Three days later when the supper dishes were done and the Fernleys were just settling down to a few minutes’ pleasant talk before the mother was remanded to her room, Frannie stepped to the window and looked out. The great hole in the back of the house had been thoroughly bricked up and cemented and reinforced, so that they felt secure from unexpected intrusion, and there was a cozy cheer over the whole place. They all felt it. And yet there was a sadness in Frannie’s heart. She couldn’t help thinking of the days, though they had been very few, of course, when she and Willoughby had had pleasant companionship. Was it possible that even those few days had spoiled her sweet contentment, her joy in life? Well, that was silly, and she had told her mother that she didn’t intend to be silly; she would not. So she put on a cheerful tone.
“Oh Mother, you should come to the window and look out! It is such a lovely sight. The ice is like a piece of glass, and the moon is almost full. It is worthwhile living here just for this great sight even if for no other reason. Come, Mother, come and look. You can see Lady Winthrop’s ‘street of the city’ as she calls it.”
For Frannie had long ago told her mother all the lovely tales of the sweet old lady that Willoughby had told to her.
So Mrs. Fernley went over to the window and stood with her arm around her daughter looking out on the winter beauty.
“Yes, it is indeed a lovely sight,” she said, “and a lovely idea. I am looking forward to the time when I can go over to that Bible class and get to know that sweet woman better.”
But Frannie said nothing about skating to her work yet, and her mother, knowing little of how long it took to make ice safe for skating, was glad. Somehow it always seemed a big risk for her little girl to go sailing off alone down a river of glass.
“And now,” said Nurse Branner, “it’s time you and Bonnie went to bed.”
It was just then that there came a low tap at the front door, and then the knob turned and in walked Valiant Willoughby!
Frannie turned and looked at him, her eyes wide with a great joy, her face blooming out in smiles.
“Oh, you did come back!” she said, almost as a little girl would have said it.
And Val had eyes for no one else, his rare smile filling the room with good cheer.
“Why sure!” he said. “Didn’t you know I was coming back? That’s what I’ve been intending to do all along.” He went and stood by Frannie and took both her hands in his, looking down at her as if she were the sweetest thing on earth.
And then, with her hands still in his, he turned to the others. “Hello, Bonnie, and Nurse Branner. I’m glad to see you all looking so well. And now, Frannie, aren’t you going to introduce me to your mother? You know, I’ve never rightly met her, just picking her up off the floor and putting her to bed. That isn’t an introduction.”
And so he led her over to her mother, who had gone a few steps toward the stairs as he came in.
Frannie laughed.
“Mother, this is Mr. Willoughby. I know you’ll want to thank him now you’re better for all he did for you when you were taken sick.”
“Oh yes,” said Mrs. Fernley, giving him a smile that made him think of her daughter, it was so sunny and kind.
Val reached for one of her hands and folded it with Frannie’s within his own clasp, a kind of symbol of the united friendship they all felt. “You know,” he said gently, “I like mothers. My own is gone Home, and so I almost envy everyone who still has one left here on earth. I am very glad to know you.”
Mrs. Fernley gave his hand a warm pressure and smiled again, trying to thank him for all his kindness to herself and her daughter, but he waved her thanks away.
“It was nothing,” he said. “But I mustn’t keep you standing. You are still an invalid, aren’t you? May I help you upstairs? Is that where you were going? And may I ask a favor of you? Do you mind if Frannie and I put on our skates and go out on that ice for a few minutes, just to celebrate my getting back? They tell me the ice is solid as the Rock of Gibraltar, and I’m aching to try it. Do you mind?”
“Oh, is it safe? Why of course, go for a little while. Frannie has done nothing but work since you went away. She needs a bit of exercise.”
“Well, that’s all I’ve done, too, so I think we can both enjoy it. The ice is perfect. You look out your window and you’ll see us skimming along.”
“I will,” said the mother, smiling. “Go, Frannie dear, and have a good time.”
“Oh Mother, and can I go sometime, too?” pleaded Bonnie.
“Why, of course you can, Bonnie,” said Willoughby. “I’ll come over sometime before it is bedtime, and Frannie and I will take you out, one in each of your hands, holding you up till you learn for yourself. I think I can find a pair of skates at my aunt’s that will about fit you. My little cousins used to skate, and I’m sure I’ve seen some small skates over there. Will that please you?”
“Oh Muvver! Can I?” asked Bonnie entranced.
“Why yes, dear, that will be wonderful!”
So Willoughby helped Mrs. Fernley up the stairs, and they said good night. And then Frannie got her skates and they went out together into the clear, cold night.
He helped her down the steps to the ice and knelt before her to help her on with her skates. Then he looked up to her face and caught the starry look in her eyes.
“Oh Frannie, Frannie dear!” he said suddenly, rising and taking both her hands in his. “It is so good to get back to you! It seemed forever before I could get away and come back. Did you miss me at all, Frannie? Or is it too soon to expect that from you?”
Frannie lifted shy eyes.
