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diff --git a/2778-8.txt b/2778-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..61dc75a --- /dev/null +++ b/2778-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11777 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Jewel, by Clara Louise Burnham + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Jewel + A Chapter In Her Life + +Author: Clara Louise Burnham + +Release Date: March 31, 2006 [EBook #2778] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JEWEL *** + + + + +Produced by Dagny; Emma Dudding; John Bickers; David Widger + + + + + +JEWEL + +A CHAPTER IN HER LIFE + +By Clara Louise Burnham + + + + +TO F. W. R. MY FIRST INSPIRATION THIS STORY IS OFFERED IN LOVING +ACKNOWLEDGMENT + + + PREPARER'S NOTE + + This text was prepared from a 1903 edition, published by Grosset & + Dunlap, New York. + + + +CONTENTS + + I. THE NEW COACHMAN + II. THE CHICAGO LETTER + III. MOTHER AND DAUGHTER + IV. FATHER AND SON + V. BON VOYAGE + VI. JEWEL'S ARRIVAL + VII. THE FIRST EVENING + VIII. A HAPPY BREAKFAST + IX. A SHOPPING EXPEDITION + X. THE RAVINE + XI. DR. BALLARD + XII. THE TELEGRAM + XIII. IN THE LIBRARY + XIV. FAMILY AFFAIRS + XV. A RAINY MORNING + XVI. THE FIRST LESSON + XVII. JEWEL'S CORRESPONDENCE + XVIII. ESSEX MAID + XIX. A MORNING DRIVE + XX. BY THE BROOKSIDE + XXI. AN EFFORT FOR TRUTH + XXII. IN THE HARNESS ROOM + XXIII. MRS. EVRINGHAM'S CALLER + XXIV. THE RAVINE GARDEN + XXV. MUTUAL SURPRISES + XXVI. ON WEDNESDAY EVENING + XXVII. A REALIZED HOPE +XXVIII. AT TWILIGHT + + + + +JEWEL + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE NEW COACHMAN + +"Now you polish up those buckles real good, won't you, 'Zekiel? I will +say for Fanshaw, you could most see your face in the harness always." + +The young fellow addressed rubbed away at the nickel plating good +humoredly, although he had heard enough exhortations in the last +twenty-four hours to chafe somewhat the spirit of youth. His mother, a +large, heavy woman, stood over him, her face full of care. + +"It's a big change from driving a grocery wagon to driving a gentleman's +carriage, 'Zekiel. I do hope you sense it." + +"You'd make a bronze image sense it, mother," answered the young man, +smiling broadly. "You might sit and sermonize just as well, mightn't +you? Sitting's as cheap as standing,"--he cast a glance around the clean +spaces of the barn in search of a chair,--"or if you'd rather go and +attend to your knitting, I've seen harness before, you know." + +"I'm not sure as you've ever handled a gentleman's harness in your life, +'Zekiel Forbes." + +"It's a fact they don't wear 'em much down Boston way." + +His mother regarded his shock of light hair with repressed fondness. + +"It was a big responsibility I took when I asked Mr. Evringham to let +you try the place," she said solemnly, "and I'm going to do my best to +help you fill it. It does seem almost a providence the way Fanshaw's +livery fits you; and if you'll hold yourself up, I may be partial, but +it seems to me you look better in it than he ever did; and I'm sure if +handsome is as handsome does, you'll fill it better every way, even if +he _was_ a fashionable English coachman. Mrs. Evringham was so pleased +with his style she tried to have him kept even after he'd taken too much +for the second time; but Mr. Evringham valued his horses too highly for +that, I can tell you." + +"Thought the governor was a widower still," remarked Ezekiel as his +mother drew forward a battered chair and dusted it with the huge apron +that covered her neat dress. She seated herself close to her boy. + +"Of course he is," she returned with some asperity. "Why should he get +married with such a home as he's got? Fifteen years I've kept house for +Mr. Evringham. I don't believe but what he'd say that in all that time +he's never found his beef overdone or a button off his shirts." + +"Humph!" grunted Ezekiel. "He looks as if he wouldn't mind hanging you +to the nearest tree if he did. I heard tell once that there was a cold +hell as well as a hot one. Think says I, when the governor was looking +me over the other day, 'You've set sail for the cold place, old boy.'" + +"Zeke Forbes, don't you ever let me hear you say such a thing again!" +exclaimed Mrs. Forbes. "Mr. Evringham is the finest gentleman within one +hundred miles of New York city. When a man has spent his life in Wall +Street it's bound to show some in his face, of course; but what comfort +has that man ever known?" + +"Pretty scrumptious place he's got here in this park, I notice," +returned the new coachman. + +"Yes, he has a breath of fresh air before he goes to the city and after +he gets back every day. Isn't that Essex Maid of his a beauty?" Mrs. +Forbes cast her eyes towards the stalls where the shining flanks of two +horses were visible from her seat by the wide-open doors of the barn. +"His rides back there among the hills,"--Mrs. Forbes waved her hand +vaguely toward the tall trees waving in the spring sunshine,--"are his +one pleasure; and he never tires of them. You will find the horses +here something different to groom from those common grocery horses in +Boston." + +"Oh, I don't know," drawled 'Zekiel, teasingly. + +"Then you'd better know, young man," emphatically. "And, Zeke, what's +the names of those carriages?" pointing with sudden energy at two half +shrouded vehicles. + +"How many guesses do I get?" + +"Guessing ain't going to do. Do you know, or don't you?" + +"Know? Why," leniently, "bless your heart, mother, don't you s'pose I +know a buggy and a carryall when I see 'em?" + +"Oh, you poor benighted grocery boy!" Mrs. Forbes raised her hands. +"What a mercy I mentioned it! Imagine Mrs. Evringham hearing you ask if +she'd have the buggy or the carryall! 'Zekiel," solemnly, "listen to me. +That tall one's a spider, and the other's a broom. There! Do you hear +me? A _spider_ and a _broom_!" + +Ezekiel's merry eyes met the anxious ones with a twinkle. + +"Who'd have thought it!" he responded. + +"Now then, Zeke," anxiously, "it's my responsibility. I recommended you. +I want you should say 'em off as glib as Fanshaw did. Now then, which is +which?" + +"Mother, didn't you tell me that the late lamented was not a +prohibitionist?" + +"Fanshaw drank like a fish, if that's what you mean." + +"Well, just because he saw things in this barn you needn't expect me to! +Poor chap! Spiders and brooms! He must have been glad to go." + +Mrs. Forbes' earnest expression did not change. "'Zekiel, don't you +tease, now! We haven't got time. I want you to make such a success of +this that you'll stay with me. You can't think how I felt when I woke +up this morning and thought the first thing, 'Zeke's here.' Why, I've +scarcely kept acquainted with you for fifteen years. Scarcely saw you +except for a few weeks in the summer time. Now I've got you again!" + +"I ain't the only thing you've got again," grinned 'Zekiel, "if you're +going to see things, same as Fanshaw did." + +Thus reminded, the housekeeper looked back at the phaeton and the +brougham. "Be a good boy, Zeke," coaxingly, "and don't forget now, +because Mrs. Evringham is a great stickler--and a great sticker, too," +added Mrs. Forbes in a different tone. + +"Who _is_ the old woman, if the governor isn't married?" asked Ezekiel +with not very lively interest. "She don't seem popular with you." + +"I'll tell you who she is," returned his mother in a low, emphatic tone. +"she's just what I say--a sticker and an interloper." + +"H'm! Shouldn't wonder if the green-eyed monster had got after mamma," +soliloquized the youth aloud. "Somebody else sews on the buttons now, +perhaps." + +"'Zekiel Forbes, we must have an understanding right off. You've got to +joke and tease, I s'pose, but it can't be about Mr. Evringham. This is +like a law of the Medes and Persians, and I want you should understand +it. The more you see of him the less you'll dare to joke about him." + +"I told you he scared me stiff," acknowledged Zeke, running the harness +through his hands to discover another dingy spot. + +"Well, he'd _better_. Now I wouldn't gossip to you of my employer's +affairs--I hope we're better than two common servants--but I want you to +be as loyal to him as I am, and to understand a few of the reasons why +he can't go giggling around like some folks." + +"Great Scott!" interpolated the young coachman. "Mr. Evringham go +giggling around! So would Bunker Hill monument!" + +"Listen to me, Zeke. Mr. Evringham has had two sons. His wife died when +the oldest, Lawrence, was fifteen. Well, both those boys disappointed +him. Lawrence when he was twenty-one married secretly a widow older than +himself, who had a little girl named Eloise. Mr. Evringham made the best +of it, and helped him along in business. Lawrence became a broker and +had made and lost a fortune when he died at the age of thirty-five." + +"Broke himself, did he?" remarked the irrepressible 'Zekiel. + +"Yes, he did. Here we were, living in peace and comfort,--my employer +at sixty a man of settled habits and naturally very set in his ways and +satisfied with his home and the way I had run it for him for fifteen +years,--when three blows fell on him at once. Firstly his son Lawrence +failed and was ruined; secondly he died; and thirdly his widow and her +daughter nineteen years old came here a couple of months ago and settled +on Mr. Evringham, and here they've stayed ever since! I don't think they +have an idea of going away." Mrs. Forbes's eyes snapped. "Such an upset +as it was! I couldn't show how I felt, of course, for it was so much +worse for him than it was for me. He had never cared for Mrs. Evringham, +and scarcely knew the girl who called him 'grandfather' without an atom +of right." + +"Hard lines," observed 'Zekiel. "Does the girl call herself Evringham?" + +"Does she?" with scorn. "Well I guess she does. Of course she was only +four when her mother married Lawrence, and I guess she was fond of +her stepfather and he of her, because he never had any children; but +sometimes I ask myself, is it going on forever? I only hope Eloise'll +get married soon." + +'Zekiel dropped the harness to arrange imaginary curls on his temples +and pat the tie on his muscular neck. "If she's pretty I'm willing," he +responded. + +His mother shook her head absently. "Then there was Mr. Evringham's +younger son, a regular roving ne'er-do-well. He didn't like Wall Street +and he went West to Chicago. He was a rolling stone, first in one +position and then in another; then he got married, and after a few years +he rolled away altogether. All Mr. Evringham knows about him and his +family is that he had one child. Harry wrote a few letters about his +wife Julia and the baby, at the time it was born, and Mr. Evringham sent +a present of money; then the letters ceased until one day the wife wrote +him frantically that her husband had disappeared and begged to know +where he was. Mr. Evringham knew nothing about him and wrote her so, and +that is the last he's heard. So you see if he looks cold and hard, he's +had enough to make him so." + +"H'm!" ejaculated 'Zekiel. "He don't give the impression of lyin' awake +nights wondering how his deserted daughter-in-law and the kid make out." + +"Why should he?" retorted Mrs. Forbes sharply. "His two boys acted as +selfish to him as boys could. He's a disappointed, humiliated man in +that proud heart of his. He's been hunted out and harrowed up in this +peaceful retreat, when all he asked was to be let alone with his horses +and his golf clubs, and I think one daughter-in-law's enough under +the circumstances. I have some respect for Mrs. Harry, whoever she is, +because she lets him alone. In all the long years we've spent here, when +he often had no one to talk to but me, he's let me have a glimpse of +these things, and I've told you so's you'd think right about him and +serve him all the better." + +"He's got a look in his eyes like cold steel," remarked Ezekiel, "and +lines under 'em like they'd been drawn with steel; and his back's as +flat and straight as if a steel rod took the place of a spine. That +thick gray hair and mustache of his might be steel threads." + +"He's a splendid sight on horseback," responded Mrs. Forbes devoutly. +"His sons were neither of 'em ever the man he is. I'd like to protect +him from being imposed upon if such a thing was possible." + +"Sho!" drawled 'Zekiel. "Might's well talk about protecting a +battleship." + +"Well, 'Zekiel Forbes," returned his mother, her eyes bright, "can't you +imagine a battleship hesitating to run down a little pleasure yacht with +all its flags flying? And can't you imagine that hesitation costing the +battleship considerable precious time and money? You've said a good deal +about my sacrificing my room in the house and coming out here to fix a +little home for us both, upstairs in the barn chambers, but perhaps you +can see now that it isn't all sacrifice, that perhaps I'm glad of an +excuse to get out of the house, where things are so different from what +they used to be, and to have a cosy home with my own boy. Now then, +'Zekiel," coaxingly, these words recalling her boy's responsibilities, +"look over there once more and tell me which of those is the spider." + +Zekiel dropped the harness and laid his hand gently on his mother's +forehead. "There isn't anything there, dear mother," he said soothingly. + +"Zeke!" she exclaimed, jerking away with a short reluctant laugh. + +"'Mother, dear mother, come home with me now,'" he roared +sentimentally, so that Essex Maid lifted her beautiful head and looked +out in surprise. "Remember Fanshaw, and put more water in it after +this," he added, dropping his arm to his mother's neck and capturing her +with a hug. + +"'Zekiel!" she protested. "'Zekiel!" + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE CHICAGO LETTER + +The mother was still laughing and struggling in the irresistible +embrace when both became aware that a third person was regarding them in +open-mouthed astonishment. + +"'Zekiel, let me _go_!" commanded the scandalized woman, and pushed +herself free from her tormentor, who forthwith returned rather +sheepishly to his buckles. + +The young man with trim-pointed beard and mirthful eyes, who stood +in the driveway, had just dismounted from a shining buggy. Doubt and +astonishment were apparently holding him dumb. + +The housekeeper, smoothing her disarranged locks and much flushed of +face, returned his gaze, rising from her chair. + +"I couldn't believe it was you, Mrs. Forbes!" declared the newcomer. +"Fanshaw isn't--" He looked around vaguely. + +"No, he isn't, Dr. Ballard," returned Mrs. Forbes shortly. "He forgot to +rub down Essex Maid one evening when she came in hot, and that finished +him with Mr. Evringham." + +The young doctor's lips twitched beneath his mustache as he looked at +'Zekiel, polishing away for dear life. + +"You seem to have some one else here--some friend," he remarked +tentatively. + +"Friend!" echoed the housekeeper with exasperation, feeling to see just +how much Zeke had rumpled her immaculate collar. "We looked like friends +when you came up, didn't we!" + +"Like intimate friends," murmured the doctor, still looking curiously at +the big fair-haired fellow, who was crimson to his temples. + +"I don't know how long we shall continue friends if he ever grabs me +again like that just after I've put on a clean collar. He's got beyond +the place where I can correct him. I ought to have done it oftener when +I had the chance. This is my boy 'Zekiel, Dr. Ballard," with a proud +glance in the direction of the youth, who looked up and nodded, then +continued his labors. "Mr. Evringham has engaged him on trial. He's been +with horses a couple of years, and I guess he'll make out all right." + +"Glad to know you, 'Zekiel," returned the doctor. "Your mother has been +a good friend of mine half my life, and I've often heard her speak of +you. Look out for my horse, will you? I shall be here half an hour