Bright Arrows (28 page)

But Janet took it all good-naturedly and kept her watch just as faithfully.

So Janet sat by the window when they drove up. But that cold little bar had dropped between their two hearts again and kept Lance from coming in, though he very much wanted to.

He said good night at the door, letting his fingers linger a trifle longer in hers than necessary and leaving with Eden that wistful, tender, true look that stayed by her even when she was asleep.

But it was Janet who interrupted even this bit of farewell, though she knew better. She opened the front door for them, unnecessarily soon, and burst out with her Scotch speech anxiously.

"And hoo did ye find Caspar?" she asked excitedly. "Was he really hurt bad?"

"Yes, very badly, Janet," said Lance gravely. "But fortunately we got there before he died."

"Deid, is he? Ye dinna
maen
it! Boot praise be, he's better in the Lord's han's than ever he was down here. And noo, p'raps it'll be possible tae feel sorry fer him without bein' feared ov him."

"Now that's a strange thing for you to say, Janet; whatever can you be meaning by that?" asked Eden.

"Wull, ye maun work it oot, my bairn, boot I've ben afeard o' yon lad since iver he began tae grow a mon, and I'm relieved that the Lord has took him over; I canna be sad he's gane. But the Lord allus kens best."

The eyes of the two young people met in a tender little twinkle of amusement at the quaint old woman, and their fingers, unaware of relaxed caution, gave sweet pressure one to another that lingered in both their thoughts through the long night hours and came out alive again in the morning, much to the upsetting of the decorum they were allowing their chastened young selves.

 

Sometime in the dim watches of the night, the Lord came and talked with Lance Lorrimer in a dream, about the heaviness that was upon his heart.

"What is it, Lance, My son? What is so troubling you?"

"Why, Lord, I've got myself into something that is breaking me all up. I have let my heart get all entangled with a girl who belongs to somebody else. I never meant to get into a thing like this. And I've tried with all my heart to break loose from it, but I can't seem to get anywhere with it. I just am loving that dear girl. Now what shall I do? Should I go away where I'll never be seeing her anymore, or is this a cross You are meaning me to bear all my life? I know that You are able to furnish the strength to overcome this and to live to please You, nevertheless, but I seem to have come to a sort of a crossroads where I must know which way to turn. Try as I will, resolve as I may from day to day that I will put myself in her way no more, constantly I come upon a situation where my duty to my job and my sense of decency make it necessary for us to be thrown together. Yet I could not refuse to go yesterday, even though I knew my desire was so great that I was only tangling my life up further. Yet the outcome seemed to prove that it was right to go. And now here I am, again pleading for help for this situation. Will You not make it plain for me what I should do? It is not fair to her or to me, or to the man I hear she is engaged to marry, that we should grow more and more near in companionship. I do not know what it is doing to her, of course, but I do know that it is making it very hard for me to go about my daily duties and do them right. If that is what You want, my Lord, it is all right with me, but You'll have to give me grace and strength for this new way."

Then a still, small voice spoke deep into his heart.

"Lance, My son, why should you think this girl could not be for you? Don't you know that before the foundation of the world I looked forward to your time and I planned her for a fitting companion for you? Why is it that you have drawn away from this great joy that I have planned to give you?"

"But, Lord, I have been told that she belongs to another."

"Yes? Who told you? One you know and trusted? Did you ever try to find out if this was true? Why not?"

"But, Lord, I was ashamed. I have no wealth to offer her befitting her station. I have no great standing in life, either financial, social, or intellectual. She is a wonderful girl, I know, and I would not try to win her away from all those worldly advantages she rates, as the daughter of a wonderful father."

"Lance, when did I ever tell you that these things you have named were important? Money? Station? Social prominence? Worldly advantages? Don't you remember that the silver and the gold are all Mine? Have you forgotten that all advantages of the world are Mine to give or take away? Do you think that a child of the heavenly King should make decisions on a foundation of that sort? Are you Mine, to follow Me everywhere, or only Mine when the world agrees with your standards?