“Yes, I missed you—very much,” she confessed. “I thought I ought not to, but I did.”
“You darling!” said the young man, stooping suddenly and laying his lips on hers. “Frannie, I love you! Oh, my dear!” Then he lifted her up and put both arms around her, drawing her close in his arms, laying his firm, cold cheek against her glowing one, his lips on hers again. Frannie thrilled to his kisses, her heart full of wonder and joy. He loved her! Think of that! And she had been trying to forget him, because she thought he didn’t belong to her world, because she thought he did not care for her, was even perhaps engaged to some other girl. But he wasn’t. He loved her! The thoughts tumbled themselves over and over in her brain until she was just in a tumult of joy.
Then suddenly Val remembered.
“Can they look out the upstairs window and see us?” he asked, with a comical grin. “We might be a couple of goldfish in a glass bowl for all we remember the world now. We don’t want the whole world in on our sweet privacy, even on a moonlight night. Wait till I get my skates on and we’ll go away by ourselves for a little.”
Frannie sat on the step while he adjusted his own skates, and then together they glided away from the shore and out into the middle of the stream, remembering to turn and wave to the three shadowy figures in the upper window who stood watching them and waving back, especially the smallest one most vigorously.
On down into the silver pathway they flew, joyful in the touch of shoulders, the clasp of hands, the look in their eyes as their glances met.
“Oh, I love you, Frannie,” said Val. “Do you think you can love me enough to want to marry me, so that we can be together always?”
Such sweet converse they had that they scarcely saw the gold in the silver way before them as they glided on and on, almost down to where the river joined the sea.
And when they turned and came back they went more slowly and touched in their talk on the sweetness of loving one another. Val began to tell her how she looked to him when he first saw her and how different she seemed from the silly girls he had always been so bored with. And little by little she told him how desolate her young heart had been after he went away.
“But it was only a few days,” he said. “I told you I would be back. I did not know before I went that they would keep me so long, but sometimes it seemed to me it would never end. I did not realize I w
ould feel that way for just a few days, when I left. But when I got away where I could not see you anymore I began to realize what you were. I met a couple of girls I used to go around with when I was in college, but they only made me long for you.”
Frannie’s hand lay warm in his as he told her this, and she nestled closer as they glided on.
“What were you doing down there anyway?” she asked suddenly.
“Oh, just the kind of work I was doing here. You see, I was taking the place of another man who was very sick and couldn’t keep on. It was work that one had to have special training for, the kind of training I have had. That’s all I can tell you now, because on account of the war these things have to be kept secret. So it was important there should be someone there who understood. The man I was substituting for is rather high in his profession, and he turned out to be sicker than they thought at first, but at last he got better and then they let me off. I got back early this morning, but I went straight to the plant. I haven’t been home yet. I wanted to see you so much. But there was a lot to be done at the plant. I couldn’t get away any sooner. You see, the men I left in charge here were rather green at the job, and I found a lot of mistakes to be fixed. But oh, I’m glad to be back, and glad, glad to be near you again.”
He suddenly flung his arm around her and drew her closer, so they glided on in the silver night, so close they were like one body, so much a part of one another that they seemed a single figure.
And in the dim distance the mountains girded around the river, the towers and turrets of earth’s mansions took on their unearthly semblance and seemed like outlying parts of heaven to which they were traveling.
And then they looked up at the beauty of it all.
“Look, look!” said Frannie. “How beautiful. Doesn’t it seem like a picture of what heaven might be?”
“Yes,” said Val reverently, “our heavenly home. And to think that we can be sure that we are both going there. All our lives we can go on looking ahead to going there, to being with the Lord, our Lord, forever. Oh, I am so glad we are both saved. There doesn’t have to be an uncertainty about it ever, because we accepted His Word, and He has promised. I’ve been thinking a lot about these things while I was away. In fact, that was one of the main reasons why I was so sure I loved you, because you were interested in these vital things. Because we thought alike. I can’t imagine a happy married life without that. People have to think alike to enjoy life together, I guess.”
“I guess you’re right,” said Frannie softly. “I couldn’t feel the same toward one who didn’t understand my deepest thoughts and feelings.”
“Dear!” said Val, pressing her little mittened fingers tenderly. “Of course. And now, Frannie, I think I ought to take you back. Your mother will be waiting for us to come even if she has gone to bed, and besides we both have to be up early in the morning, remember. But tomorrow night, I’m coming over early and have a little talk with your mother about all this, and we’ll talk it out together, you and I. Make our plans, you know. I don’t want to be away from you any longer than I can help.”
“Oh!” said Frannie, with sudden dismay in her voice. “Plans. Yes, of course. But listen. You know I have responsibilities. I couldn’t leave my family high and dry—”
“Of course not!” said the young man heartily. “But your responsibilities will become my responsibilities now, you know. There’ll be two of us now to take care of your mother and sister. And remember, I haven’t any mother or sister of my own, so I’m going to enjoy yours a lot and shall delight to make life happy for them both. Shall we do it together, dearest?”