or +so." + +When the doctor had moved off toward the house Mrs. Forbes nodded at her +son knowingly. + +"Might's well walk Hector into the barn and uncheck him, Zeke," she +said. "They'll keep him more'n a half an hour. That young man, 'Zekiel +Forbes,--that young man's my _hope_." Mrs. Forbes spoke impressively and +shook her forefinger to emphasize her words. + +"What you hoping about him?" asked 'Zekiel, laying down the harness and +proceeding to lead the gray horse up the incline into the barn. + +"Shouldn't wonder a mite if he was our deliverer," went on Mrs. Forbes. +"I saw it in Mrs. Evringham's eye that he suited her, the first night +that she met him here at dinner. I like him first-rate, and I don't mean +him any harm; but he's one of these young doctors with plenty of money +at his back, bound to have a fashionable practice and succeed. His face +is in his favor, and I guess he knows as much as any of 'em, and he +can afford the luxury of a wife brought up the way Eloise Evringham has +been. That's right, Zeke. Unfasten the check-rein, though the doctor +don't use a mean one, I must say. I only hope there's a purgatory for +the folks that use too short check-reins on their horses. I hope they'll +have to wear 'em themselves for a thousand years, and have to stand +waiting at folks' doors frothing at the mouth, and the back of their +necks half breaking when the weather's down to zero and up to a hundred. +That's what I hope!" + +'Zekiel grinned. "You want 'em to try the cold place and the hot one +too, do you?" + +"Yes I do, and to stay in the one that hurts the most. The man that uses +a decent check-rein on his horse," continued Mrs. Forbes, dropping into +a philosophizing tone, "is apt to be as decent to his wife. The doctor +would be a great catch for that girl, and I _think_," dropping her +voice, "her mother'd be liable to live with 'em." + +"You're keeping that dark from the doctor, I s'pose?" remarked 'Zekiel. + +"H'm. You needn't think I go chattering around that house the way I do +out here. I've got a great talent, if I do say it, for minding my own +business." + +"Good enough," drawled 'Zekiel. "I heard tell once of a firm that made a +great fortune just doing that one thing." + +"Don't you be sassy now. I've always waited on Mr. Evringham while he +ate his meals, and that's the time he'd often speak out to me about +things if he felt in the humor, so that in all these years 't isn't any +wonder if I've come to feel that his business is mine too." + +"Just so," returned 'Zekiel, with a twinkle in his eye. + +"It's been as plain as your nose that the interlopers don't like to have +me there. Not that they have anything special against me, but they'd +like to have someone younger and stylisher to hand them their plates. +I'll never forget one night when they'd been here about a week, and I +think Mr. Evringham had begun to suspect they were fixtures,--I'd felt +it from the first,--Mrs. Evringham said, 'Why father, does Mrs. Forbes +always wait on your table? I had supposed she was temporarily taking the +place of your butler or your waitress.'" + +The housekeeper's effort to imitate the airy manner she remembered +caused her son to chuckle as he gathered up the shining harness. + +"You should have seen the look Mr. Evringham gave her. Just as if he +didn't see her at all. 'Yes,' he answered, 'I hope Mrs. Forbes will wait +on my table as long as I have one.' And I will if I have my health," +added the speaker, bridling with renewed pleasure at the memory of that +triumphant moment. "They think I'm a machine without any feelings or +opinions, and that I've been wound up to suit Mr. Evringham and run +his establishment, and that I'm no more to be considered than the big +Westminster clock on the stairs. Mrs. Evringham did try once to get into +my employer's rooms and look after his clothes." Mrs. Forbes shook her +head and tightened her lips at some recollection. + +"She bucked up against the machine, did she?" inquired Zeke. + +The housekeeper glanced around to see if any one might be approaching. + +"I saw her go in there, and I followed her," she continued almost in a +whisper. "She sort of started, but spoke up in her cool way, 'I wish to +look over father's clothes and see if anything needs attention.' +'Thank you, Mrs. Evringham, but everything is in order,' I said, very +respectful. 'Well, leave it for me next time, Mrs. Forbes,' she says. +'I shall take care of him while I am here.' 'Thank you,' says I, 'but +he wouldn't want your visit interfered with by that kind of work.' She +looked at me sort of suspicious and haughty. 'I prefer to do it,' she +answers, trying to look holes in me with her big eyes. 'Then will you +ask him, please,' said I very polite, 'before I give you the keys, +because we've got into habits here. I've taken care of Mr. Evringham's +clothes for fifteen years.' She looked kind of set back. 'Is it so +long?' she asks. 'Well, I will see about it.' But I guess the right time +for seeing about it never came," added the housekeeper knowingly. + +"You're still doing business at the old stand, eh?" rejoined Zeke. +"Well, I'm glad you like your job. It's my opinion that the governor's +harder--" + +"Ahem, ahem!" Mrs. Forbes cleared her throat with desperate loudness +and tugged at her son's shirt sleeve with an energy which caused him to +wheel. + +Coming up the sunny driveway was a tall man with short, scrupulously +brushed iron-gray hair, and sweeping mustache. The lines under his eyes +were heavy, his glance was cold. His presence was dignified, commanding, +repellent. + +The housekeeper and coachman both stood at attention, the latter +mechanically pulling down his rolled-up sleeves. + +"So you're moving out here, Mrs. Forbes," was the remark with which the +newcomer announced himself. + +"Yes, Mr. Evringham. The man has been here to put in the electric bell +you ordered. I shall be as quick to call as if I was still in the house, +sir, and I thank you--'Zekiel and I both do--for consenting to my making +it home-like for him. Perhaps you'd come up and see the rooms, sir?" + +"Not just now. Some other time. I hope 'Zekiel is going to prove himself +worth all this trouble." + +The new coachman's countenance seemed frozen into a stolidity which did +not alter. + +"I'm sure he'll try," replied his mother, "and Fanshaw's livery fits him +to such a turn that it would have been flying in the face of Providence +not to try him. Did you give orders to be met at this train, sir?" Mrs. +Forbes looked anxiously toward the set face of her heir. + +"No--I came out unexpectedly. I have received news that is rather +perplexing." + +The housekeeper had not studied her employer's moods for years without +understanding when she could be of use. + +"I will come to the house right off," was her prompt response. "It's a +pity you didn't know the bell was in, sir." + +"No, stay where you are. I see Dr. Ballard is here. We might be +interrupted. You can go, 'Zekiel." + +The young fellow needed no second invitation, but turned and mounted the +stairway that led to the chambers above. + +Mr. Evringham took from his pocket a bunch of papers, and selecting a +letter handed it to Mrs. Forbes, motioning her to the battered chair, +which was still in evidence. He seated himself on the stool Zeke had +vacated, while his housekeeper opened and read the following letter:-- + + +CHICAGO, April 28, 19--. + +DEAR FATHER,--The old story of the Prodigal Son has always plenty +of originality for the Prodigal. I have returned, and thank Heaven +sincerely I do not need to ask you for anything. My blessed girl Julia +has supported herself and little Jewel these years while I've been +feeding on husks. I don't see now how I was willing to be so revoltingly +cruel and cowardly as to leave her in the lurch, but she has made +friends and they have stood by her, and now I've been back since +September, doing all in my power to make up what I can to her and Jewel, +as we call little Julia. They were treasures to return to such as I +deserved to have lost forever; but Julia treats me as if I'd been white +to her right all along. I've lately secured a position that I hope to +keep. My wife has been dressmaking, and this is something in the dry +goods line that I got through her. The firm want us to go to Europe +to do some buying. They will pay the expenses of both; but that leaves +Jewel. I've heard that Lawrence's wife and daughter are living with you. +I wondered if you'd let us bring Jewel as far as New York and drop her +with you for the six weeks that we shall be gone. If we had a little +more ahead we'd take the child with us. She is eight years old and +wouldn't be any trouble, but cash is scarce, and although we could board +her here with some friend, I'd like to have her become acquainted with +her grandfather, and I thought as Madge and Eloise were with you, they +would look after her if Mrs. Forbes is no longer there. This has all +come about very suddenly, and we sail next Wednesday on the Scythia, so +I'll be much obliged if you will wire me. I shall be glad to shake your +hand again. + +Your repentant son, + +HARRY. + + +Mrs. Forbes looked up from the letter to find her employer's eyes upon +her. Her lips were set in a tight line. + +"Well?" he asked. + +"I'd like to ask first, sir, what you think of it?" + +"It strikes me as very cool. Harry knows my habits." + +The housekeeper loosened the reins of her indignation. + +"The idea of your having a child here to clatter up and down the stairs +at the very time you want to take a nap!" she burst forth. "You've had +enough to bear already." + +"A deal of company in the house as it is, eh?" he rejoined. It was the +first reference he had ever made to his permanent guests. + +"It's what I was thinking, sir." + +"You're not for it, then, Mrs. Forbes?" + +"So far as taking care of the child goes, I should do my duty. I don't +think Mrs. Evringham or her daughter would wish to be bothered; but I +know very little about children, except that your house is no place for +them to be racing in. One young one brings others. You would be annoyed, +sir. Some folks can always ask favors." The housekeeper's cheeks were +flushed with the strength of her repugnance, and her bias relieved Mr. +Evringham's indecision. + +"I agree with you," he returned, rising. "Tell 'Zekiel to saddle the +Maid. After dinner I will let him take a telegram to the office." + +He returned to the house without further words, and Mrs. Forbes called +to her son in a voice that had a wrathful quaver. + +"What you got your back up about?" inquired Zeke softly, after a careful +look to see that his august master had departed. + +"Never you mind. Mr. Evringham wants you should saddle his horse and +bring her round. I want he should see you can do it lively." + +"Ain't she a beaut'!" exclaimed Zeke as he led out the mare. "She'd +ought to be shown, she had." + +"Shown! Better not expose your ignorance where Mr. Evringham can hear +you. That mare's taken two blue ribbons already." + +"Showed they knew their business," returned Zeke imperturbably. "I +s'pose the old gent don't care any more for her than he does for his +life." + +"I guess he loves her the best of anything in this world." + +"Love! The governor love anything or anybody! That's good," remarked +the young fellow, while Essex Maid watched his movements about her with +gentle, curious eyes. + +"I do believe she misses Fanshaw and notices the difference," remarked +Mrs. Forbes. + +"Glad to, too. Ain't you, my beauty? She's going to be stuck on me +before we get through. She don't want any Britishers fooling around +her." + +"You've certainly made her look fine, Zeke. I know Mr. Evringham will be +pleased. She just shines from her pretty little ears to her hoofs. Take +her around and then come back. I want to talk to you." + +"If I don't come back," returned the boy, "you'll know the governor's +looked at me a little too hard and I've been struck so." + +"Don't be any foolisher than you can help," returned Mrs. Forbes, "and +hurry." + +On 'Zekiel's return to the barn he saw that his mother's face was +portentous. "Lawrence was at least handsome like his father," she began +without preamble, looking over Zeke's shoulder, "but Harry was as homely +as he was no account. I should think that man had enough of his sons' +belongings hanging on him already. What do you think, 'Zekiel Forbes? +Mr. Evringham's youngest son Harry has turned up again!" + +"I should think it was the old Harry by your tone," rejoined Zeke +equably. + +"He and his wife, poor as church mice, are getting their expenses paid +to Europe on business, and they have the nerve--yes, the cheek--to ask +Mr. Evringham to let them leave their young one, a girl eight years old, +with him while they're gone." + +"I hope it's a real courageous youngster," remarked Zeke. + +"A child! A wild Western dressmaker's young one in Mr. Evringham's +elegant house!" + +"Is the old Harry a dressmaker?" asked Zeke mildly. + +"No, his wife is. His Julia! They've named this girl for her, and I +suppose they called her Jule, and then twisted it around to Jewel. +Jewel!" + +"When is she coming?" asked Zeke, seeing that he was expected to say +something. + +"Coming? She isn't coming," cried his mother irefully. "Not while Mr. +Evringham has his wits. They haven't a particle of right to ask him. +Harry has worried him to distraction already. The child would be sure to +torment him." + +"He'd devour her the second day, then," returned Zeke calmly. "It would +be soon over." + + + +CHAPTER III + +MOTHER AND DAUGHTER + +Dr. Ballard had gone, and his hostesses were awaiting the summons to +dinner. Mrs. Evringham regarded her daughter critically as the girl sat +at the piano, idly running her fingers over the keys. + +The listlessness expressed in the fresh face and rounded figure brought +a look of disapproval into the mother's eyes. + +"You must practice that nocturne," she said. "You played it badly just +now, and there is no excuse for it, Eloise." + +"If you will let me give lessons I will," responded the girl promptly, +without turning her graceful, drooping head. + +The unexpected reply was startling. + +"What are you talking about?" asked Mrs. Evringham. + +"Oh, I'm so tired of it all," replied the girl wearily. + +A frown contracted her mother's forehead. "Tired of what? Turn around +here!" She rose and put her hands on the pretty shoulders and turned her +child until the clear gray eyes met hers. "Now then, tired of what?" + +Eloise smiled slightly, and sighed. "Of playing nocturnes to Dr. +Ballard." + +"And he is quite as tired of hearing you, I dare say," was the retort. +"It seems to me you always stumble when you play to the doctor, and he +adores Chopin." + +Eloise continued to meet her mother's annoyed gaze, her hands fallen in +her lap, all the lines of her nut-brown hair, her exquisite face, and +pliable, graceful figure so many silent arguments, as they always were, +against any one's harboring annoyance toward her. + +"You say he does, mother, and you have assured him of it so often that +the poor man doesn't dare to say otherwise; but really, if you'd let him +have the latest Weber and Field hit, I think he would be so grateful." + +"Learn it then!" returned Mrs. Evringham. + +Eloise laughed lazily. "Intrepid little mother!" Then she added, in a +different tone, "Don't you think there is any danger of our being too +obliging? I'm not the only girl in town whose mother wishes her to +oblige Dr. Ballard. May we not overreach ourselves?" + +"Eloise!" Mrs. Evringham's half-affectionate, half-remonstrating grasp +fell from her child's shoulders. "That remark is in very bad taste." + +The girl shook her head slowly. "I never can understand why it is any +satisfaction to you to pretend. You find comfort in pretending that +Mr. Evringham likes to have us here, likes us to use his carriages, to +receive his friends, and all the rest of it. We've been here seven weeks +and three days, and that little game