Stranger within the Gates (28 page)

"Don't blame Rex too much," said Rance. "He's really only a kid yet. And I'm afraid this Florimel knew and used the ways of the world far better than he did. But I imagine this experience is going to make him grow up sharply when he awakens to see just what he has done."

"I think he has," said Sylvia. "I think the night of the fire finished that for him. I came on him yesterday morning sitting alone under the unlit Christmas tree, looking like death. He seems as if he will never be happy again."

"He will," said Rance solemnly, "when he learns to let the Lord have His way with him. God has an afterward for him, too, sometime."

"Oh, it's so wonderful that you know Him, too!" said Sylvia, softly nestling her hand in his for an instant.

And then the other two swept around the nearby curve of the creek and they could answer only by glances. But they went on together now, and somehow it seemed that Paul and Marcia understood that about them and were glad.

Then with a shout and an outcry of joy came the other two of the family, Stan and Fae, cutting into the ice with flourishes and curves and dashing at them madly.

"Great!" said Stan. "We thought we might find you here!" And Rance looked down at them joyfully.

"It's going to be great to have all these sisters and brothers," he said in a low tone to Sylvia, and she looked back at him proudly and then smiled at Stan and Fae. Oh, there were going to be no regrets with them when she was married, she thought. But poor, poor Rex! Could they ever be happy in any kind of way over Florimel?

And then when they got home that night and Rance came in for the evening meal, Rex came in just as the bell rang, with a look almost of peace on his worn face, and announced that he had got a job at last. It was only a foundry, a sort of machine shop. His work was to be most humble, with a very small wage at first, but he was to learn the business, and there was a chance to rise. Not very high, of course, but perhaps as high as the husband of a girl like Florimel deserved.

He had a very humble attitude, they saw, and it pulled their heartstrings to see how thankful bright Rex was over a humble little position like that. An apprentice in a machine shop! When he had been at the head of his college class and a star in athletics! There was no danger now that handsome, brilliant Rex would ever have too fine an opinion of himself.

It was plain that the lesson had gone deep, all these days in his mother's home, a home that he had well-nigh shattered by his own deed, and no chance of work to help out in any way. Of course, his mother wasn't in need of being paid for his and his wife's board. But it had been bitter to his pride to see his mother enduring the impositions that Florimel put upon her, and he unable even to pay the doctor or for the repairs on the house that her own act had damaged.

Now even the fact that Paul was going back to college without him on the morrow had power to bring a cloud over his face. He seemed to have lived centuries since he left the college town with Florimel. He had grown up and into the knowledge of awful disappointment and sorrow. He had come to find out the ecstatic joys of an hour can turn to dust and ashes on the tongue.

Paul saw that it was not going to be such agony as he had feared for Rex to see him go back to college. For in a way Rex had grown beyond him, beyond them all. He seemed to have come humbly to God and acknowledged that he was wrong, submitted himself to be made right.

And there seemed to be no longer any question whether Florimel could lead him astray again, for Florimel had overstepped her powers, for good, and made it very apparent what she really was.

So Paul spent the evening with Marcia and then went away early the next morning escorted by Rance, who had stayed the night, and by Stan, who had grown older with all that had passed during the vacation.

But Rex put on overalls and went at an early hour down to his machine shop to begin a time of self-abnegation.

Rex came home one evening about two weeks after he got his job, walking with a quicker step and a strong look of purpose on his face. He washed and dressed and went in to see Florimel for a moment but found her still in a most contemptuous mood. The doctor had told her she might get up, and she had been moving around her room for several days, part of the time. The nurse had told her that she no longer needed her, but she refused to get along without her. The doctor had told her that she might go down to a meal now and then if she felt like it, but she had steadily refused to do this. So when Rex heard the call to dinner, he went down by himself.