Frannie looked up at the eager face above her, and a great joy flashed into her eyes.
“Oh, you are wonderful!” she said in exultation. “I didn’t know there were men like you. And to think the only one should be mine! I can’t see why God would be so good to me!”
“And just for that we’re going to stop till I kiss you again,” said he, whirling her over to a wooded place in the bank and holding her close in his arms to lay his face against hers for a moment. “You darling!”
Slowly at last they glided on back to the little brick house and took off their skates.
“I heard at the plant today that you folks had had a little excitement up this way a couple of days ago. Is that true? I meant to ask when I first arrived, but I was so taken up looking at you that I forgot it. What happened? Or didn’t you know about it?”
“Know about it?” said Frannie. “I should say I did! For a few minutes I thought I was the only one who knew about it. I heard a noise and slipped to the window. It was during the worst storm. The wind was shrieking, it was raining fiercely, and we heard a great pounding on the back cellar wall. At least I did, and the nurse came, too, pretty soon. But I had slipped down to the telephone and called up the police and asked them to see if someone was trying to break in.”
“Brave girl! I wish I could have been here to help! But what was it? Was someone trying to get in?”
“Yes, it seems they had a radio transmitter walled up in our cellar. They had been using it to send messages, intelligence about war plants and such to the enemy, and when we suddenly moved in that spoiled their plans. So they wanted to get their paraphernalia out, and they didn’t dare come and tell us about it. It seems they had some incriminating papers there, hidden behind the furnace in a walled-up place they had built while the house was vacant for several years. They couldn’t come and open the place from inside for fear they would be arrested, so they chose a stormy night and tried to work in from outside. They dug a trench, and when they got close in they began with pickax and sledgehammers, and it was pretty awful for a few minutes in the middle of the night. But just think, Mother didn’t hear it, at least if she did, she thought it was just branches breaking off the trees in the storm and she slept all through it. Wasn’t that great?”
“Pretty great, I should say. Oh, I’m sorry you folks had to go through all that without me here to help. I shall have to begin right away to take care of you all very hard to make up for it. And by the way, you won’t need to work anymore, you know. I mean you shall have a beautiful and comfortable life from now on.”
“Oh, but I’m doing defense work now, you know; all the women of the land are asked to do that, so I guess I should keep right on at my job for a while, as long as I’m needed. I guess our work at the plant is pretty important, and it isn’t good for them to have to change helpers when they have someone taught.”
“That’s true, I know, and of course if you put it that way I’ll have to withdraw my objections. We’ve all got to help win the war. But as much as I can, I mean to take care of you and make life easy. Of course I’m talking rather big for a man who hasn’t even asked permission of your mother to court her daughter. Do you think she will offer serious objections?”
“Oh no,” giggled Frannie, “only she will tell you, I am afraid, that you are thinking of marrying a girl from the wrong side of the river, and that isn’t being done, you know.”
Valiant threw his head back and laughed loud and long, and the echo of that laughter, mingled with a ripple from Frannie, reached up through an open window in the Hollister mansion and caused a beautiful young lady to turn uneasily and sigh in her sleep.
Then Frannie spoke more soberly.
“Mother admires you very much. I’ll tell you later all the nice things she said about you, and she was glad that you are a Christian. The only thing she is afraid of is that you may not care for me and will break my heart, and she warned me not to let my heart get entangled. She has heard that you belong to a wealthy family and live in a fine house, and she has no aspirations toward wealth. She doesn’t trust it, perhaps. She had some wealthy relatives herself.”
“Well, if that is all the objection she will offer I can easily quiet her mind. You can tell your dear mother that I am anything but rich. I have a few thousand invested that was left over after my father’s estate was settled, and beyond that I have onl
y my salary for the work I am doing. I have an aunt who is fairly well off, but that has nothing to do with me. She has children of her own who will inherit her money; so you see I’m not a little rich boy, and your dear mother needn’t worry on that account. You can tell her, too, if you like, that I have a fairly promising education, which will probably make it possible, if all goes well, for me to support you in a modest way, so she needn’t think I am a lazy good-for-nothing, either. Just a plain young man with health and a job who loves you more than anything in life. Now, do you think I will pass?”
“I’m sure you will,” whispered Frannie with her face against his, her lips close to his ear.
“And oh, here’s another thing,” said Val, suddenly holding her back and looking into her face. “How do I rate with Bonnie? Is she going to be terribly upset to have a big brother?”
“Oh no,” said Frannie, her face wreathed in smiles. “She simply adores you. She will be delighted. But truly, you know, none of my family have been presuming enough to even dream that you would ever want to marry me, a plain working girl from the wrong side of the river.” And then her eyes twinkled merrily and her laugh rang out again with his hearty one.
“Well,” said Val, recovering from his mirth, “hadn’t we better call it a day? I don’t know how I’m going to tear myself away, but I guess it’s got to be done if we want to keep our jobs till the end of the war.”
As they reached the door and turned to go in, Val pointed to the river, bright in its silver sheen.