of pretending is satisfying you +still. You are like the ostrich with its head in the sand." + +Mrs. Evringham drew her lithe figure up. "Well, Eloise, I hope there are +limits to this. To call your own mother an--an ostrich!" + +"Don't speak so loud," returned the girl, rising and patting her +mother's hand. "Grandfather has returned from his ride. I just heard him +come in. It is too near dinner time for a scene. There is no need of our +pretending to each other, is there? You have always put me off and put +me off, but surely you mean to bring this to an end pretty soon?" + +"You could bring it to an end at once if you would!" returned Mrs. +Evringham, her voice lowered. "Dr. Ballard has nothing to wait for. I +know all about his circumstances. There never was such a providence as +father's having a friend like him ready to our hand--so suitable, so +attractive, so rich!" + +"Yes," responded the girl low and equably, "it is just five weeks and +two days that you have been throwing me at that man's head." + +"I have done nothing of the kind, Eloise Evringham." + +"Yes you have," returned the girl without excitement, "and grandfather +sneering at us all the time under his mustache. He knows that there are +other girls and other mothers interested in Dr. Ballard more desirable +than we are. Oh! how easy it is to be more desirable than we are!" + +"There isn't one girl in five hundred so pretty as you," returned Mrs. +Evringham stoutly. + +"I wish my prettiness could persuade you into my way of thinking." + +"What do you mean?" The glance of the older woman was keen and +suspicious. + +"We would take a cheap little apartment to-morrow," said the girl +wistfully. + +Mrs. Evringham gave an ejaculation of impatience. "And do all our own +work and live like pigs!" she returned petulantly. + +Eloise shrugged her shoulders. "I may flatter myself, but I fancy I +should keep it rather clean." + +"You wouldn't mind your hands then." Mrs. Evringham regarded the hands +worthy to be imitated by a sculptor's art, and the girl raised them +and inspected the rose-tints of their tips. "I've read something about +rubber gloves," she returned vaguely. + +"You'd better read something else then. How do you suppose you would get +on without a carriage?" asked her mother with exasperation. "You have +never had so much as a taste of privation in any form. Your suggestion +is the acme of foolishness." + +"I think I could do something if you would let me," rejoined the girl +as calmly as before. "I think I could teach music pretty well, and keep +house charmingly. If I had any false pride when we came out here, the +past six weeks have purified me of it. Will you let me try, mother? I'm +asking it very seriously." + +"Certainly not!" hotly. "There are armies of music teachers now, and you +would not have a chance." + +"I think I could dress hair well," remarked Eloise, glancing at the +reflection in a mirror of her own graceful coiffure. + +"I dare say!" responded Mrs. Evringham with sarcastic heat, "or I'm sure +you could get a position as a waitress. The servant problem is growing +worse every year." + +"I'd like to be your waitress, mother." For the first time the girl lost +her perfect poise, and the color fluctuated in her cheek. She clasped +her hands. "It would be heaven compared with the feeling, the sickening, +appalling suspicion, that we are becoming akin to the adventuresses we +read of, the pretty, luxurious women who live by their wits." + +"Silence!" commanded Mrs. Evringham, her eyes flashing and her effective +black-clothed figure drawn up. + +Eloise sighed again. "I didn't expect to accomplish anything by this +talk," she said, relapsing into listlessness. + +"What did you expect then? Merely to be disagreeable? I hope you may be +as successful in worthier undertakings. Now listen. Some of the plans +you have suggested at various times might be sensible if you were a +plain girl. Your beauty is as tangible an asset as money would be; but +beauty requires money. You must have it. Your poor father might have +left it to you, but he didn't; so you will marry it--not unsuitably," +meeting an ominous look in her child's eyes, "not without love or under +any circumstances to make a martyr of you, but according to common +sense; and as a certain young man is evidently more and more certain of +himself every time he comes"--she paused. + +"You think there is no need for him to grow more certain of me?" asked +Eloise. + +"You might have saved us the disagreeables of this interview. And +one thing more," impressively, "you evidently are not taking into +consideration, perhaps you never knew, that it was your grandfather's +confidence in a certain course which induced your poor father to take +that last fatal flyer. Your grandfather feels--I'm sure he feels--that +much reparation is due us. The present conditions are easier for him +than a separate suitable home would be, therefore"--Mrs. Evringham waved +her hand. "It is strange," she added, "that so young a girl should not +repose more trust in her mother's judgment. And now that we are on the +subject, I wish you would make more effort with your grandfather. Don't +be so silent at table and leave all the talking to me. A man of his +age likes to have merry young people about. Chat, create a cheerful +atmosphere. He likes to look at you, of course, but you have been so +quiet and lackadaisical of late, it is enough to hurt his feelings as +host." + +"He has never shown any symptoms of anxiety," remarked Eloise. + +"Well, he is a very self-contained man." + +"He is indeed, poor grandfather; I don't know how you will manage, +mother, when you have to play the game of 'pretend' all alone. He is +growing tired of it, I can see. His courtesy is wearing very thin. I'm +sorry to make it harder for you by taking away what must have been a +large prop and support, but I heard papa say to himself more than once +in those last sad days, 'If I had only taken my father's advice.'" + +"Eloise," very earnestly, "you misunderstood, you certainly +misunderstood." + +The girl shook her head wearily. "No, alas! I neither misunderstand nor +forget, when it would be most convenient to do so." + +Mrs. Evringham's fair brow contracted as she regarded her daughter with +exasperation. "And you are only nineteen! One would think it was you +instead of me to whom the next birthday would bring that detested +forty." + +The girl looked at her mother, whose youthful face and figure betrayed +the source of her own heritage of physical charm. + +"I long ago gave up the hope of ever again being as young as you are," +she returned sadly. "Oh!" with a rare and piteous burst of feeling, +"if dear papa could have stayed with us, and we could have had a right +somewhere!" + +Mrs. Evringham threw her arms about the young creature, welcoming the +softened mood. "You know I took you right to my own people, Eloise," she +said gently. "We stayed as long as I thought was right; they couldn't +afford to keep us." A sound at the door caused her to turn. The erect +form of her father-in-law had just entered the room. + +"Ah, good evening, father," she said in tones whose sadness was not +altogether feigned, even though she secretly rejoiced that Eloise should +for once show such opportune emotion. "Pardon this little girl. She was +just feeling overwhelmed with a pang of homesickness for her father." + +"Indeed!" returned Mr. Evringham. "Will you walk out? Mrs. Forbes tells +me that dinner is served." + +Eloise, hastily drawing her handkerchief across her eyes, passed the +unbending figure, her cheeks stinging. His hard voice was in her ears. + +That she was not his son's child hurt her now as often before in the +past two months, but that he should have discovered her weeping at a +moment when he might have been expected to enter was a keen hurt to her +pride, and her heart swelled with a suspicion of his unspoken thoughts. +She had never been effusive, she had never posed. He had no right to +suspect her. + +With her small head carried high and her cheeks glowing, she passed +him, following her mother, who floated on before with much satisfaction. +These opportune tears shed by her nonconforming child should make their +stay good for another two months at least. + +"You must have had a beautiful ride, father," said Mrs. Evringham as +they seated themselves at table. She spoke in the tone, at once assured +and ingratiating, which she always adopted toward him. "I noticed you +took an earlier start than usual." + +The speaker had never had the insight to discover that her father-in-law +was ungrateful for proofs that any of his long-fixed, solitary habits +were now observed by feminine eyes. + +"I did take a rather longer ride than usual," he returned. "Mrs. Forbes, +I wish you would speak to the cook about the soup. It has been served +cool for the last two days." + +Mrs. Forbes flushed as she stood near his chair in her trim black gown +and white apron. + +"Yes, sir," she replied, the flush and quiet words giving little +indication of the tumult aroused within her by her employer's +criticism. To fail to please Mr. Evringham at his meals was the deepest +mortification life held for her. + +"I'm sure it tastes very good," said Mrs. Evringham amiably, "although I +like a little more salt than your cook uses." + +"You can reach it I hope," remarked the host, casting a glance at the +dainty solitaire salt and pepper beside his daughter's plate. + +"But don't you like it cooked in?" she asked sweetly. + +"Not when I want to get it out," he answered shortly. + +"How can mother, how can mother!" thought Eloise helplessly. + +"There is decided spring in the air to-day," said Mrs. Evringham. "I +remember of old how charmingly spring comes in the park." + +"You have a good memory," returned Mr. Evringham dryly. + +"Why do you say that?" asked the pretty widow, lifting large, innocent +eyes. + +"It is some years since you accompanied Lawrence in his calls upon me, I +believe." + +"Poor father!" thought Mrs. Evringham, "how unpleasantly blunt he has +grown, living here alone!" + +"I scarcely realize it," she returned suavely. "My recollection of the +park is always so clear. It is surprising, isn't it, how relatives can +live as near together as we in New York and you out here and see one +another so seldom! Life in New York," sighing, "was such a rush for +us. Here amid the rustle of the trees it seems to be scarcely the same +world. Lawrence often said his only lucid intervals were during the +rides he took with Eloise in Central Park. Do you always ride alone, +father?" + +"Always," was the prompt rejoinder, while Eloise cast a glance full of +appeal at her mother. + +The latter continued archly, "If you could see Eloise on a horse you +would not blame me for trying to screw up my courage, as I have been +doing for days past, to ask you if she might take a canter on Essex Maid +in the morning, sometimes, while you are away. Fanshaw assured me that +she would be perfectly safe." + +Mr. Evringham's cold eyes stared, and then the enormity of the +proposition appeared to move him humorously. + +"Which maid did Fanshaw say would be safe?" he inquired, while Eloise +glowed with mortification. + +"Well, if you think Eloise can't ride, try her some time!" exclaimed +the widow gayly. It had been a matter of surprise and afterward of +resentment that Mr. Evringham could remain deaf to her hints so long, +and she had determined to become frank. "Or else ask Dr. Ballard," she +went on; "he has very kindly provided Eloise with a horse several times, +but the child likes a solitary ride, sometimes, as well as you do." + +The steely look returned to the host's eyes. "No one rides the Maid but +myself," he returned coldly. + +"I beg you to believe, grandfather, that I don't wish to ride her," said +Eloise, her customary languor of manner gone and her voice hard. "Mother +is more ambitious for me than I am for myself. I should be very much +obliged if she would allow me to ask favors when I want them." + +Mrs. Forbes's lips were set in a tight line as she filled Mrs. +Evringham's glass. + +That lady's heart was beating a little fast from vexation, and also from +the knowledge that a time of reckoning with her child was coming. + +"Oh, very well," she said airily. "No wonder you are careful of that +beautiful creature. I caught Eloise with her arms around the mare's neck +the other day, and I couldn't help wishing for a kodak. You feed her +with sugar, don't you Eloise?" + +"I hope not, I'm sure!" exclaimed Mr. Evringham sternly. + +"I'll not do it again, grandfather," said the girl, her very ears +burning. + +Mrs. Evringham sighed and gave one Parthian shot. "The poor child does +love horses so," she murmured softly. + +The host scowled and fidgeted in his chair with a brusque gesture to +Mrs. Forbes to remove the course. + +"Harry has turned up again," he remarked, to change the subject. + +"Really?" returned his daughter-in-law languidly. "For how long I +wonder?" + +"He thinks it is permanent." + +"He is still in Chicago?" + +"Yes, for a day or two. He and his wife sail for Europe immediately." + +"Indeed!" with a greater show of interest. Then, curiously, "Are you +sending them, father?" + +"Scarcely! They are going on business." + +"Oh," relapsing into indifference. "They have a child, I believe." + +"Yes, a girl. I should think perhaps you might have remembered it." + +"I hardly see why, if Harry didn't--a fact he plainly showed by +deserting the poor creature." The insolence of the speaker's tone was +scarcely veiled. Her extreme disapproval of her father-in-law sometimes +welled to the surface of her suave manner. + +Mr. Evringham's thoughts had fled to Chicago. "Harry proposed leaving +the girl here while they are gone," he said. + +Mrs. Evringham straightened in her chair and her attention concentrated. +"With you? What assurance! How like Harry!" she exclaimed. + +The words were precisely those which her host had been saying to +himself; but proceeding from her lips they had a strange effect upon +him. + +"You find it so?" he asked. The clearer the proposition became to Mrs. +Evringham's consciousness the more she resented it. To have the child +in the house not only would menace her ease and comfort, but meant +a possibility that the grandfather might take an interest in Harry's +daughter which would disturb Eloise's chances. + +"Of course it does. I call it simply presumptuous," she declared with +emphasis. + +"After all, Harry has some rights," rejoined Mr. Evringham slowly. + +"His wife is a dressmaker," went on the other. "I had it directly from +a Chicago friend. Harry has scarcely been with the child since she was +born. And to saddle a little stranger like that on you! Now Eloise and +_her_ father were inseparable." + +There was an ominous glitter in Mr. Evringham's eyes. "Eloise's father!" +he returned slowly. "I did not know that she remembered him." + +The hurt of his tone and words sank deep into the heart of the girl, but +she looked up courageously. + +"Your son was my father in every best sense," she said. "We were +inseparable. You must have known it." + +"You appeared to be separable when your father made his visits to +Bel-Air Park," was the rejoinder. "Pardon me if I knew very little +of what took place in his household. A telegraph blank, please, Mrs. +Forbes, and tell Zeke to be ready to go to the office." + +There was a vital tone in the usually dry voice. Mrs. Evringham looked +apprehensively at her daughter; but Eloise gave her no answering glance; +her eyes were downcast and her pretense of eating continued, while her +pulses beat. + + + +CHAPTER IV + +FATHER AND SON + +When later they were alone, the girl looked at her mother, her eyes +luminous. + +"You see," she began rather breathlessly, "even you must see, he is +beginning to drive us away." + +"I do hope, Eloise, you are not going to indulge in any heroics over +this affair," returned Mrs. Evringham, who had braced herself to meet an +attack. "Does the