Girl to Come Home To (6 page)

“No, I’m sorry you feel that way, Louella,” answered Rodney’s mother. “I don’t feel that it was so important a happening. It was just a youthful high school attachment, you know, and things of that sort are better ignored, don’t you think? No, I wasn’t disappointed. I knew if it wasn’t the wisest, best arrangement all around it would work itself out, and we were all quite satisfied that it did. But I do feel that it is a thing of the past and not to be brought into our conversation again. And now, Louella, what plans have you made? Are you to be in this region long, or do you have to go right back? And where is your luggage? I ought to have asked you if you didn’t want to go upstairs and freshen up. Did you come right here from the train?”

“No,” said Cousin Louella coldly, “I went to the inn first and left my things and then took a taxi over here. You see, I had no idea of course if you would be home or gone perhaps to Florida.”

Louella finished her coffee hurriedly and rose. “Thanks for the coffee. It just touched the spot. And now if you don’t mind, I’ll run on. I’ve a room at the inn, and there are people I want to see who may be waiting for me, so I better go at once. As for the business, it can wait, or I may find a lawyer who can help me. No, don’t call a taxi,
I’ll
phone the inn to send their cab for me, and don’t disturb yourself for me. I’ll be seeing you again before I leave, that is, if I get time. Good night!” And Louella walked angrily to the telephone in the hall and sent for her cab. It was not long before she was gone and the family was rejoicing in her departure. Then Mother Graeme gathered her children around her and beamed on them, and Father Graeme poked the fire into brilliancy again, drew down the shades as for a blackout, turned out the lights in the hall, locked and chained the front door, and in every way made sure that no more callers would seek welcome that night in the Graeme home.

“Maybe it’s selfish,” he said as he came smiling back to the library again, “but I declare if we can’t have one evening with our children to ourselves after all these long months of anxiety and waiting, I’ll do something desperate!”

And the children lifted proud, happy eyes.

“Thanks, Dad. That’s what we wanted!” said Jeremy.

“Here, too!” said Rodney.

“And Mom, if anybody else tries to break into the family sanctum, let’s make them have an examination on what topics of conversation they are going to select to talk about before we pass them in,” said Kathie.

“That’s all right by me,” said the smiling lips of the mother in her best imitation of the present-day slang. And then they all burst into a joyful round of laughter, and the mother had to wipe some happy tears away before she could hold hands with her two boys, seated on the floor one on each side of her.

And then began the happy converse that they had been anticipating all the way across the sea.

I
f the Graemes had been able to look in on their last caller in her comfortable apartment at the inn and seen the luxurious appointments, the elaborate little evening repast that was being set out for her expected guest, they would no longer have been under the impression that she was hard up financially. She had spared nothing to give the right touch of festivity to her setting, including candles on the little table, set in readiness.

She hurriedly changed into a charming outfit, gave just the right touch to her hair with an artificial rose that dropped attractively to one side. Then she took up her position in a comfortable chair with one of the latest bestsellers, the kind of book that was the rage in the fashionable world. A glance at the clock and she settled herself for at least five minutes of pleasant relaxation.

But in less than five minutes her telephone rang. “Is that you, Louella?” asked the dashing voice that answered her acknowledgment of the ring. “This is Jessica! You are back? Okay. We’re on the way. Be there in five minutes.”

And it was less than five minutes when Jessica marched in followed by her three friends and sat down to sip tea and eat cakes and bits of sandwiches and confections. But Jessica did not waste much time. “Well, what did you find out?” she asked with eyes that pierced the eyes of her hostess. “Did you find out where he is? Was he there?”

“Why certainly.”

“Where was he?”

“Sitting at the dinner table, enjoying his meal with the rest of the family,” said Louella with satisfaction. She adored playing such an important part and being able to prove her prognostications. “Did
you
go out and look for him?”

“I certainly did,” said the vexed Jessica. “I went simply everywhere that he used to go, to all his old haunts, or telephoned where it was too far, and none of the people had even heard he was coming home. But do you mean he was there
all the time
?”

