Chapter II
THE BROKER'S OFFICE
It was the first time Jewel had visited her grandfather's office and shewas impressed anew with his importance as she entered the stone buildingand ascended in the elevator to mysterious heights.
Arrived in an electric-lighted anteroom, Zeke's request to see Mr.Evringham was met by a sharp-eyed young man who denied it with a cold,inquiring stare. Then the glance of this factotum fell to Jewel's uplifted,rose-tinted face and her trustful gaze fixed on his own.
Zeke twirled his hat slowly between his hands.
"You just step into Mr. Evringham's office," he said quietly, "and tell himthe young lady he invited has arrived."
Jewel wondered how this person, who had the privilege of being near hergrandfather all day, could look so forbidding; but in her happy excitementshe could not refrain from smiling at him under the nodding hat brim.
"I'm going to dinner with him," she said softly, "and I _think_ we're goingto have Nesselrode pudding."
The young man's eyes stared and then began to twinkle. "Oh," he returned,"in that case"--then he turned and left the visitors.
When he entered the sanctum of his employer he was smiling. Mr. Evringhamdid not look up at once. When he did, it was with a brief, "Well?"
"A young lady insists upon seeing you, sir."
"Kindly stop grinning, Masterson, and tell her she must state herbusiness."
"She has done so, sir," but Masterson did not stop grinning. "She lookslike a summer girl, and I guess she is one."
Mr. Evringham frowned at this unprecedented levity. "What is her business,briefly?" he asked curtly.
"To eat Nesselrode pudding, sir."
The broker started. "Ah!" he exclaimed, and though he still frowned, hereflected his junior's smile. "Is there some one with her?"
"A young man."
"Send them in, please."
Masterson obeyed and managed to linger until his curiosity was bothappeased and heightened by seeing Jewel run across the Turkish rug andcompletely submerge the stately gray head beneath the brim of her hat.
"Well, I'll--be--everlastingly"--thought Masterson, as he softly passed outand closed the door behind him. "Even Achilles could get it in the heel,but I'll swear I didn't believe the old man had a joint in his armor."
Zeke stood twisting his hat, and when his employer was allowed to come tothe surface, he spoke respectfully:--
"Mother said I was to bring word if you would like a late supper, sir."
"Tell Mrs. Forbes that it will be only something light, if anything. Sheneed not prepare."
Jewel danced to the door with her escort as he went. "Good-by, Zeke," shesaid gayly. "Thank you for bringing me."
"Good-by, Jewel," he returned in subdued accents, and stumbling on thethreshold, passed out with a furtive wave of his hat.
The child returned and jumped into a chair by the desk, reserved for theselected visitors who succeeded in invading this precinct. "I suppose youaren't quite through," she said, fixing her host with a blissful gaze as heworked among a scattered pile of papers.
"Very nearly," he returned. He saw that she was near to bubbling over withideas ready to pour out to him. He knew, too, that she would wait his time.It entertained him to watch her furtively as she gave herself to inspectingthe furnishings of the room and the pictures on the wall, then looked downat the patent leather tips of her best shoes as they swung to and fro. Atlast she began to look at him more and more wistfully, and to view thefurnishings of the large desk. It had a broad shelf at the top.
Suddenly Jewel caught sight of a picture standing there in a square frame,and an irrepressible "Oh!" escaped from her lips.
She pressed her hands together and Mr. Evringham saw a deeper rose in hercheeks. He followed her eyes, and silently taking the picture from the deskplaced it in her lap. She clasped it eagerly. It was a fine photograph ofEssex Maid, her grandfather's mare.
In a minute he spoke:--
"Now I think I'm about through, Jewel," he said, leaning back in hischair.
"Oh, grandpa, do these cost very much?"
"Why? Do you want to have Star sit for his picture?"
"Yes, it _would_ be nice to have a picture of Star, wouldn't it! I neverthought of that. I mean to ask mother if I can."
The broker winced.
"What I was thinking of was, could I have a picture of Essex Maid to takewith me to Chicago?"
Mr. Evringham nodded. "I will get you one." He kept on nodding slightly,and Jewel noted the expression of his eyes. Her bright look began to cloudas her grandfather continued to gaze at her.
"You'd like to have a picture of Star to keep, wouldn't you?" she askedsoftly, her head falling a little to one side in loving recognition of hissadness.
"Yes," he answered, rather gruffly, "and I've been thinking for some weeksthat there was a picture lacking on my desk here."
"Star's?" asked Jewel.
"No. Yours. Are there any pictures of you?"
"No, only when I was a baby. You ought to see me. I was as _fat_!"
"We'll have some photographs of you."
"Oh," Jewel spoke wistfully, "I wish I was pretty."
"Then you wouldn't be an Evringham."
"Why not? You are," returned the child, so spontaneously that slow colormounted to the broker's face, and he smiled.
"I look like my mother's family, they say. At any rate,"--after a pauseand scrutiny of her,--"it's your face, it's my Jewel's face, that suits meand that I want to keep. If I can find somebody who can do it and notchange you into some one else, I am going to have a little picture painted;a miniature, that I can carry in my pocket when Essex Maid and I are leftalone."