unpleasant creature suppose we would stay with him if +we were not obliged to?" + +"If we are obliged to, which I don't admit, need you demand further +favors than food and shelter? How could you speak of Essex Maid! How can +you know in your inmost heart, as you do, that we are eating the bread +of charity, and then ask for the apple of his eye!" exclaimed Eloise +desperately. + +"Go away with your bread and apples," responded Mrs. Evringham +flippantly. "I have a real worry now that that wretched little cousin of +yours is coming." + +"She is not my cousin please remember," responded the girl bitterly. +"Mr. Evringham reminded us of that to-night." + +"Now don't you begin calling him Mr. Evringham!" protested her mother. +"You don't want to take any notice of the man's absurdities. You will +only make matters worse." + +"No, I shall go on saying grandfather for the little while we stay. +Otherwise, he would know his words were rankling. It _will_ be a little +while? Oh mother!" + +Mrs. Evringham pushed the pleading hand away. "I can't tell how long it +will be!" she returned impatiently. "We are simply helpless until your +father's affairs are settled. I thought I had told you that, Eloise. +He worshipped you, child, and no matter what that old curmudgeon says, +Lawrence would wish us to remain under his protection until we see our +way clear." + +"Won't you have a business talk with him, so we can know what we have to +look forward to?" The girl's voice was unsteady. + +"I will when the right time comes, Eloise. Can't you trust your mother? +Isn't it enough that we have lost our home, our carriages, all our +comforts and luxuries, through this man's bad judgment--" + +"You will cling to that!" despairingly. + +"And have had to come out to this Sleepy Hollow of a place, where life +means mere existence, and be so poor that the carfare into New York is +actually a consideration! I'm quite satisfied with our martyrdom as +it is, without pinching and grinding as we should have to do to live +elsewhere." + +"Then you don't mean to attempt to escape?" returned Eloise in alarm. + +"Hush, hush, Goosie. We will escape all in good time if we don't succeed +in taming the bear. As it is, I have to work single handed," dropping +into a tone of reproach. "You are no help at all. You might as well be +a simpering wax dummy out of a shop window. I would have been ashamed at +your age if I could not have subjugated any man alive. We might have had +him at our feet weeks ago if you had made an effort." + +"No, no, mother," sadly. "I saw when we first came how effusiveness +impressed him, and I tried to behave so as to strike a balance--that +is, after I found that we were here on sufferance and not as welcome +guests." + +"Pshaw! You can't tell what such a hermit is thinking," returned Mrs. +Evringham. "It is the best thing that could happen to him to have us +here. Dr. Ballard said so only to-day. What is troubling me now is this +child of Harry's. I was sure by father's tone when he first spoke of her +that he would not even consider such an imposition." + +"I think he did feel so," returned Eloise, her manner quiet again. "That +was an example of the way you overreach yourself. The word presumption +on your lips applied to uncle Harry determined grandfather to let the +child come." + +"You think he really has sent for her then!" exclaimed Mrs. Evringham. +"You think that is what the telegram meant! I'm sure of it, too." Then +after a minute's exasperated thought, "I believe you are right. He is +just contrary enough for that. If I had urged him to let the little +barbarian come, he couldn't have been induced to do so. That wasn't +clever of me!" The speaker made the admission in a tone which implied +that in general her cleverness was unquestioned. "Well, I hope she will +worry him out of his senses, and I don't think there is much doubt of +it. It may turn out all for the best, Eloise, after all, and lead him +to appreciate us." Mrs. Evringham cast a glance at the mirror and patted +her waved hair. "And yet I'm anxious, very anxious. He might take a +fancy to the girl," she added thoughtfully. + +"I'm such a poor-spirited creature," remarked Eloise. + +"What now?" + +"I ought to be strong enough to leave you since you will not come; to +leave this roof and earn my own living, some way, any way; but I'm too +much of a coward." + +"I should hope so," returned her mother briefly. "You'd soon become one +if you weren't at starting. Girls bred to luxury, as you have been, must +just contrive to live well somehow. They can't stand anything else." + +"Nonsense, mother," quietly. "They can. They do." + +"Yes, in books I know they do." + +"No, truth is stranger than fiction. They do. I have been looking for +that sort of stamina in myself for weeks, but I haven't found it. It is +a cruel wrong to a girl not to teach her to support herself." + +"My dear! You were going to college. You know you would have gone had it +not been for your poor father's misfortunes." + +Eloise's eyes filled again at the remembrance of the young, gay man who +had been her boon companion since her babyhood, and at the memory of +those last sad days, when she knew he had agonized over her future even +more than over that of his volatile wife. + +"My dear, as I've told you before, a girl as pretty as you are should +know that fortune cannot be unkind, nor the sea of life too rough. In +each of the near waves of it you can see a man's head swimming toward +you. You don't know the trouble I have had already in silencing those +who wished to speak before you were old enough. They could any of them +be summoned now with a word. Let me see. There is Mr. Derwent--Mr. +Follansbee--Mr. Weeks--" + +"Hush, mother!" ejaculated the girl in disgust. + +"Exactly. I knew you would say they were too old, or too bald, or too +short, or too fat. I've been a girl myself. Of course there is Nat +Bonnell, and a lot more little waves and ripples like him, but they +always _were_ out of the question, and now they are ten times more so. +That is the reason, Eloise," the mother's voice became impressive to +the verge of solemnity, "why I feel that Dr. Ballard is almost a +providence." + +The girl's clear eyes were reflective. "Nat Bonnell is a wave who +wouldn't remember a girl who had slipped out of the swim." + +"Very wise of him," returned Mrs. Evringham emphatically. "He +can't afford to. Nat is--is--a--decorative creature, just as you +are,--decorative. He must make it pay, poor boy." + +Meanwhile Mrs. Forbes had sought her son in the barn. He and she had had +their supper in time for her to be ready to wait at dinner. + +"Something doing, something doing," murmured Zeke as he heard the +impetuosity of her approaching step. + +"That soup _was_ hot!" she exclaimed defiantly. + +"Somebody scald you, ma? I can do him up, whoever he is," said Zeke, +catching up a whip and executing a threatening dance around the dimly +lighted barn. + +His mother's snapping eyes looked beyond him. "He said it was cold; but +it was only because he was distracted. What do you suppose those people +are up to now? Trying to get Essex Maid for Mamzell to ride!" + +Zeke stopped in his mad career and returned his mother's stare for a +silent moment. "And not a dungeon on the place probably!" he exclaimed +at last. "Just like some folks' shiftlessness." + +"They _asked_ it. They asked Mr. Evringham if that girl couldn't ride +Essex Maid while he was in the city!" + +'Zekiel lifted his eyebrows politely. "Where are their remains to be +interred?" he inquired with concern. + +"Well, not in _this_ family vault, you may be sure. He gave it to them +to-night for a fact." Mrs. Forbes smiled triumphantly. "'I didn't know +Eloise remembered her father,'" she mimicked. "I'll bet that got under +their skin!" + +"Dear parent, you're excited," remarked Zeke. + +She brought her reminiscent gaze back to rest upon her son. "Get your +coat quick, 'Zekiel. Here's the telegram. Take the car that passes the +park gate, and stop at the station. That's the nearest place." + +Ezekiel obediently struggled into the coat hanging conveniently near. +"What does the telegram say?--'Run away, little girl, the ogre isn't +hungry'?" + +"Not much! She's coming. He's sending for the brat." + +"Poor brat! How did it happen?" + +"Just some more of my lady's doings," answered Mrs. Forbes angrily. "Of +course she had to put in her oar and exasperate Mr. Evringham until he +did it to spite her." + +"Cutting off his own nose to spite his face, eh?" asked Zeke, taking the +slip of paper. + +"Yes, and mine. It's going to come heavy on me. I could have shaken that +woman with her airs and graces. Catch her or Mamzell lifting _their_ +hands!" + +"Yet they want her, do they?" + +"No, Stupid! That's why she's coming. Can't you understand?" + +"Blessed if I can," returned the boy as he left the barn; "but I know +one thing, I pity the kid." + + + +Mr. Evringham received a prompt answer to his message. His son +appointed, as a place of meeting, the downtown hotel where he and his +wife purposed spending the night before sailing. + +Father and son had not met for years, and Mr. Evringham debated a few +minutes whether to take the gastronomic and social risk of dining with +Harry _en famille_ at the noisy hotel above mentioned, or to have dinner +in assured comfort at his club--finally deciding on the latter course. + +It was, therefore, nearly nine o'clock before his card was presented to +Mr. and Mrs. Harry, to whom it brought considerable relief of mind, and +they hastened down to the dingy parlor with alacrity. + +"You see we thought you might accept our invitation to dinner," said +Harry heartily, as he grasped his parent's passive hand; "but your +business hours are so short, I dare say you have been at home since the +middle of the afternoon." As he spoke the hard lines of his father's +impassive face smote him with a thousand associations, many of them +bringing remorse. He wondered how much his own conduct had had to do +with graving them so deeply. + +His wife's observant eyes were scanning this guardian of her child +from the crown of his immaculate head to the toes of his correct patent +leathers. His expressionless eyes turned to her. "This is your wife?" he +asked, again offering the passive hand. + +"Yes, father, this is Julia," responded Harry proudly. "I'm sorry the +time is so short. I do want you to know her." + +The young man's face grew eloquent. + +"That is a pleasure to come," responded Mr. Evringham mechanically. He +turned stiffly and cast a glance about. "You brought your daughter, I +presume?" + +"Yes, indeed," answered Mrs. Evringham. "Harry was so glad to receive +your permission. We had made arrangements for her provisionally with +friends in Chicago, but we were desirous that she should have this +opportunity to see her father's home and know you." + +Mr. Evringham thought with regret of those friends in Chicago. Many +times in the last two days he had deeply repented allowing himself to be +exasperated into thus committing himself. + +"Do sit down, father," said Harry, as his wife seated herself in the +nearest chair. + +Mr. Evringham hesitated before complying. "Well," he said perfunctorily, +"you have gone into something that promises well, eh Harry?" + +"It looks that way. I'm chiefly occupied these days in being thankful." +The young man smiled with an extraordinary sweetness of expression, +which transfigured his face, and which his father remembered well as +always promising much and performing nothing. "I might spend a lot of +time crying over spilt milk, but Julia says I mustn't,"--he glanced +across at his wife, whose dark eyes smiled back,--"and what Julia says +goes. I intend to spend a year or two doing instead of talking." + +"It will answer better," remarked his father. + +"Yes, sir," Harry's voice grew still more earnest. "And by that time, +perhaps, I can express my regret to you, for things done and things left +undone, with more convincingness." + +The older man made a slight gesture of rejection with one well-kept +hand. "Let bygones be bygones," he returned briefly. + +"When I think," pursued Harry, his impulsive manner in strange contrast +to that of his listener, "that if I had been behaving myself all this +time, I might have seen dear old Lawrence again!" + +Mr. Evringham kept silence. + +"How are Madge and Eloise? I thought perhaps Madge might come in and +meet us at the train." + +"They are in the best of health, thank you. Eh--a--I think if you'll +call your daughter now we will go. It's rather a long ride, you know. +No express trains at this hour. When you return we will have more of a +visit." + +Harry and his wife exchanged a glance. "Why Jewel is asleep," answered +the young man after a pause. "She was so sleepy she couldn't hold her +eyes open." + +"You mean you've let her go to bed?" asked Mr. Evringham, with a not +very successful attempt to veil his surprise and annoyance. + +"Why--yes. We supposed she would see us off, you know." + +"Your memory is rather short, it strikes me," returned his father. "You +sail at eight A.M., I believe. Did you think I could get in from Bel-Air +at that hour?" + +"No. I thought you would naturally remain in the city over night. You +used to stay in rather frequently, didn't you?" + +"I've not done so for five years; but you couldn't know that. Is it out +of the question to dress the child again? I hope she is too healthy to +be disturbed by a trifle like that." + +Mrs. Evringham cast a startled look at her father-in-law. "It would +disappoint Jewel very much not to see us off," she returned. + +Mr. Evringham shrugged his shoulders. "Let it go then. Let it go," he +said quickly. + +Harry's plain face had grown concerned. "Is Mrs. Forbes with you still?" +he asked. + +"Oh, yes. I couldn't keep house without Mrs. Forbes. Well," rising, "if +you young people will excuse me, I believe I will go to the club and +turn in." + +"Couldn't you stand it here one night, do you think?" asked Harry, +rising. "The club is rather far uptown for such an early start." + +"No. I'll be on hand. I'm used to rising early for a canter. I'll take +it with a cab horse this time. That will be all the difference." And +with this attempt at jocularity, Mr. Evringham shook hands once more and +departed, swallowing his ill-humor as best he could. Any instincts of +the family man which might once have reigned in him had long since been +inhibited. This episode was a cruel invasion upon his bachelor habits. + +Left alone, Harry and his wife without a word ascended to their room +and with one accord approached the little bed in the corner where their +child lay asleep. + +The man took his wife's hand. "I've done it now, Julia," he said +dejectedly. "It's my confounded optimism again." + +"Your optimism is all right," she returned, smoothing his hand gently, +though her heart was beating fast, and the vision of her father-in-law, +with his elegant figure and cold eyes, was weighing upon her spirit. + +Harry looked long on the plain little sleeping face, so like his own in +spite of its exquisite child-coloring, and bending, touched the tossed, +straight, flaxen hair. + +"We couldn't take her, I suppose?" he asked. + +"No," replied the yearning mother quietly. "We have prayed over it. We +must know that all will be right." + +"His bark is worse than his bite," said Harry doubtfully. "It always +was; and Mrs. Forbes is there." + +"You say she is a kind sort of woman?" + +"Why, I suppose so," uncertainly. "I never had much to do with her." + +"And your sister? Isn't it very strange that she didn't come in to meet +us? I was so certain I should put Jewel into her hands I feel a little +bewildered." + +"You're a trump!" ejaculated Harry hotly, "and you've married into a +family where they're scarce. Madge might have met us at the train, at +least." + +"Perhaps she is very sad over her loss," suggested Julia. + +"In the best of health. Father said so. Oh well, she never was anything +but a big