“I shouldn’t be at all surprised. He had that home atmosphere about him, in spite of his uniform. I doubt if he had been any farther away than the garage or even just the pantry. Of course I don’t know, but I just have a hunch,” said Louella.

“But didn’t he act as if he knew that I had been there?”

“My dear, he didn’t act at all. He just sat there and glowered. In fact when I entered silently with my key and watched them all an instant before they saw me, I think he had heard me and was on the point of leaving the room quite suddenly, and then when he saw it was only I, he sat down in his chair and began to eat again. But he certainly was in a poisonous mood. He was as rude as he could be to me, declined to answer any of my questions, and positively shut me up. Said if anybody asked me any questions about you and himself, I might tell them it was none of their business.”

“Oh,
really
?” asked Jessica with a defeated look on her handsome face. “Well, I suppose I might as well give up and go back west and work things out some other way.”

“Not at all, my dear,” soothed Louella. “I should say from what I used to know of Rodney in his youth that the outlook is very hopeful.”

“
Hopeful?
” said the younger woman, astonished. “Why, you have just given me to understand that he is very angry with me and doesn’t want to see me. I don’t see anything hopeful about that.”

“Then you can’t know Rodney very well. Don’t you understand that the very fact that he is angry at you and doesn’t want to see you shows that he is still deeply in love with you, and you will have no trouble at all in getting back his admiration when once you get really face-to-face with him and have a good talk? I’d be willing to wager that you with your beautiful face and your graceful ways can easily win him back to love you more than he ever did before.”

It was then that Emma Galt plunged into the conversation. “But Jess is married, Mrs. Chatterton. You forget that. And Rod was brought up with very strong moral ideas about the sanctity of marriage.”

“Fiddlesticks for any moral ideas nowadays,” said Louella grandly, as if she were empowered to speak with authority on the new moral standards of the present day.

“But you don’t realize at all, Mrs. Chatterton, how intensely those Graemes feel on moral questions. Those boys have very strong ideals and real conscientious scruples about things. They were brought up that way, and it has taken deep root in them,” said Marcella.

Louella smiled. “Piffle for their conscientious scruples! You seem to have forgotten that those boys have been to war. You will probably find that out when you come in closer contact with them. I don’t fancy many conscientious scruples can outlive a few months in the company of a lot of wild young soldiers or sailors off on their own. And remember
Rodney
has been away from his hampering, narrow-minded parents for at least three years!”

Then up spoke Marcella Ashby again. “I think that is perfectly terrible, Mrs. Chatterton, for you to call those dear people narrow-minded. All the years while we were growing up, they have been the dearest people to us all. Their house was always open to give us all good times, and they never showed a bit of narrow-mindedness. They were ready to laugh and joke with us all and spend money freely to give us enjoyment.”

“Oh yes, children’s stuff, picnics and little silly games and nice things to eat, of course, but did they ever have dances for us or cards or take us to the theater or even let us play kissing games?” spoke up Jessica. “No, indeedy. Everything was very discreet and prim, and of course we are no longer children and times have changed. You couldn’t expect people like the dear old Graemes to be up to date. They are old people and can’t understand the present-day needs of young folks. But I think myself that it is quite possible that the boys may have changed. They’ve been out in the world and seen what everybody is doing. I don’t believe for a minute that Rodney would be shocked at all if I told him I’d made a big mistake in marrying a man so much older than myself, and that I was going to Reno to get a divorce as soon as I’ve finished up a few matters of business here in town. Isn’t that what your idea was, Mrs. Chatterton?”

“Well, yes, I think myself you’ll find those boys, at least Rodney, is much more worldly than his folks give him credit for, and I feel sure Jessica, if you give your mind to it, that you can win him back.”

And then they went into a huddle to plan a campaign against Rodney Graeme.