"For pride's sake were you letting this wonderful girl slip away from you? Compelling her to go on alone perhaps? Not letting her know of the treasure of your love, which I have created to be a jewel in her life and in yours, to bring you both joy?"

The vision began to fade, but as he woke in the early dawn of a roseate sky, the words that had seemed to be spoken grew clear again. Then his common sense stepped up and offered humdrum reasoning. But as he rose and prepared for the day, he found a cheerful song was in his heart. Whatever was coming to him in the next few hours he did not know, but he could trust and not be afraid. He somehow felt that the Lord was on his side.

He thought over the situation carefully. Somehow it seemed as if he should find out from someone about whether Eden was engaged or not. But again he put that thought aside. His own wisdom was not best. The magic of the vision was still upon him. This was not a matter of reasoning things out. That was following an inward calling.

Of course, he might ask Mr. Worden, just casually, if Eden was engaged. He likely would know, if anyone did. And again he might ask Janet. But somehow he disliked to be talking over her with anyone. She was the only one who had a right to give this information, and he had no real right to get the information from any other source.

How he was going to go about this difficult business of inquiry he had not yet settled, but surely a way would open. He must not run ahead of himself, and he must not make a set blueprint to follow, for if this was of the Lord there would be a way. The main thing was to be prepared with ammunition, and a ring was one of the articles that was always associated with a matter of this sort, wasn't it? A ring, the sign that she belonged to him. How that thought thrilled him. He had never realized that anyone might belong to him. And now that he thought of it, he hadn't noticed that she was wearing a ring on her engagement finger. Wasn't that a sign that she was free? Dolt that he was! Why hadn't he thought of that before? Well, now he was going to find out just where he stood. And he was going the first thing to prepare for the siege in which he was to engage today. This morning he would go to the very best jewelers in the city and choose a gorgeous ring. Thank the Lord he had money enough put away to get a really good one. Not too large, not too showy, but good. One that she need never be ashamed to wear.

Somehow he had never realized before what lovely things diamonds were, how beautiful to handle and watch. As he looked them over and admired, he was reminded that somewhere he had read that the Eden of old, the first Eden, bore flowers made of precious stones, and someone had hazarded the thought that perhaps in the
new
earth, gardens were again to bear both growing blooms and flowers of jewels again. It sounded fantastic, but with a great God was anything fantastic that He chose to do?

Lance chose at last a beautiful stone, the lights in whose facets were rainbow-tinted stars and prisms, and when he took the tiny velvet box containing the lovely jewel, wrapped in white, and put it in a safe hiding place till he could give it to Eden, his heart was filled with great joy. He had not thought that just a jewel could mean so much to a mere man. But this jewel represented a great love, his love for the girl he had chosen, and whether she accepted it or not did not now enter into the question. That would be for him to find out tonight, but he would not begin to expect disappointment beforehand. He would go forward into this thing just as any other man had to go to win a wife. His own heart told him that she was the right one. He would take for granted that she was, unless she told him no, and even then perhaps he would keep on trying to win her love. He must not expect anything at once. There were many duties that day to fill its long lagging hours till evening when Lance might go to try for his fortune with his beloved. Yet he did his work tirelessly, and with precision, and took a kind of joy in it because its path led to evening.

He had called her on the telephone as soon as the diamond was safe in his possession, and asked her if he might come to see her for a little while that evening. Her voice had lilted across the charmed air filled with welcome. It almost seemed an echo of the rebuke for his lack of faith from his vision of the night. He marveled at himself that he was no longer fearful to put to the test the great hope of his heart.

"Come early," she had said. "Why can't you come to dinner? We are always hindered by so many things when we set out to have a little talk. But I just hope we won't have any more burglaries or crimes to hinder us tonight."

"Very well, I'll come to dinner. I'll be there at five o'clock. Is that too early? And then you can have dinner whenever Janet and Tabor decide."

The lilting laugh rippled out again.

"How simply super," said Eden. "We'll have a real time together, won't we?"