There was a cozy feeling about the dining room, and the girls and Stan were smiling as he came in. For the first time, almost, since the night of the fire, Rex smiled back, and stooping over his mother, he kissed her on the forehead. His heart thrilled faintly as he saw the glad light in her eyes that he had remembered to kiss her, and he felt ashamed that he had omitted it before, so wrapped up in himself and his troubles that he had forgotten a custom of years when they had been separated.

After a blessing that Stan asked, Rex began to talk. There was a strong decision in his voice.

"Moms," he said, "I've just found out that Syl's university has an evening course that is practically free; that is, there would be books and a trifle for tuition, but I could probably get books secondhand, or borrow them, or something, or maybe Rance or Syl would have some I could use. What would you think if I took an evening course and kept up with my studies so that someday when I'm able to, I could go back and finish. I don't mean to finish at our old college, of course. That's done forever. But just go evenings and finish somewhere so I could have a diploma and get on a little better. What do you think of it, Moms? The reason I ask is, there's a fellow in the machine shop with me who is doing it, and he's never had any college at all, just high school, and he claims he's getting on really well in spite of handicaps. Would you think that was wise? Do you think Dad would have thought that was best? At least it would give me something to do evenings that was really worthwhile and keep me out of mischief."
He paused and looked at his mother anxiously.

Then a voice behind him spoke. "Yes? And where do
I
come in? Who's going to amuse
me
while you go back to your childhood and study your ABC's some more?"

Rex started and paled and turned quickly. There stood Florimel arrayed in the bright red dress she had worn on Christmas Day before she had changed her apparel. Her hair had begun to grow a little, and she had curled it with an iron till it stood in yellow rings around her head; but it wasn't the pretty hair she used to have, and she didn't look in the least like her former self. Rex arose quickly and stood looking at her.

"Why, Florimel!" he said. "I didn't know you were coming down! Why didn't you tell me? Why didn't you call me to help you down?"

"No, you didn't know I was coming. You didn't ask me, as I remember. But I'm here. I realize that when I want to do something I have to help myself to it hereafter, do I? That's all right with me, of course, only I shall take the same privilege and do what I want to, and you might as well understand that now as later."

"I'm sorry," said Rex gravely, lifting his chin with that patient, humble deference he had been acquiring of late.

"Oh, yes? You're very sorry, I suppose, that I came down and caught you cooking up some scheme with your money-crazy mother for you to go on and get a little more school without my knowing it. But that's all right. Go right on scheming, and let her keep your money. There'll be some way to get it out of her later, and I don't mean maybe. Now that I'm up, I'm going to work in real earnest. If I can't do it any other way, I'll get a divorce and get alimony, but I'll get it, you'll see!"

"Won't you sit down and have some dinner," said Rex, moving up a chair for her.

She accepted the chair and let Selma get her a plate and knife and fork, a glass of ice water, and a napkin, like a queen whose right it was to have all these things.

They sat down, and the dinner proceeded with conversation on safe, ordinary lines; but Rex said no more about evening classes at the university, and Florimel sat with a grim face and ate her dinner. It did not look much as if the hope were coming true that Mary Garland had expressed once or twice quietly in the privacy of her own room to Sylvia and Paul, that Florimel might be changed by the experience through which she had passed.

Oh, God
, she prayed in her heart continually,
help my dear Rex to bear this and acquit himself rightly.

Florimel said no more. She ate a good dinner and afterward let Rex help her upstairs, for there was no mistaking that she was tired. But Rex went about with the old despairing look on his face that he had worn before he got that job.

Late that night when all the household was asleep, Rex stole to his mother's room.

"Moms, about that thing I was talking of at the table, don't think any more about it. I can see it wouldn't be best."

"Rex, dear boy," she said, putting a loving arm around him, "I am thoroughly in sympathy with your idea, and there'll be a way for you to do it. Don't worry about Florimel. Perhaps you can make her see that it is for the good of you both in the end. But remember that she's been through an awful experience, and don't be too hard on her. Perhaps even yet she may change."