butterfly and Eloise a little one. I remember the last time +I saw the child, a pretty fairy with her long pink silk stockings. She +must have been just about the age of Jewel." + +The mother stooped over the little bed and the dingy room looked +pleasanter for her smile. "Jewel hasn't any pink silk stockings," she +murmured, and kissed the warm rose of the round cheek. + +The little girl stirred and opened her eyes, at first vaguely, then with +a start. + +"Is it time for the boat?" she asked, trying to rise. + +Her father smoothed her hair. "No, time to go to sleep again. We're just +going to bed. Good-night, Jewel." He stooped to kiss her, and her arms +met around his neck. + +"It was an April fool, wasn't it?" she murmured sleepily, and was +unconscious again. + +The mother hid her face for a moment on her husband's shoulder. "Help +me to feel that we're doing right," she whispered, with a catch in her +breath. + +"As if I could help _you_, Julia!" he returned humbly. + +"Oh, yes, you can, dear." She withdrew from his embrace, and going to +the dresser, took down her hair. The smiling face of a doll looked up at +her from the neighboring chair, where it was sitting bolt upright. Her +costume was fresh from the modiste, and her feet, though hopelessly +pigeon-toed, were encased in bronze boots of a freshness which caught +the dim gaslight with a golden sheen. + +Mrs. Evringham smiled through her moist eyes. + +"Well, Jewel _was_ sleepy. She forgot to undress Anna Belle," she said. + +Letting her hair fall about her like a veil, she caught up the doll and +pressed it to her heart impulsively. "You are going to stay with her, +Anna Belle! I envy you, I envy you!" she whispered. An irrepressible +tear fell on the sumptuous trimming of the little hat. "Be good to her; +comfort her, comfort her, little dolly." Hastily wiping her eyes, she +turned to her husband, still holding the doll. "We shall have to be very +careful, Harry, in the morning. If we are harboring one wrong or fearful +thought, we must not let Jewel know it." + +"Oh, I wish it were over! I wish the next month were over!" he replied +restively. + + + +CHAPTER V + +BON VOYAGE + +At the dock next morning the scene was one of the usual confusion. The +sailing time was drawing near and Mr. Evringham had not appeared. + +Harry, with his little girl's hand in his, stood at the foot of the gang +plank, peering at every newcomer and growing more anxious every moment. +Jewel occupied herself in throwing kisses to her mother, who stood at +the rail far above, never taking her eyes from the little figure in the +blue sailor suit. + +The child noted her father's set lips and the concentrated expression of +his eyes. + +"If grandpa doesn't come what shall I do?" she asked without anxiety. + +"You'll go to England," was the prompt response. + +"Without my trunk!" returned the child in protest. + +Her father looked again at the watch he held in his hand. The order to +go ashore was sending all visitors down the gang plank. "By George, I +guess you're going, too," he muttered between his teeth, when suddenly +his father's tall form came striding through the crowd. Mr. Evringham +was carrying a long pasteboard box, and seemed breathless. + +"Horse fell down. Devil of a time! Roses for your wife." + +Harry grasped the box, touched his father's hand, kissed the child, and +strode up the plank amid the frowns of officials. + +Jewel's eager eyes followed him, then, as he disappeared, lifted again +to her mother, who smiled and waved her hand to Mr. Evringham. The +latter raised his hat and took the occasion to wipe his heated brow. +He was irritated through and through. The morning had been a chapter of +accidents. Even the roses, which he had ordered the night before, had +proved to be the wrong sort. + +The suspense of the last fifteen minutes had been a distressing wrong +to put upon any man. He had now before him the prospect of caring for a +strange child, of taking her out of town at an hour when he should have +been coming into it. She would probably cry. Very well; if she did he +determined on the instant to ride out to Bel-Air in the smoking car, +although he detested its odors and uncleanness. The whole situation was +enormous. What a fool he had been, and what an intelligent woman was +Mrs. Forbes! She had seen from the first the inappropriateness, the +impossibility, of the whole proposition. His attention was attracted to +the fact that the small figure at his side was hopping up and down with +excitement. + +"There's father, there's father!" she cried, as Harry joined his wife +at the rail and they lifted the wealth of roses from the box and waved +them. + +"We've wronged him, Harry!" exclaimed Julia, trying to see the little +face below through her misty eyes. "How I love him for bringing me these +sweet things! It gives me such a different feeling about him." + +"Oh, father would as soon forget his breakfast as roses for a woman he +was seeing off," returned Harry without enthusiasm, while he waved his +hat energetically. + +The steamer pulled out. The faces in the crowd mingled and changed +places. + +"I've lost them, I've lost them!" cried Julia. "Oh, where are they, +Harry." + +"Over there near the corner. I can see father. It's all right, dear," +choking a little. "Jewel was skipping and laughing a minute ago. It will +only be a few weeks, but confound it," violently, "next time we'll take +her!" + +Julia buried her face in the roses, on which twinkled a sudden dew, and +tried to gather promise from their sweet breath. + +Jewel strained her eyes to follow the now indistinguishable forms on the +lofty deck, and her grandfather looked down at the small figure in the +sailor suit, the short thick pigtails of flaxen hair tied with large +bows of ribbon, and the doll clasped in one arm. At last the child +turned her head and looked up, and their eyes met for the first time. + +"Jove, she does look like Harry!" muttered Mr. Evringham, and even as he +spoke the plain little face was illumined with the smile he knew, that +surpassingly sweet smile which promised so much and performed nothing. + +The child studied him with open, innocent curiosity. + +"I can't believe it's you," she said at last, in a voice light and +winning, a voice as sweet as the smile. + +"I don't wonder. I don't quite know myself this morning," he replied +brusquely. + +"We have a picture of you, but it's a long-ago one, and I thought +by this time you would be old, and--and bent over, you know, the way +grandpas are." + +Even in that place of drays and at eight o'clock A.M. these words fell +not disagreeably upon irritated ears. + +"I think myself Nature did not intend me to be a grandpa," he replied. + +"Oh, yes, you're just the right kind," returned the child hastily and +confidently. "Strong and--and handsome." + +Mr. Evringham looked at her in amazement. "The little rascal!" he +thought. "Has she been coached?" + +"I suppose we may get away from here now," he said aloud. "There's +nothing more to wait for." + +"Didn't the roses make mother happy?" asked the little girl, trotting +along beside his long strides. "I think it was wonderful for you to +bring them so early in the morning." + +Mr. Evringham summoned a cab. + +"Oh, are we gong in a carriage?" cried Jewel, highly pleased. "But I +mustn't forget, grandpa, there's something father told me I must give +you the first thing. Will you take Anna Belle a minute, please?" and Mr. +Evringham found himself holding the doll fiercely by one leg while small +hands worked at the catch of a very new little leather side-bag. + +At last Jewel produced a brass square. + +"Oh, your trunk check." Mr. Evringham exchanged the doll for it with +alacrity. "Get in." He held open the cab door. + +Jewel obeyed, but not without some misgivings when her guardian so +coolly pocketed the check. + +"Yes, it's for my trunk," she replied when her grandfather was beside +her and they began rattling over the stones. "I have a checked silk +dress," she added softly, after a pause. It were well to let him know +the value of her baggage. + +"Have you indeed? How old are you, Julia? Your name is Julia, I +believe?" + +"Yes, sir, my _name's_ Julia, but so is mother's, and they call me +Jewel. I'm nearly nine, grandpa." + +"H'm. Time flies," was the brief response. + +Jewel looked out of the cab window in the noisy silence that followed. +At last her voice was raised to sound through the clatter. "I suppose my +trunk is somewhere else," she said suggestively. + +"Yes, your trunk will reach home all right, plaid silk and all." + +Jewel smiled, and lifting the doll she let her look out the window upon +the uninviting prospect. "Anna Belle's clothes are in the trunk, too," +she added, turning and speaking confidentially. + +"Whose?" asked Mr. Evringham, startled. "There's no one else coming, I +suppose?" + +"Why, this is Anna Belle," returned the child, laughing and lifting the +bisque beauty so that the full radiance of her smile beamed upon her +companion. "That's your great-grandfather, dearie, that I've told you +about," she said patronizingly. "We've been so _excited_ the last few +days since we knew we were coming," looking again at Mr. Evringham. +"I've told Anna Belle all about beautiful Bel-Air Park, and the big +house, and the big trees, and the ravine, and the brook. Isn't it nice," +joyfully, "that it doesn't rain to-day, and we shall see it in the +sunshine?" + +"Rain would have made it more disagreeable certainly," returned Mr. +Evringham, congratulating himself that he was escaping that further rain +of tears which he had dreaded. "It is a good day for your father and +mother to set out on their trip," he added. + +"Yes, and they're only to be gone six little weeks," returned Jewel, +smoothing her doll's boa; "and I'm to have this lovely visit, and I'm to +write them very often, and they'll write to me, and we shall all be so +happy!" Jewel trotted Anna Belle on her short-skirted knee and hummed a +tune, which was lost in the rattle of wheels. + +"You can read and write, eh?" + +"Oh ye--es!" replied the child with amused scorn. "How would I get +my lessons if I couldn't read? Of course--big words," she added +conscientiously. + +"Precisely," agreed Mr. Evringham dryly. "Big words, I dare say." + +A sudden thought occurring to his companion, she looked up again. + +"You pretty nearly didn't come," she said, "and just think, if you +hadn't I was going to England. Father said so." + +At the sweet inflections of the child's voice Mr. Evringham's brows +contracted with remembrance of his wrongs. "I should have come. Your +father might have known that!" + +"I suppose he wouldn't have liked to leave me sitting on the dock alone, +but I should have known you'd come. The funny part is I shouldn't have +known _you_." Jewel laughed. "I should have kept looking for an old +man with white hair and a cane like Grandpa Morris. He's a grandpa in +Chicago that I know. He's just as kind as he can be, but he has the +_queerest_ back. He goes to our church, but says he came in at the +eleventh hour. I think he used to have rheumatism. And while I was +sitting there you could have walked right by me." + +"Humph!" + +"But then you'd have known _me_," went on Jewel, straightening Anna +Belle's hat, "so it would have been all right. You'd have known there +would be only one little girl waiting there, and you would have said, +'Oh, here you are, Jewel. I've come. I'm your grandpa.'" The child +unconsciously mimicked the short, brusque speech. + +Mr. Evringham regarded her rather darkly. "Eh? I hope you're not +impudent?" + +"What's that?" asked Jewel doubtfully. + +Her companion's brow grew darker. + +"Impudent I say." + +"And what is impudent?" + +"Don't you know?" suspiciously. + +"No, sir," replied the child, some anxiety clouding her bright look. "Is +it error?" + +Mr. Evringham regarded her rather blankly. "It's something you mustn't +be," he replied at last. + +Jewel's face cleared. "Oh no, I won't then," she replied earnestly. "You +tell me when I'm--it, because I want to make you happy." + +Mr. Evringham cleared his throat. He felt somewhat embarrassed and was +glad they had reached the ferry. + +"We're going on a boat, aren't we?" she asked when they had passed +through the gate. + +"Yes, and we can make this boat if we hurry." Mr. Evringham suddenly +felt a little hand slide into his. Jewel was skipping along beside him +to keep up with his long strides, and he glanced down at the bobbing +flaxen head with its large ribbon bows, while the impulse to withdraw +his hand was thwarted by the closer clinging of the small fingers. + +"Father told me about the ferry," said Jewel with satisfaction, "and +you'll show me the statue of Liberty won't you, grandpa? Isn't it a +splendid boat? Oh, can we go out close to the water?" + +Mr. Evringham sighed heavily. He did not wish to go out close to the +water. He wished to sit down in comfort in the cabin and read the paper +which he had just taken from a newsboy. It seemed to him a very long +time since he had done anything he wished to; but a little hand was +pulling eagerly at his, and mechanically he followed out to where the +brisk spring wind ruffled the river and assaulted his hat. He jerked his +hand from Jewel's to hold it in place. + +"Isn't this beautiful!" cried the child joyfully, as the boat steamed +on. "Can you do this every day, grandpa?" + +"What? Oh yes, yes." + +Something in the tone caused the little girl to look up from her view of +the wide water spaces to the grim face above. + +"Is there something that makes you sorry, grandpa?" she asked softly. + +His eyes were fixed on a ferry boat, black with its human freight, about +to pass them on its way to the city. + +"I was wishing I were on that boat. That's all." + +The little girl lifted her shoulders. "I don't believe there's room," +she said, looking smilingly for a response from her companion. "I don't +believe even Anna Belle could squeeze on. Do you think so?" + +Mr. Evringham, holding his hat with one hand, was endeavoring to fetter +the lively corners of his newspaper in such shape that he could at least +get a glimpse of headlines. + +"Oh, I see a statue. Is that it, grandpa? Is that it?" + +"What?" vaguely. "Oh yes. The statue of Liberty. Yes, that's it. As +if there was any liberty for anybody!" muttered Mr. Evringham into his +mustache. + +"It isn't so very big," objected Jewel. + +"We're not so very near it." + +"Just think," gayly, "father and mother are sailing away just the way we +are." + +"H'm," returned Mr. Evringham, trying to read the report of the stock +market, and becoming more impatient each instant with the sportive +breeze. + +"Julia," he said at last, "I am going into the cabin to read the paper. +Will you go in, or do you wish to stay here?" + +"May I stay here?" + +"Yes," doubtfully, "I suppose so, if you won't climb on the rail, or--or +anything." + +Jewel laughed in gleeful appreciation of the joke. Her grandfather met +her blue eyes unsmilingly and vanished. + +"I wish grandpa didn't look so sorry," she thought regretfully. "He is +a very important man, grandpa is, and perhaps he has a lot of error to +meet and doesn't know how to meet it." + +Watching the dancing waves and constantly calling Anna Belle's attention +to some point of interest on the water front or a passing craft, +she nevertheless pursued a train of thought concerning her important +relative, with the result that when the gong sounded for landing, and +Mr. Evringham's impassive countenance reappeared, she met him with +concern. + +"Doesn't it make you sorry to read the morning paper, grandpa?" + +"Sometimes. Depends on the record of the Exchange." There was somewhat +less of the irritation of a newsless man in the morning in the speaker's +tone. + +"Mother calls the paper the Daily Saddener," pursued Jewel, again +slipping her hand into her grandfather's as a matter of course as they +moved slowly off the boat. "I've been thinking that perhaps you're in a +hurry to