And even as they plotted, with the devil whispering advice secretly to them and only Marcella Ashby of their number protesting at their plans, the Graeme family was kneeling in a quiet circle about the fire in the library. Father Graeme thanked God for the return of his children and petitioned that they might be guided aright in the days that were ahead, that none of them should be led astray from the way in which the Lord would have them go, and that His will might be done through them all, to the end that they might become changed into the image of His Son, Jesus Christ, and be fit messengers for the gospel of salvation.

And he prayed also for the rulers of their beloved land that they, too, might be led by the Holy Spirit to make right laws and decisions, and to govern the beloved country as God would have it governed, and that all spirit of unrighteousness might be put down, and any mistakes inadvertently made might be overruled, and the land saved from mere human guidance or acts ordered by warped judgment.

And he prayed for his boys, who had been so graciously spared from death or torture or imprisonment, that they might understand that God had thus spared them so that they might be the better fitted to do His will in the life that was still before them, that they might live to serve their Master even more fully than they had served their country.

As they rose from their knees and brushed away tender tears that had come to all eyes, the plotters were just starting out on their second attempt to start their campaign.

“Now,” said Father Graeme as they stood a moment thoughtfully before the fire, “I think these boys should get to their rest at once, and especially this wounded shoulder needs to have complete rest. Besides, if thoughtless friends are contemplating any further raids on the household tonight, it seems to me that would be a good way to head them off. Just let us get to bed as quietly and quickly and as much in the dark as possible, and when and if they come again, let them find it all dark. I suggest if they ring the bell and continue to ring, that you let them wait until I can get my bathrobe on and go down and meet them. I think perhaps I can show them that any further visits tonight will not be acceptable to anyone.”

He grinned around on them pleasantly, and they all responded gratefully.

“All right, Dad!” said Rodney happily. “This has been our family’s own night, and we don’t want it spoiled in any way. You don’t know what it’s meant to me to hear you pray for us all again and to know that we are back together again, after so many terrible possibilities.”

“Here, too,” said Jeremy huskily. “You got me all broken up with that prayer, but perhaps tomorrow I’ll be able to tell you all about it. What a memory I had of your prayers when I was out on a mission meeting bombs and knowing the next one might carry me up to God, and I wanted to go from my knees to meet Him, so my heart knelt as I flew along, and perhaps that was how I came through. I felt God there!”

The testimony of the two boys stirred them all deeply, and they lingered in spite of themselves, and then suddenly they heard a car coming.

“That wouldn’t be our friends, would it?” asked the father anxiously. “Perhaps you better all scatter as swiftly as possible. Here, Mother, you take this tiny flashlight. I don’t want you to fall. I guess the rest of you can manage in the dark, can’t you? I’ll wait a minute and make the fire safe for the night.”

Swift embraces, tender kisses, and they scattered silently, and when Marcella’s car arrived before the door the house was dark as a pocket and silent, too, everyone lying quietly under blankets and almost asleep already.

“Why the very idea!” said Jessica sharply as she clambered out of the car. “They
can’t
have gone to bed this early, and they wouldn’t have been likely to go out anywhere this first night.”

“You seem to have forgotten that Rod was wounded and has been in the hospital for some time,” said Marcella.

“
Nonsense!
” said Jessica. “Anyhow I’m going to ring the bell good and loud. I guess they won’t sleep long after that.”

T
hree girls were grouped together in a pleasant corner of the Red Cross room sewing as if their very life depended upon their efforts. One was running the sewing machine, putting together tiny garments for the other two to take over and finish. The second girl was opening seams and ironing them flat and then finishing them off with delicate feather-stitching in pink and blue, binding edges of tiny white flannel jackets and wrappers with pink and blue satin ribbon. The third girl was buttonholing scallops with silk twists on tiny flannel petticoats. They were making several charming little layettes for a number of new babies who had arrived overnight without bringing their suitcases with them, and these three girls had promised to see that the needy babies were supplied before night. And because these three girls were used to having all things lovely in their own lives, it never occurred to them to sling the little garments together carelessly. They set their stitches as carefully and made their scallops as heavy and perfect as if they had been doing them for their own family. Others might sling such outfits together by expeditious rule, but they must make them also beautiful.