with me, and he did look so handsome in his new officer’s uniform. It is just gorgeous. And so, my dear, I wish you would bid good-bye to your fascinating new friends and come home not later than Monday, but really I suggest that you come Saturday. Say to your friends there that it is imperative. After all, you’ve certainly outstayed your invitation, I am sure, and we all are getting quite hungry to see you again. The house seems terribly empty without you.”
The other letter was from Bates Hibberd, perfect of diction, impeccable of stationery, demanding of tone, as if he had a perfect right to demand and didn’t understand why she hadn’t come home of her own desire days ago.
Dear Diana,
I cannot understand your absence. After all, since we are engaged, it seems high time that it should be announced.
How long do you intend to keep me waiting? I told you that I was coming home especially to talk over a very important matter with you, and I simply cannot understand why you are treating me this way.
I wish you would come home AT ONCE, taking the first train after you receive this. I am making plans for a delightful surprise for you, and it is necessary that you be here before I fix the date.
There was more in this general line, in a most possessive tone, indicating that the young officer felt that she was virtually his to order around and that his usually reasonable temper was roused beyond further endurance.
Diana sat pondering this letter for a few moments with a frown of worry on her lovely face, and then she went to her room and wrote an answer to that letter.
Dear Bates,
I am sorry that you feel that I have not treated you fairly, but it was just your very insistence that made it necessary for me to run away for a little while and do some thinking.
You know, my friend, I have never agreed to your desire that we should be engaged. I have told you more than once that I do not want to marry anyone at present nor to be engaged. We are not engaged, Bates, and it has been made very plain to me during my absence that I do not want to be engaged to you at all. You are my good friend, and that is all, and I wish you would accept that statement as final. I do not care for you as one should care for the man one is to marry, and I mean that definitely.
I am sorry if I am hurting you by saying this, for you have always been my good friend from childhood, but this is truly the way I feel, and I would have no right not to make it plain to you.
But I do hope you will understand and that someday soon you will find someone else for whom you can truly care, who will make you very happy.
Please forgive me for not having told you this sooner. I did not realize the situation fully before. But someday I hope you will be glad that I have written you this letter.
Your true friend,
Diana Winters
The answer to her mother’s letter was not so easy to write, because she knew her mother would be terribly disappointed at her decision.
Dear Mother,
I’m sorry not to be able to come right home as you request, but Beryl has planned several lovely affairs for the next few days, in which I figure, of course, as her guest, and it would be quite disappointing both to her and to me if I could not be here. So, I feel, after the Sandersons have gone to a good deal of trouble to show me a good time, that it would not be courteous for me to leave so abruptly. I cannot possibly see my way clear to leave before the middle or end of next week. One of the expeditions planned is a trip to Washington with a few friends, and they have secured us some rare privileges. Some returned officers from overseas are to broadcast, and it will be an interesting experience to be a part of the group.
And now, Mother, you speak of Bates Hibberd, but you know I have told you several times that we are not engaged, and he has no right to attempt to order my comings and goings. He is only an old friend, and I have just written him quite definitely that I do not want to be engaged to him, and that this is final. I wish you would understand that I mean this, Mother.
I’ll be home in time for your Red Cross Drive, if possible. And I’ll wire Lannie about her wedding. But meantime, I’m having a delightful time here, and I wish you wouldn’t worry about me.
Your loving
Diana
These letters were dispatched special delivery, air mail, and Diana drew a long breath and took courage. She felt that she had taken a very decided step in her new life and that she was being honest with her own heart for the first time since Bates Hibberd had begun to pester her to marry him. In the light of the new life she had, she was surprised to find how such questions fell into place and were clear and plain before her. For one thing, Bates Hibberd wouldn’t be in sympathy with her living a Christian life, that she knew definitely. He did not go to church and hated religious things. But clearest of all came the knowledge to her that she did not love him and that she could not enter into a close relation like marriage with one whom she did not love. Yes, he was handsome and rich and influential and could give her a fine social position, but those things did not count now. She had found a Savior, a Redeemer, a Guide, and she had found a joy that no royal social position could give her. She was content.
So Diana had one night of restful, happy sleep, and then very early the next morning, the telephone rang, and her mother’s angry voice called her, demanding that she come back into the world from which she had fled.
“I’m sorry, Mother—” she began, but the sharp voice at the other end of the wire interrupted her.
“No, there is no use for you to begin making excuses,” said the angry voice of her mother. “I’m not going to have any more of this. You are my child, and I know what is right and fitting for one of our family. I’m not going to have you playing fast and loose with a man as fine and distinguished and definitely wonderful as Bates Hibberd. It just can’t be done, and I demand that you come home at once, starting this morning! That is an order from your mother!”
There was a distinct moment of silence, and then Diana, trying to keep her voice from trembling, said firmly, “Listen, Mother! Have you forgotten that I am of age and have a right to control my own movements?”
“Indeed!” said the icy voice of the parent.
“I don’t like to talk like that to you, Mother dear, but this is something that I have to decide for myself. I am not going to marry a man because he is fine and distinguished and wonderful. That isn’t what you married my father for, I know, for you’ve often told me how you cared about him, and I certainly do not care for Bates in that way. I think marriage would be awful without love!”
“Nonsense!” said the mother. “You don’t know what love is! You’re too young to know!”
“Then I’m too young to get married,” said Diana firmly.
“That’s ridiculous! If you are as young as that you’d better realize that your mother knows what’s best for you, better than you do. You’ll love him all right when you are married to him. Besides he’s likely going away to war again very soon, and you’ll have plenty of time to get used to the idea after he’s left for overseas. It would really be best for you to marry him at once and get the question settled. It isn’t fair to him to keep him uncertain.”
“He need not be uncertain, Mother. I have written him very fully, and I’m sure he could not misunderstand. I told him I hoped he would soon find someone else to make him happy and that we would of course always be friends.”
“Yes, I know that you have written. Bates brought your letter over to me to read the first thing this morning, and I consider it was a most insulting letter for a daughter of mine to write to a good respectable young man, one who belongs to a fine old family and has always been most kind and attentive to you. A man who has offered you his love and his name—”
“I beg your pardon, Mother, I don’t think he ever did. He just ordered me to be engaged to him and told me we were going to be married, in spite of the fact that I told him I wasn’t ready to marry anyone at present; and that isn’t my idea of love. I said no every time he talked about the
subject, and that is the reason that I ran away from home when he came back. I wanted to think this thing all out and know exactly how I felt. And now I know, Mother, and I am not going to marry Bates. I’m not even going to be engaged to him tentatively or anything like that. And I mean what I say! I’ve grown up, Mother, and I know what I don’t want. And I’m not coming home just now. I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I’ve made certain engagements to do things and go places here, and I’m going to keep them. I’ll run up to New York for a day or so for your drive, just to go on record, but I’m coming right back here until you’ve put aside all idea of this Bates Hibberd proposition and I can come home and be myself without danger of running into an argument.”
“Diana, I insist that you come home at once!”
“No, Mother, not now.”
“Diana, you don’t know what you are doing to your life!”
“Yes, Mother, I definitely do, and it’s what I want to do.”
“You’ll be sorry!”
“No, I won’t be sorry!”
“Diana, you never talked to your mother this way before.”
“No, Mother, and I wish I didn’t have to do it now, but if I had done it before, perhaps I wouldn’t have to be doing it now. I mean if I had told you long ago how I felt about Bates and the way he took me for granted as if I belonged to him, ordered me around and everything, I think you would have understood that I would never care for him.”