get to business, grandpa." + +The child did not quote his words about the ingoing ferry boat lest he +should feel regret at having spoken them. + +"Well, there's no use in my being in a hurry this morning," he returned. + +"I was going to ask, couldn't you show me how to go to Bel-Air, so you +wouldn't have to take so much time?" + +A gleam of hope came into Mr. Evringham's cold eyes and he looked down +on his companion doubtfully. + +"We have to go out on the train," he said. + +"Yes," returned the child, "but you could put me on it, and every time +it stops I would ask somebody if that was Bel-Air." + +The prospect this offered was very pleasing to the broker. + +"You wouldn't be afraid, eh?" + +"Be what?" asked Jewel, looking up at him with a certain reproachful +surprise. + +"You wouldn't, eh?" + +"Why, grandpa!" + +"Well, I believe it would do well enough, since you don't mind. Zeke is +going to meet this train. I'll tell the conductor to see that you get +off at Bel-Air, and when you do, ask for Mr. Evringham's coachman. +You'll see Zeke, a light-haired man driving a brown horse in a brougham. +He'll take you home to his mother, Mrs. Forbes. She is my housekeeper. +Now, do you think you'll understand?" + +"It sounds very easy," returned Jewel. + +Mr. Evringham's long legs and her short skipping ones lost no time in +boarding the train, which they found made up. The relieved man saw the +conductor, paid the child's fare, and settled her on the plush seat. + +She sat there, contentedly swinging her feet. + +"Now I can just catch a boat if I leave you immediately," said Mr. +Evringham consulting his watch. "You've only a little more than five +minutes to wait before the train starts." + +"Then hurry, grandpa, I'm all right." + +"Very well. Your fare is paid, and the conductor understands. You might +ask somebody, though. Bel-Air, you know. Good-by." + +Hastily he strode down the aisle and left the train. Having to pass the +window beside which Jewel sat, he glanced up with a half uneasy memory +of how far short of the floor her feet had swung. + +She was watching for him. On her lips was the sweet gay smile and--yes, +there was no mistake--Anna Belle's countenance was beaming through the +glass, and she was wafting kisses to Mr. Evringham from a stiff and +chubby hand. The stockbroker grew warm, cleared his throat, lifted his +hat, and hurried his pace. + + + +CHAPTER VI + +JEWEL'S ARRIVAL + +When her grandfather had disappeared, Jewel placed Anna Belle on +the seat beside her, where she toed in, in a state of the utmost +complacence. + +"I have my work to do, Anna Belle," she said, "and this will be a good +time, so don't disturb me till the train starts." She put her hand over +her eyes, and sat motionless as the people met and jostled in the aisle. + +Minutes passed, and then some one brushed the child's arm in taking +the seat beside her. "Oh, please don't sit on Anna Belle!" she cried +suddenly, and looked up into a pair of clear eyes that were regarding +her with curiosity. + +They belonged to a man with a brown mustache and dark, short, pointed +beard, who carried a small square black case and had altogether a very +clean, fresh, agreeable appearance. + +"Do I look like a person who would sit on Anna Belle?" he asked gravely. + +The doll was enthroned upon his knee as he set down his case, and the +train started. + +"If she annoys you I'll take her," said Jewel, with a little air of +motherliness not lost upon her companion. + +"Thank you," he replied, "but I'm used to children. She looks like a +fine, healthy little girl," keeping his eyes fixed on the doll's rosy +cheeks. + +"Yes indeed. She's very healthy." + +"Not had measles, or chicken pox, or mumps, or any of those things yet?" +pursued the pleasant voice. + +"Oh dear!" gasped Jewel. "Please let me take Anna Belle." She caught her +doll into her arms and met her companion's surprised gaze. + +"I haven't any of them," he returned, amused. "Don't be afraid." + +"I'm not afraid," answered the child promptly. "There is nothing to be +afraid of." + +"I was only going to say," said the young man, "that if she was ailing I +could prescribe for her. I have my case right here." + +Jewel's startled look fell to the black case. "What's that! Medicine?" +she asked softly. + +"It certainly is. So you see you have a doctor handy if anything ails +the baby." + +The child gazed at him with grave scrutiny. "Do you believe in materia +medica?" she asked. + +The young doctor threw back his head and laughed heartily. "Well, yes," +he answered at last. "I am supposed to." + +To his surprise his neighbor returned to the attitude in which he had +found her, with one hand over her eyes. + +He ceased laughing and looked at her in some discomfiture. Her mouth was +set seriously. There was no quiver of the rosy lips. + +To his relief, in a minute she dropped her hand and began to hum and +arrange her doll's hat. + +The conductor approached, and as the doctor presented his ticket, he +said, "This little girl's fare is paid, I believe." The conductor nodded +and passed on. + +"I'm to get off at Bel-Air," said Jewel. "I hope he doesn't forget." + +"If he does, I shan't," said the doctor, "for I'm going to get off there +myself." + +The child's eyes brightened. "Isn't that nice!" she returned. Then she +lifted Anna Belle and whispered something into her ear. + +"No secrets," said the doctor. + +"I was just reminding Anna belle how we are always taken care of," +returned Jewel. + +The young man regarded her with increasing interest and curiosity. + +"Don't you wonder how I knew that your fare was paid?" he asked. + +"How did you?" + +"I met Mr. Evringham hurrying through the station. He said his +granddaughter was on this train and asked me to look out for a little +girl with a doll." + +"Oh," returned the child, pleased, "then you know grandpa." + +"I've known him ever since I was no bigger than you are. But even then," +added the doctor mentally, "I hadn't supposed him capable of sending +this baby out from the city alone." + +Jewel watched the kind eyes attentively. "So you see," he went on, "all +I had to do was to look for Anna Belle." + +"And you nearly sat on her," declared the child. + +"I deny it," returned the doctor gravely. "I deny it. You weren't +looking. For one second I was afraid you were crying." + +"Crying! What would I be crying for, coming to have a lovely visit at +grandpa's!" + +"I suppose you are in a hurry to see your aunt and cousin?" remarked the +doctor. + +"Yes, but I don't know them. You see," explanatorily, "they aren't my +real relations." + +"Indeed?" + +"No, aunt Madge is my uncle's wife and cousin Eloise is her little girl, +but not uncle Lawrence's." + +The doctor thought a minute. + +"Really? She is a very charming little girl, is your cousin Eloise. +Aren't you going to tell me your name?" + +"My name is Jewel." + +"And I am Dr. Ballard, so now we are properly introduced." He smiled +upon her with merry eyes, and she responded politely:-- + +"I'm very glad you found us." + +Arrived at Bel-Air, the doctor picked up his case and Jewel followed him +from the train. He looked about expectantly for Mrs. Evringham or her +daughter. They were not there. + +The little girl's quick eyes discerned a light-haired driver and a brown +horse coming around a curve of the pretty landscape gardening which +beautified the station. At the same moment Dr. Ballard recognized the +equipage with relief. + +"They've sent for you. That is all right," he said, and 'Zekiel, with +one side glance at the little stranger, drew up by the platform. + +"Good-morning, Zeke. Here is your passenger." He lifted Jewel to her +place beside the driver, whose smooth, stolid face did not change +expression. + +"Do I wait for Mr. Evringham?" he asked, without turning his head in its +stiff collar. + +"No, Mr. Evringham remained in town." + +"Is there a trunk?" pursued Zeke immovably. + +"How about your trunk, little one?" asked the doctor. + +Jewel produced a paper check. "A man gave grandpa this for it at the +boat place." + +"I'll see to having it sent up then." The doctor looked along the +platform. "It didn't come this trip." He took the child's hand in his. +"I shall see you again before long. Good-by." + +Jewel looked after his retreating figure with some regret. Her present +companion seemed carved out of wood. His plum-colored livery fitted +without a wrinkle. His smooth, solemn face appeared incapable of speech. + +The swift horse trotted through the village street at a great pace, and +the visitor enjoyed the novel experience so intensely that she could not +forbear stealing a look up at the driver's face. + +He caught it. "Ain't afraid, are you?" he asked. + +She looked doubtful. "Is it error for the horse to go so fast?" she +returned. + +"Error?"'Zekiel regarded the child curiously. "Well, I guess it's +considered one o' the biggest virtues a horse can have." + +"Then why did you ask me if I was afraid? You're the third person who's +asked me that this morning," returned Jewel, with wondering inflections +in her soft voice. "Are New York people afraid of things?" + +"Well, not so's you'd notice it as a rule," returned Zeke. "I'm glad if +she ain't one o' the scared kind," he pursued, as if to himself. + +"Oh, this is splendid," declared Jewel, relieved by her companion's +smile; "I don't know as Anna Belle ever had such a good ride. See the +trees, dearie! How the leaves are coming out! They aren't nearly so +far out in Chicago; but oh," as the horse turned, "there's a big storm +coming! What a black cloud! We're just in time." + +"I don't see any cloud," said Zeke, staring about. + +"Why, right there in front of us," excitedly, pointing at the long +opaque mass against the sky. + +"That? Why, that's hills." Zeke laughed. "The mountain they call it +here. Pretty sickly mountain we'd think it was up Berkshire way." + +"Oh, it's a mountain, Anna Belle," joyfully, "we're really seeing a +mountain!" + +"No you ain't," remarked Zeke emphatically. "Not by a large majority. +Guess Chicago's some flat, ain't it?" + +"We don't have hills, no. So now we're going to see grandpa's park, and +the ravine, and the brook, and--and everything!" + +Zeke stole a furtive look at the owner of the joyous voice. The +voluminous ribbon bows behind her ears were mostly in evidence, as she +bent her face over her doll in congratulation. + +"Left Mr. Evringham in town, did you?" he asked. + +"Yes, he was busy, and in a hurry to get to his office. Grandpa's such +an important man." + +"Is he?" asked Zeke. + +"Why ye--es! Didn't you know it?" + +"I surmised something of the kind. So Dr. Ballard looked after you." + +"Yes,--and I do hope my trunk will come." + +Jewel looked wistfully at the driver. In spite of his stiff and elegant +appearance he had been surprisingly affable. "I have a checked silk +dress," she added modestly. + +"You don't say so!" ejaculated Zeke, wholly won by the smile bent upon +him. "Well, now, if that trunk don't show up by noon, I'll have to do +something about it." + + + +"Oh, thank you!" exclaimed the child. + +They now sped through the gates of the park and by the porter's lodge, +and began the ascent of a winding road. Handsome residences were set +among the fine trees, and at sight of each one Jewel looked expectant +and eager. + +"I expect mother'll be kind of looking out for us," continued Zeke. +"Poor kid!" he added mentally. + +"Grandpa said something about your mother." + +"His housekeeper, Mrs. Forbes." + +"Oh yes, of course I know about Mrs. Forbes," returned Jewel hastily and +politely. "He told me your name too," she added suggestively. + +"Yes, I'm Zeke. And you just remember," emphatically, "that I come when +I'm called. Will you?" + +"Yes," replied the child, laughing a little. "Do you know my name?" + +"It's Julia, isn't it?" + +"Yes, but if you called me by it perhaps I shouldn't come, for I'm used +to the name of Jewel." + +"Pretty name, all right," returned Zeke sententiously. "Now you can see +your grandpa's house. The one with the long porch." + +Jewel jumped up and down a little in the seat and held Anna Belle to get +a good view. The brown horse trotted with a will, and in a minute more +they had passed up the driveway and paused beneath the _porte-cochere_. + +Mrs. Forbes threw open the door and stood unsmiling. + +"Where is Mr. Evringham?" she asked, addressing her son. + +"Stayed in town." + +The housekeeper stepped forward and helped down the little girl, who had +risen and was looking brightly expectant. + +"How do you do, Julia," she said. "Did you come out alone on the cars?" + +"No. Dr. Ballard came with me." + +"Oh, that was the way of it. Zeke, hitch up the brougham. The ladies are +going out to lunch." + +"Why didn't they let me know?" grumbled Zeke. "Could have hitched up the +brougham just as well in the first place." + +"Don't ask _me_," returned his mother acidly. "Where is your bag, Julia? +I hope you haven't left it in the train?" + +"No, I didn't have any. I used mother's. She knew I'd have my trunk +to-night." + +"Then come in and I'll show you where your room is." + +The child looked eagerly and admiringly from side to side as she +followed Mrs. Forbes up two flights of broad shallow stairs and into an +apartment which to her eyes seemed luxurious. + +"Was this ever my father's room?" she asked. + +"Why yes, I believe it was," returned Mrs. Forbes, to whom that +circumstance had not before occurred. + +"How kind of grandpa to let me have it!" said Jewel, highly pleased. + +"He wasn't in it much, your father wasn't. Away at school or some other +place mostly. Where's your trunk?" + +"It's coming. Zeke said he'd attend to it." Jewel looked up happily. "I +have a"--she was intending to communicate to Mrs. Forbes the exciting +detail of her wardrobe when the housekeeper interrupted her. + +"My son's name is Ezekiel," she said impressively. + +"Oh," returned Jewel abashed. "He told me Zeke." She still stood in the +middle of the large white room, Anna Belle in her arms, and with the +surprised look in her serious face drew upon herself an unflattering +mental comment. + +"The image of Harry," thought Mrs. Forbes. + +"Can I see aunt Madge and cousin Eloise?" asked the child, beginning to +feel some awe of the large woman regarding her. + +"They're getting ready to go out to lunch. They can't be disturbed now. +You can sit here, or walk around until lunch time. You'll know when +that is ready, because the gong will sound in the hall. Now when you go +downstairs be careful not to touch the tall clock on the landing. That +is a very valuable chiming clock, and you mustn't open its doors, for +fear you would break something. Then if you go into the parlor you must +never play on the piano unless you ask somebody, for fear Mr. Evringham +might be trying to take a nap just at that time; then you mustn't go +into the barn without permission, for it's dangerous where the horses +are, and you might get kicked. If you're tired from your journey you can +lie down now till lunch time; but whenever you do lie down, be sure to +turn off this white spread, for fear you might soil it. Now I'm very +busy, and I shan't see you again till lunch." + +Mrs. Forbes departed and Jewel stood for half a minute motionless, +feeling rather dazed by a novel sensation of resentment. + +"As if we were babies!" she whispered to her doll. "She's the most +afraid woman I ever saw, and she looks so _sorry_! She isn't our +relation, so no matter, dearie, what she says. This is father's room, +and we can think how he used to run around here when he was a little +boy." + +Tiptoeing to the door, Jewel closed it and began to inspect her new +apartment. + +The sweet smelling soap on the marble stand, the silver mountings of the +faucets, the large fine towels, the empty closet and drawers, all looked +inviting. Throughout her examination the little girl kept pausing to +listen. + +Surely aunt Madge and cousin Eloise would look in before they went out +to their engagement. Mother