"We certainly will," said Lance, feeling suddenly a great deal younger than he had been since he returned from service. "And if any former friends or hateful neighbors approach and decide to call tonight, what shall we do? Shoot them on the spot, or run off and leave them?"

"No," said Eden, "we'll turn all the lights out and let Janet and Tabor tell them we are not at home to callers tonight. Because, you see," she said, growing more serious in tone, "I really have a great many questions to ask you. There are things I need to know, and I don't want a horde of neighbors barging in on us."

"Yes? Well, I have only one question I want to ask you, but it's important."

"Oh, how interesting. What is it about?"

"Well, it's too serious and involves too much to go into it over the telephone. Besides, it will take too long, and I have work up to my eyes this minute and can't stop to talk about it now. See you around five o'clock, if I can possibly make it. Good-bye!"

And if a man can lilt, Lance Lorrimer's voice certainly lilted on that farewell word.

Eden hung up and stared at herself in her mirror. Her cheeks were a lovely rose, her eyes like two stars. A bar of sunshine crashing in at her window sprinkled sparkles on her curly hair.

Of course
, she told herself,
this doesn't mean anything but a pleasant call. I mustn't get silly and spoil it all. He is just tired. He said he was, and he's coming to have a congenial talk. But I like that better than anything else, and I mean to fix things so we won't be bothered with outsiders. I know the Wordens are going to some cousin's wedding over in New York tonight, so they won't come, and there isn't anybody else likely to bother. I'll manage so we won't be annoyed for just one night, even if I have to get Mike and his policemen to help me out.
She giggled softly to herself.

She stood there a minute thinking, and then she danced down to Janet, who was polishing silver in the butler's pantry.

"Janet," she said, and the lilt was still in her voice. Oh, Janet knew a lilt when she heard one. This was the same lilt that Eden's mother once had in the days when Eden's father was courting her. She loved it. For a long time she had been waiting for a lilt like this to come to her beloved nursling, watching and waiting and hoping, but fearing, too, that it might be brought there by the wrong lover. So now she turned sharply at the sound and held the spoon she was polishing in midair while she stared at Eden.

"Janet, I'm having a guest to dinner tonight."

Janet fairly trembled with anxiety. Had that dratted New Yorker come back again, and had he really won her "leddy" at last, after all his palavering?

Janet's face stiffened into disapproval, even in spite of the soft pretty color on her girl's cheeks and the stars in her lovely eyes.

Then Eden caught the look in Janet's eyes and broke down laughing.

"Oh, don't put on that disapproving glower, Janet dear. It's somebody you like. I think--I
guess
you like him very much, though you've taken great care not to say too much about him. Janet, Lance Lorrimer is coming to dinner and to spend the evening, and I want you and Tabor to shoo off the neighbors and try to let us have a little peace. We want to talk awhile about important questions without being interrupted; and we want to read aloud and maybe sing a little, so if any kind of mob comes barging in, just say we're busy with some business tonight and can't see anybody. Tell them to come again, and to call up before they come, or something. I can trust you to get by with it."

"Oh, bless the bairn! Thet's somethin' quite diff'runt. Sure, he's yer lawyer, why shouldna he? Whut d'ye want fer the menoo?"

"Oh, something nice. I'll let you order that. There'll have to be scones, of course, because he likes them terribly."

"Yis. Scones, ov coorse!" said Janet, beaming. "An' whut will ye wear, my lamb? Let it be something light and cheery. Ye ken yer feyther allus craved tae see ye in happy things, as he ca'd thim."

Eden gave her a bright smile.

"Why, yes, Janet. That's a happy thought. I'll wear the light blue wool frock with the white fur on the neck that he loved so much. He used to call that my 'happy dress,' you remember?"

"I mind," said Janet. "It was al'lus the best thing ye wore."

"I'm awfully silly, Janet, don't you think? But I haven't dressed up in so long that it really seems like a sort of holiday night. Just a little evening of business, of course, but why not make it cheerful?"