The brusque pain in his tone filled Jewel's eyes, and her little handsclasped tighter the frame she held in her lap.
"Then you will give me one of you, too, grandpa?"
"Oh, child," he returned, rather hoarsely, "it's too late to be painting myleather countenance."
"No one could paint it just as I know it," said Jewel softly. "I know allthe ways you look, grandpa,--when you're joking or when you're sorry, orhappy, and they're all in here," she pressed one hand to her breast in asimple fervor that, with her moist eyes, compelled Mr. Evringham to swallowseveral times; "but I'd like one in my hand to show to people when I tellthem about you."
The broker looked away and fussed with an envelope.
"Grandpa," continued the child after a pause, "I've been thinking thatthere's one secret we've got to keep from father and mother."
Mr. Evringham looked back at her. This was the most cheering word he hadheard for some time.
"It wouldn't be loving to let them know how sorry it makes us to saygood-by, would it? I get such lumps in my throat when I think about notriding with you or having breakfast together. I do work over it and thinkhow happy it will be to have father and mother again, and how Love gives useverything we ought to have and everything like that; but I_have_--cried--twice, thinking about it! Even Anna Belle is mortified theway I act. I know you feel sorry, too, and we've got to demonstrate overit; but it'll come so soon, and I guess I didn't begin to work in time.Anyway, I was wondering if we couldn't just have a secret and manage not tosay good-by to each other." The corners of the child's mouth were twitchingdown now, and she took out a small handkerchief and wiped her eyes.
Mr. Evringham blew his nose violently, and crossing the office turned thekey in the door.
"I think that would be an excellent plan, Jewel," he returned, ratherthickly, but with an endeavor to speak heartily. "Of course yourconfounded--I mean to say your--your parents will naturally expect you tofollow their plans and"--he paused.
"And it would be so unloving to let them think that I was sorry after theylet me have such a beautiful visit, and if we can _just_--manage not to saygood-by, everything will be so much easier."
The broker stood looking at her while the plaintive voice made music forhim. "I'm going to try to manage just that thing if it's in the
books," hesaid, after waiting a little, and Jewel, looking up at him with an Aprilsmile, saw that his eyes were wet.
"You're so good, grandpa," she returned tremulously; "and I won't even kissEssex Maid's neck--not the last morning."
He sat down with fallen gaze, and Jewel caught her lip with her teeth asshe looked at him. Then suddenly the leghorn hat was on the floor, daisyside down, while she climbed into his lap and her soft cheek buried itselfunder Mr. Evringham's ear.
"How m-many m-miles off is Chicago?" stammered the child, trying to repressher sobs, all happy considerations suddenly lost in the realization of hergrandfather's lonely lot.
"A good many more than it ought to be. Don't cry, Jewel." The broker'sheart swelled within him as he pressed her to his breast. Her sorrow filledhim with tender elation, and he winked hard.
"There isn't--isn't any sorrow--in mind, grandpa. Shouldn't you--you thinkI'd--remember it? Divine Love always--always takes care--of us--and justbecause--I don't see how He's going--going to this time--I'm crying! Oh,it's so--so naughty!"
Mr. Evringham swallowed fast. He never had wondered so much as he did thisminute just how obstinate or how docile those inconvenient and superfluousindividuals--Jewel's parents--would prove.
He cleared his throat. "Come, come," he said, and he kissed the warm pinkrose of the child's cheek. "Don't spoil those bright eyes just when you'regoing to have your picture taken. We're going to have the jolliest time youever heard of!"
Jewel's little handkerchief was wet and Mr. Evringham put his own into herhand and they went into the lavatory where she used the wet corner of atowel while he told her about the photographer who had taken Essex Maid'spicture and should take Star's.
Then the cherished leghorn hat was rescued from its ignominy and replacedcarefully on its owner's head.
"But I never thought you meant to have my picture taken this afternoon,"said Jewel, her lips still somewhat tremulous.
"I didn't until a minute ago, but I think we can find somebody who won'tmind doing it late in the day."
"Yours too, then, grandpa.--Oh, _yes_," and at last a smile beamed like thesun out of an April sky, "right on the same card with me!"
"Oh, no, no, Jewel; no, no!"
"Yes, _please_, grandpa," earnestly, "do let's have one nice nose in thepicture!" She lifted eyes veiled again with a threatening mist. "And you'llput your arm around me--and then I'll look at it"--her lip twitched.
"Yes, oh, yes, I--I think so," hastily. "We'll see, and then, afterthat--how much Nesselrode pudding do you think you can eat? I tell you,Jewel, we're going to have the time of our lives!" Mr. Evringham struck hishands together with such lively anticipation that the child's spirits rose.
"Yes," she responded, "and then after dinner, _what_?" She gazed at him.
The broker tapped his forehead as if knocking at the door of memory.
"Father and mother!" she cried out, laughing and beginning to hopdiscreetly. "You forgot, grandpa, you forgot. Your own little boy cominghome and you forgot!"
"Well, that's a fact, Jewel; that I suppose I had better remember. He is myown boy--and I don't know but I owe him something after all."