had so often said how nice it was that they +were there. Surely they didn't know that she had arrived. That was it, +of course; and Mrs. Forbes was so sorry and anxious she would probably +forget to tell them. + +Some altercation was just then going on in the apartments of those +ladies. + +"We ought to speak to her before we go," said Mrs. Evringham +persuasively. "Father would probably resent it if we didn't." + +"I have told you already," returned Eloise, "that I do not intend doing +one thing henceforward that grandfather could interpret as being done to +please him." + +"But that is carrying it ridiculously far, not to greet your cousin, who +has come from a journey and is your guest." + +"My guest!" returned the girl derisively. "We are hers more likely. I +will not go to her. The sooner grandfather sends us away the better." + +Mrs. Evringham looked worried. + +"This is mania, Eloise!" she returned coaxingly. "Very well, I shall go +and speak to the child. She shan't be able to tell her grandfather of +any rudeness." + +In a few minutes Jewel, sitting by her window, Anna Belle in her lap, +heard the _frou-frou_ of skirts in the hall, and with a knock at the +door, a lady entered. She was arrayed in a thin black gown and wore a +large black hat, that was very becoming. + +Jewel's admiration went out to her on the instant and she started up. + +The lady swept toward her, and bending, a delicate perfume wafted about +Jewel as she felt a light touch of lips on her cheek. + +"So this is Julia Evringham," said the newcomer. + +"And you are aunt Madge," returned the child gladly, clinging to the +gloved hand, which endured for a moment, and then firmly disengaged +itself. + +"Your father and mother got off all right I hope?" went on the airy +voice. "I'm always afraid of winds at this season myself, but they may +not have them. Your cousin Eloise and I are hurrying away to a luncheon, +but we shall see you at dinner. You're very comfortable here? That's +right. Good-bye." + +She swept away, and the light again faded from Jewel's face as she went +slowly back to her seat. + +"Aunt Madge is afraid, too," she said to the doll. "We know there won't +be winds, don't we, dearie? God will take care of father and mother." + +An uncomfortable lump rose towards the child's throat. + +Mrs. Evringham followed Eloise into the brougham, smiling. + +"It couldn't be better," she announced with much satisfaction as they +drove away. + +"What?" + +"She is plain--oh, plain as possible. Small eyes, large mouth, +insignificant nose. She will never get on with father. He never +could endure ugliness in a girl or woman. I have heard him say it was +unpardonable. If it hadn't been that we were what we are, Eloise, I +should never have dreamed of doing as I have done. Now if only some good +fairy would open your eyes to see which side your bread is buttered on! +You could do marvels with such a foil for contrast." + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE FIRST EVENING + +In the excitement of the early morning start, Jewel had eaten little +breakfast, but the soft resonance of the Japanese gong, when it sounded +in the hall below, found her unready for food. + +However, she judged the mellow sound to be her summons and obediently +left her seat by the window. As she went down she looked askance at +the tall dark clock which, even as she passed, chimed the half hour +melodiously. Certainly her important grandfather lived in a wonderful +house. She paused to hear the last notes of the bells, but catching +sight of the figure of Mrs. Forbes waiting below, she started and moved +on. + +"That's right. Come along," said the housekeeper. "Mr. Evringham likes +everybody to be punctual in his house." + +"Oh, has grandpa come home?" inquired Jewel eagerly. + +"No, he won't be home for hours yet. Come this way." + +The little girl followed to the dining-room, which she thought quite as +wonderful as the clock; but her admiration of all she saw was no longer +unmixed. Mrs. Forbes seemed to cast a shadow. + +One place was laid at the table, one handsome chair was drawn up to it. +Jewel longed to call Anna Belle's attention to the glittering array on +the sideboard and behind the crystal doors of cabinets, but something +withheld her. + +She looked questioningly at the housekeeper. "I think I'll draw up +another chair for Anna Belle," she said. + +Mrs. Forbes had already decided, from small signs of assurance, that +this Western child was bold. "Give her an inch, and she'll take an ell," +she had said to herself. "I know her sort." + +"Do you mean the doll?" she returned. "Put it down anywhere. You must +never bring it to the table. Mr. Evringham wouldn't like it." + +In silence Jewel seated the doll in the nearest chair against the wall, +and as she slid up into her own, a neat maid appeared with a puffy and +appetizing omelet. + +Mrs. Forbes filled the child's glass with water, and the maid set down +the omelet and departed. + +Jewel's heart sank while Mrs. Forbes presented the souffle. + +"I'm sorry," she began hesitatingly, "I never--I can't"--then she +swallowed hard in her desperate plight. "Isn't it pretty?" she said +rather breathlessly. + +"It's very good," returned the housekeeper briefly, misconstruing the +child's hesitation. "Shall I help you?" + +"I--could I have a drink of milk? I don't--I don't eat eggs." + +"Don't eat eggs?" repeated the housekeeper severely. "I'm sorry you +have been allowed to be notional. Children should eat what is set before +them. Taste of it." + +"I--I couldn't, please." Jewel's face was averted. + +Mrs. Forbes touched an electric bell. The maid reappeared. "Remove the +omelet, Sarah, and bring Miss Julia a glass of milk." + +That was the order, but oh, the tone of it! Jewel's heart beat a little +faster as she took some bread and butter and drank the milk, Mrs. Forbes +standing by, a portentous, solemn, black-robed figure, awful in its +silence. + +When the child set down the glass empty, she started to push back her +chair. + +"Wait," said Mrs. Forbes laconically. She again touched an electric +bell. The maid reappeared, removed the bread and milk and served a +dainty dessert of preserved peaches, cream, and cake. + +"I've really had enough," said Jewel politely. + +"Don't you eat peaches and cream, or cake either?" asked Mrs. Forbes +accusingly. + +"Yes'm," returned the child, and ate them without further ado. + +"Your trunk has come," said Mrs. Forbes when at last Jewel slipped down +from the table. "I will come up and help you unpack it." + +"If only she wouldn't!" thought the child as she lifted Anna Belle, but +the housekeeper preceded her up the stairs, breathing rather heavily. + +Sure enough, when they reached the white room, there stood the new trunk +that had been packed with so much anticipation. The bright black letters +on the side, J. E., had power even now to send a little glow of pride +through its possessor. She stole a glance at Mrs. Forbes, but, strange +as it may appear, the housekeeper gave no evidence of admiration. + +"I don't need to trouble you, Mrs. Forbes. I can unpack it," said the +child. + +"I'm up here now, and anyway, I'd better show you where to keep your +things. Where's your key?" + +Jewel laid down the doll and opened her leather side-bag, producing the +key tied with a little ribbon. + +Mrs. Forbes unlocked the trunk, lifted out the tray, and began in a +business-like manner to dispose of the small belongings that had last +been handled so tenderly. + +"Mrs. Harry certainly knows how to pack," ran her thoughts, "and she'd +naturally know how to sew. These things are as neat as wax, and the +child's well fixed." In the tray, among other things, were a number of +doll's clothes, some writing materials, a box of different colored hair +ribbons, and a few books. + +"Glad to see a Bible," thought Mrs. Forbes. "Shows Mrs. Harry is +respectable." She glanced at the three other books. One was a copy of +"Heidi," one was "Alice in Wonderland," and the third a small black book +with the design of a cross and crown in gilt on the cover. Mrs. Forbes +looked from this up at the child. + +"What's this? Some kind of a daily book, Julia?" + +"I--yes, I read it every day." + +"Well, I hope you'll be faithful now your mother's gone. She's taken the +trouble to put it in." + +Jewel's eyes had caught a glimpse of green color. Eagerly she reached +down into the trunk and drew out carefully a dress in tiny checks of +green and white. + +"That's my silk dress," she said, regarding it fondly. + +"It is very neatly made," returned Mrs. Forbes repressively. "It doesn't +matter at all what little girls have on if they are clean and neat. It +only matters that they shall be obedient and good." + +Jewel regarded her with the patience which children exercise toward +the inevitable. "I'd like to fix Anna Belle's drawer myself," she said +modestly. + +"Very well, you may. Now here are your shoes and slippers, but I don't +find any rubbers." + +"No, I never wear rubbers." + +"What? Doesn't it rain in Chicago?" + +"Oh yes indeed, it rains." + +"Then you must get your feet wet. I think you better have had rubbers +than a silk dress! What was your mother thinking of?" + +Jewel sighed vaguely. She wondered how soon Mrs. Forbes would go away. + +This happy event occurred before long, and the little girl amused +herself for a while with rearranging somewhat the closet and drawers. +Then putting on her hat and taking her doll with her, she stole quietly +down the thickly carpeted stairs, and opening the heavy hall door, went +out upon the piazza. It was sheltered from the wind, and wicker chairs +were scattered about. Jewel looked off curiously amid the trees to where +she knew, by her father's description, she should find, after a few +minutes' ramble, the ravine and brook. Pretty soon she would wander out +there. Just now the sun was warm here, and the roomy chairs held out +inviting arms. The child climbed into one of them. Father would come +back here some happy day and find her. The thought brought a smile, +and with the smile on her lips, her head fell back against a yielding +cushion, and in a minute she had fallen asleep. Anna Belle toppled +over backward. Her plumed hat was pushed rakishly askew, but little she +cared. Her eyelids had fallen, too. + +Mrs. Evringham and Eloise, returning late from their luncheon, came upon +the little sleeping figure as they walked around the long piazza. + +"There she is!" exclaimed Mrs. Evringham softly, putting up her +lorgnette. "Behold your rival!" + +Eloise regarded the sleeper without curiosity. + +"At least she has not come uninvited," was her only comment. + +"But she has come unwelcome, my dear," returned Mrs. Evringham with +relish. "Just wait until our gracious host realizes what he has let +himself in for. Oh, there's a good time coming, you may be sure. Hush, +don't waken her! It would be a blessed dispensation if she were always +to sleep while her grandfather is absent," and Mrs. Evringham led the +way into the house, her laces fluttering. + +On the first landing the ladies met Mrs. Forbes, troubled of +countenance. + +"I am looking for the child Julia," she said. "I can't think where she +can have disappeared." + +"You've not far to seek," returned Mrs. Evringham airily. "She is asleep +on the piazza." + +"Thank you." Mrs. Forbes hastened downstairs and out of doors. Glancing +about she quickly perceived the short legs stretched in a reclining +chair, and advanced toward the relaxed little figure. + +"Julia, wake up!" she said, touching her. + +The child stirred and opened her eyes. Her movement made the doll slip +to the floor, and this caused her to come to herself suddenly. + +"Why, I fell asleep, didn't I?" she said drowsily, reaching for the +doll. + +"Yes, and in Mr. Evringham's own chair!" responded Mrs. Forbes. + +"They're all his, aren't they?" asked the child. + +"Yes, but this is his special favorite, where he always lies to rest. +Remember!" returned Mrs. Forbes. "Come right upstairs now and change +your dress for dinner. He will be coming home in a few minutes." + +"Oh, good!" exclaimed Jewel with satisfaction, and passed into the +house. Mrs. Forbes was following ponderously. "Oh, you don't need to +come with me," protested the child earnestly. "I can do it all myself." + +"Are you sure?" doubtfully. + +"Oh, ye--es!" replied the little girl, running lightly up the stairs. + +"I ought to put her on the second floor," mused Mrs. Forbes, "if I've +got to be running up and down; but I suppose she has done for herself a +great deal. I suppose the mother hadn't time to be bothered. I'd like to +make Mamzell change rooms with her." + +Jewel hummed a tune as she took off her sailor suit, performed her +ablutions, and then went to her closet to choose a frock for dinner. She +decided on a blue dress with white dots chiefly because she would +not have to change her hair ribbons. She had never herself tied those +voluminous bows. + +At last she was ready and danced toward the door, but some novel +timidity made her hesitate and go back sedately to the chair by the +window. Mrs. Forbes's impressive figure seemed to loom up with an order +to her to wait the summons of the gong. + +She sat there for what seemed a very long time, and at last a knock +sounded at the door. Perhaps grandpa had come up. Jewel flew to open to +him--and saw the white capped maid who had appeared at luncheon. + +"They are all at table, and Mr. Evringham wishes you to come down," she +said. + +"But I was waiting for the gong." + +"We only have that at noon." + +Jewel's feet flew down the stairs. Her grandfather had sent for her. She +was eager to reach him, yet when she entered the dining-room, her little +face all alight, it was not so easy to run to him as she had fancied. + +He sat stiffly at the foot of the table. Opposite him was aunt Madge, +and at her left sat the prettiest young lady the child had ever seen. + +Mrs. Forbes stood near Mr. Evringham, looking very serious. + +Jewel took in all this at a glance, and contenting herself with greeting +her grandfather's lifted eyes with a smile, she ran to Mrs. Evringham +and turned her back. + +"There's just one button in the middle, aunt Madge, that I can't reach," +she explained softly. + +Every eye at the table was regarding the child curiously, but she took +no note of any one but her grandfather, and her dress buttoned, she +ran to her chair and slid up on its smooth morocco. Eloise observed the +little girl's loving expression. + +"I am sorry you are late, Julia," said Mr. Evringham. + +"Yes, so am I, grandpa," was the prompt response. "I wanted to be down +here as soon as you came home, but I thought I ought to wait for the +gong, and then it didn't ring." + +Her eyes roved to where, directly opposite, the beautiful young lady was +regarding her soberly. + +Mrs. Evringham spoke. "That is your cousin Eloise, Julia." + +Eloise inclined her graceful head, but made no further recognition of +the child's admiring look. + +"They haven't met before?" said Mr. Evringham, looking from one to the +other. + +"No," returned Mrs. Evringham with her most gracious manner. "It just +happened that Eloise and I were engaged at luncheon to-day, and when we +returned the little girl was taking a nap." + +By this time Mrs. Forbes had brought Jewel's soup and she was eating. +She looked up brightly at Mr. Evringham. + +"Yes, grandpa, I went to sleep in your big chair on the piazza. I didn't +know it was your special chair until Mrs. Forbes waked me up." + +Her grandfather regarded her from under his heavy brows. He was +resenting the fact that Eloise had made no effort to welcome the child. +"Indeed?" he returned. "What did she wake you up for?" + +"Because it was time to get ready for dinner," returned Jewel. "It +reminded me of the story of Golden Hair, when she had gone to sleep on +the bear's bed, the way Mrs. Forbes said, 'This is your grandfather's +chair!'" + +She looked around the table, expectant of sympathy. Only