"No, Moms, she won't change. She just wants to be ornery, that's all. But I'm glad you thought it was all right. I want to know you approve of what I do. I don't suppose you'll ever forgive me for having got married this way. I'm sure I'll never forgive myself. It's pretty tough to have to take the consequences, but I guess I had all this coming to me. I should have known better, brought up by such a wonderful woman as you are and with my splendid sister and her friends. I knew girls like Marcia and Natalie all my life, and yet I got fooled by a girl like this! When I think about that, I can't think of any punishment too bad for me. I deserved it. I want you to know that I think so, Moms."

"Dear boy!" Mary Garland stooped and kissed her boy's forehead. "Perhaps after a time you'll find out that what you have gained will be worth all the pain. To have found out that about yourself is worth a great deal. You know what the Bible says about chastening: 'Afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness.'"

Rex shook his head.

"I don't think there'll be any such afterward for me," he said desolately. "I'll never have any fruit of righteousness. There won't be a chance. I've just naturally ruined my life, and that's all. There'll be no afterward down here for me. I'll even be ashamed to show my face in heaven!" And he dropped his face in his hands and groaned aloud.

"Son, there is always an afterward, and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from
all
sin!"

Rex crept to his bed in his old room where he had been staying ever since the fire, comforted somewhat, glad that at least his mother understood and wanted to help.

Florimel got up the next morning and began her program of doing as she pleased, although anybody might wonder what else she had been doing ever since she had been in the house.

She ate her breakfast, and as soon as the family were away to school and college and Mary Garland had gone to attend an all-day missionary meeting, she went to the telephone and did a lot of ordering. From the newspapers and the telephone book she got her numbers, and the very first thing she ordered was a case of champagne and a carton of fine-grade cigarettes. Then she called up a big department store where she had heard the family say they had a charge account, and ordered, from the newspaper advertisements, a new spring suit and the outlandish little perky hat that went with it, a couple of handbags, a handsome suitcase, six pairs of gloves, some lingerie, and several ashtrays. She had them all charged and sent to her mother-in-law. Then she settled down to a movie magazine.

The first order that arrived was the champagne, and it came while they were at lunch. Only Fae and her mother were there with Florimel. Stan and Sylvia had telephoned they would have lunch at their schools. There was the sound of an altercation in the kitchen, Selma contending with some deliveryman, and then she came to the door.

"Please, Mrs. Garland, would you step in here a minute?" she said, in what was meant to be a whisper.

"What is it, Selma? That soap I bought off that man? I thought he needed helping."

"No, Mrs. Garland," said Selma dismally, "it's a case of
champagne
! And I told him you never bought such things. I told him it must be a mistake, but he insisted I should come and tell you. He said it was no mistake, that he had the order with the number written plain."

"Tell him, Selma, that we did not order that champagne. We never order liquor, and we do not intend to pay for it."

"Oh, heaven!" laughed Florimel. "What's the fuss about nothing?
I
ordered that champagne, and I wanted it. Do you begrudge me that? You order all sorts of things for me to eat, I thought I might have something I wanted for once! Are you such a tightwad that you can't get me a little champagne?"

"
You
ordered it, Florimel?" said Mary Garland in amazement. "But it is charged to
me
!"

"Why, sure! You knew I didn't have any charge accounts of my own. You wouldn't fix it so I had any money to buy things with, so I had them charged to you."

Mary Garland's face suddenly froze into stern disapproval.

"I have no charge accounts with liquor dealers," she said, "and they certainly must know that!"

She arose and went into the kitchen, and they could hear her voice speaking very decidedly.

"This is a mistake. I ordered no liquor, and I do not want it. You will have to take it away."

"Well, I like that!" said Florimel contemptuously. "I wanted a drink of champagne tonight. I don't see what right you had to send back what I bought. If Rex can't get his money out of you one way, I can another."

"No," said Mary Garland firmly, "you can get no money out of me for liquor. You may as well understand that at once."