Mrs. Evringham +seemed to wish to laugh, and she was making heroic efforts not to do so. +Lovely Eloise kept her serious eyes downcast. + +"Ha!" ejaculated Mr. Evringham, after a lightning glance of suspicion +at his daughter-in-law. "I think I remember something about that. But +Golden Hair tried three beds, I believe." + +"Yes, she did, but you see there wasn't any little bear's chair on the +piazza." + +"Very true. Very true." + +"Golden Hair was a great beauty, I believe," suggested Mrs. Evringham, +looking at the child oddly. "She had yellow hair like yours." + +Jewel put up a quick hand to the short tight braid which ended behind +her ear. "Oh no, long, lovely, floating hair. Don't you remember?" + +"It's a good while since I read it," returned Mrs. Evringham, laughing +low and glancing at Eloise. Her father-in-law sent her a look of +displeasure and turned back to Jewel. + +"Dr. Ballard found you on the train, I suppose?" + +"Yes, grandpa. We had a nice time. He is a very kind man." The child +glanced across at her cousin again. She wished cousin Eloise would lift +her eyes and not look so sorry. "I wonder," she added aloud, "why Dr. +Ballard called cousin Eloise a little girl." + +No one spoke, so Mrs. Evringham broke the momentary silence. "Did he?" +she asked. + +"Yes, he said that my cousin Eloise was a very charming little girl." + +Jewel wondered why Eloise flushed and looked still sorrier, and why aunt +Madge raised her napkin and turned her laugh into a cough. Perhaps it +teased young ladies to be called little girls. Jewel regretted having +mentioned it. + +"I guess he was just April-fooling me," she suggested comfortingly, and +the insistence of her soft gaze was such that Eloise looked up and met a +smile so irresistible, that in spite of herself, her expression relaxed. + +The softened look was a relief to the child. "I've heard about you, of +course, cousin Eloise," she said, "and I couldn't forget, because your +name is so nice and--and slippery. Eloise Evringham. Eloise Evringham. +It sounds just like--like--oh, like sliding down the banisters. Don't +you think so?" + +Eloise smiled a little. "I hadn't thought of it," she returned, then +relapsed into quiet. + +Mrs. Forbes's countenance was stony. "Children should be seen and not +heard," was her doctrine, and this dressmaker's child had an assurance +beyond belief. She seemed to feel no awe whatever in her grandfather's +presence. + +The housekeeper caught Jewel's eye and gave her such a quenching look +that thenceforward the little girl succumbed to the silence which the +others seemed to prefer. + +After dinner she would have a good visit with grandpa and talk about +when father was a little boy. Her hopes were dashed, for just as they +were rising from the table, a man was announced, with whom Mr. Evringham +closeted himself in the library. + +In the drawing-room aunt Madge and cousin Eloise both set themselves at +letter-writing, and entirely ignored Jewel. The child looked listlessly +at a book with pictures, which she found on the table, until half-past +eight, when Mrs. Forbes came to say it was time for her to go to bed. + +She rose and stood a moment, turning hesitatingly from her aunt to her +cousin. + +"Oh, is it bedtime?" asked aunt Madge, looking up from her letter. +"Good-night, Julia. I hope you'll sleep well." Then she returned to her +writing. + +Eloise bit her lip as she regarded the little girl with a moment's +hesitation, but no, she had decided on her plan of action. Mrs. Forbes +was observing her. Eloise knew the housekeeper's attitude toward them +was defensive, if not offensive. "Good-night," she said briefly, and +looked down again. + +"Good-night," returned Jewel quietly, and went out. + +In the hall she hesitated. "I want to say good-night to grandpa," she +said. + +"Well, you can't," returned Mrs. Forbes decidedly. "He is talking +business and mustn't be disturbed." + +She followed the child up the staircase. + +"I could go to bed alone, if I only knew where the matches are." + +"You said you could dress alone, but you had to ask Mrs. Evringham to +button your frock. Remember after this that I am the one to ask. She and +Miss Eloise don't want to be bothered." + +"Is it a bother to do a kindness?" asked Jewel in a subdued tone. + +"To some folks it is," was the response. They had reached the door of +the child's room; "but some folks can see their duty and do it," she +added virtuously. + +Jewel realized regretfully that her present companion belonged to the +latter class. + +"Now here, right inside the door," proceeded Mrs. Forbes, "is the +switch. There's electricity all over this house, and you don't need +any matches. See?" Mrs. Forbes turned the switch and the white room was +flooded with light. + +A few hours ago this magic would have evoked much enthusiasm. Even now +Jewel was pleased to turn the light on and off several times, as Mrs. +Forbes told her to do. + +"Now I'll see if you can undress yourself," said the housekeeper. +Jewel's deft fingers flew over the buttons in her eagerness to prove her +independence. When at last she stood in her little white nightgown, so +neat and fine in its small decorations, Mrs. Forbes said, "Do you want +me to hear you say your prayers?" + +"No, I thank you." With her hasty response Jewel promptly jumped into +the bed, from which the white spread had been removed. + +"I hope you always say them," said Mrs. Forbes, regarding her +undecidedly. + +"Yes'm, I always do." + +The child cuddled down under the covers with her face to the wall, lest +Mrs. Forbes should see a further duty and do it. + +"You ought to say them on your knees," continued the housekeeper. + +"I'd just as lief," replied Jewel, "but I don't believe God cares." + +"Well," returned Mrs. Forbes solemnly, "it is a matter for your own +conscience, Julia, if your mother didn't train you to it. Good-night." + +"Good-night," came faintly from beneath the bedclothes. + +Mrs. Forbes turned off the light and went out, closing the door behind +her. + +"If she'd always speak when she's spoken to, and be quiet and modest as +she is with me, she'd be a very well-behaved child," she soliloquized. +"I could train her. I shouldn't wonder at all if her mother should see a +great difference in her when she comes back." + +The housekeeper went heavily downstairs. Jewel, pushing off the +bedclothes, listened attentively to the retiring steps, and when they +could no longer be heard, she jumped out of bed nimbly, and feeling for +the electric switch, turned on the light. Her breath was coming rather +unevenly, and she ran over the soft carpet to where her doll lay. +Catching her up, she pressed her to her breast, then sitting down in the +big chair, she began to undress her, crossing one little bare foot over +the other knee to make a lap. + +"Darling Anna Belle, did you think I'd forgotten you?" she asked +breathlessly. "Did you think you weren't going to have any one to +kiss you good-night? It's hard not to have any one you love kiss you +good-night." Jewel dashed her hand across her eyes quickly, then went +swiftly on with her work. "You might have known that I was only waiting +until that--that giantess went away. She wouldn't let me bring you down +to dinner, dearie, but you didn't miss anything. Poor grandpa, I don't +wonder any longer that he doesn't look happy. He has the sorriest people +all around him that you ever saw. He lives in a big, beautiful castle, +but it's Castle Discord. I named it that at dinner. Nobody loves +one another. Of course grandpa loves me, because I'm his own little +grandchild, but he's too sorry to show it. The beautiful enchanted +maiden, and the Error fairy, and the giantess, are all making discord +around him. A little flat is better than a big castle, isn't it? We know +a flat--let's call it Harmony Flat, Anna Belle. Perhaps if we're very, +_very_, good, we'll get back there some time." Jewel suddenly pressed +the doll's nightdress against her wet eyes. "Don't, don't, dearie! I +know it does seem a year since--since the boat this morning. If all the +days were as long as this, we'd be very, very old when father and mother +come home." The soft voice broke in a sob. "I don't know what I should +do if you weren't a Christian Scientist, Anna Belle. We'll help each +other all we can. Now come--come into bed and say your prayers." + +"Say your--your prayer first, dearie," she whispered, sobbing:-- + + "'Father, Mother, God, + Loving me,-- + Guard me when I sleep; + Guide my little feet + Up to Thee.' + +"Now you'll feel--better, dearie. In a minute you won't be so--homesick +for--for--father and mother. Hush, while I say mine." + +Jewel repeated the Lord's Prayer. When she had finished, her breath +still caught convulsively, so she continued:-- + +"Dear Father, Mother, God, loving me, help me to know that I am close +to Thee. Help me to remember that things that are unhappy aren't real +things. Help me to know that everything is good and harmonious, and that +the people in this castle are Thy children, even if they do seem to have +eyes like fishes. Help me to love one another, even the giantess, and +please show grandpa how to meet error. Please let Dr. Ballard come to +see me soon, because he has kind eyes, and I'm sure he doesn't know it's +wrong to believe in materia medica. Please take more care of father and +mother than anything, and say 'Peace be still' if the wind blows the +sea. I know, dear Father in Heaven, that Thou dost not forget anything, +but I say it to make me feel better. I am Thy little Jewel, and Anna +Belle loves Thee, too. Take us into the everlasting arms of Love while +we go to sleep. Amen." + +Jewel brushed away the tears as she ceased, and with her usual quickness +of motion, jumped out of bed to get a handkerchief. Turning on the +electric light, she went to the chair over which hung the dotted dress. +She remembered having slipped a clean handkerchief into its pocket +before going to dinner. + +In reaching for it her fingers encountered a scrap of paper in the +depths of the pocket. She drew it forth. It was folded. She opened it +and found it written over in a clear round hand. + +"Is my little darling loving every one around her? People do not always +seem lovely at first, but remember that every one is lovable because he +is a thought of God. Those who seem unlovely are always unhappy, too, +in their hearts. We must help them, and the best way to help is to love. +Mother is thinking about her little Jewel, and no seas can divide us." + +A slow smile gladdened the child's tear-stained face. She read the +message again, then turned out the light for the last time and cuddled +down in bed, her warm cheek pressing the scrap of paper in her hand, her +breath still catching. + +"Mother has spoken to us, Anna Belle," she whispered, clasping the +doll close. "Wasn't it just like God to let her!" Then she fell asleep +smiling. + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +A HAPPY BREAKFAST + +Mrs. Forbes was on the porch next morning when Mr. Evringham returned +from his canter. + +"Fine morning, Mrs. Forbes," he said, as he gave Essex Maid into Zeke's +hands. + +"Very fine. A regular weather breeder. It'll most probably rain +to-morrow, and what I wanted to speak to you about, Mr. Evringham, is, +that the child hasn't any rubbers." + +"Indeed? What else does she need?" + +"Well, nothing that I can see. Her things are all good, and she's got +enough of them. The trouble is she says she has never worn rubbers and +doesn't want to, and if she gets sick I shall have to take care of her; +so I hope, sir, you'll say that she must have them." + +"Not wear them? Of course she must wear them," returned Mr. Evringham +brusquely. "Get them to-day, if convenient, Mrs. Forbes." + +The housekeeper looked relieved. + +"I hope she's not making you any trouble, eh?" added Mr. Evringham. + +"Not any more than she can help, I suppose," was the grudging reply. +"She's a smart child, and being an only one, she's some notional. She +won't eat this and that, and doesn't want to wear rubbers, but she's +handy and neat, and is used to doing for herself; her mother hasn't had +time to fuss with her, of course, and that's lucky for me. She seems +very well behaved, considering." + +Jewel had made heroic efforts while Mrs. Forbes assisted at her morning +toilet, and this was her reward. + +"Well, we mustn't have you imposed upon," returned Mr. Evringham, +feeling guilty of the situation. "The child must obey you implicitly, +implicitly." + +So saying he passed into the house, and after making a change in his +toilet, entered the dining-room. There he was seated, deep in his +newspaper and waiting for his coffee, when the door opened, light feet +ran to him, and an arm was thrown around his neck. He looked up to meet +a happy smile, and before he could realize who had captured him, Jewel +pressed a fervent kiss upon his cheek. + +"Oh, grandpa, how nice and cold your cheek feels! Have you been out +doors already?" + +Mr. Evringham could feel the said cheek grow hot in surprise at this +onslaught. He held himself stiffly and uncomfortably in the encircling +arm. + +"Yes, I've been out on horseback," he returned shortly. "I go every +morning." + +Jewel's eyes sparkled. "Oh, I'm so glad. Then I can watch you. I love to +see anybody ride. When I see a beautiful horse something inside me gets +warm. Father says I like just the same things he does. I must let you +read your paper, grandpa, but may I say one thing more?" + +"Yes." + +"I didn't come last evening to kiss you good-night because you had +somebody with you in the library, and, the giant--and Mrs. Forbes +wouldn't let me; but I wanted to. You know I wanted to, don't you? I +felt all sorry inside because I couldn't. You know you're the only real +relation I have in the castle"--Here Mrs. Forbes's entrance with the +coffee interrupted the confidence, and Jewel, with a last surreptitious +squeeze of Mr. Evringham's neck, intended to finish her sentence +eloquently, left him and went to her chair. + +"You're to sit here this morning," said Mrs. Forbes, indicating the +place opposite her employer. "Mrs. Evringham and her daughter don't come +down to breakfast." + +Jewel looked up eagerly. "Not ever?" she asked. + +"Never." + +The child shot a radiant glance across at her grandfather which he +caught, the thread of his business calculations having been hopelessly +broken. "Oh, grandpa, we're always going to have breakfast alone +together!" she said joyously. Noting Mrs. Forbes's set countenance, she +added apologetically, "They're so pretty, cousin Eloise and aunt Madge, +I love to look at them, but they aren't my real relations, and," her +face gladdening again, "to think of having breakfast alone with you, +grandpa, makes me feel as if--as if I had a birthday!" + +Mr. Evringham cleared his throat. The situation might have been a little +easier if Mrs. Forbes had not been present, but as it was, he had never +felt so embarrassed in his life. + +"Now eat your oatmeal, Julia," said the housekeeper repressively. "Mr. +Evringham always reads his paper at breakfast." + +"Yes," replied the child with docility. She poured the cream from a +small silver pitcher with a neatness that won Mrs. Forbes's approval; +and Mr. Evringham read over headlines in the paper, while he sipped his +coffee, without understanding in the least the meaning of the words. +Mrs. Forbes was right. Discipline must be maintained. This was the time +during which he wished to read his paper, and it was most astonishing to +be so vigorously taken possession of by an utter stranger. Now was the +time to repress her if she were to be repressed. Mrs. Forbes was right. +After a while he glanced across at the child. She looked very small +and clean, and she was ready with a quick smile for him; but she put a +little forefinger against her lips jocosely. He cleared his throat again +and averted his eyes, rumpling the paper as he turned a leaf. + +Mrs. Forbes left the room with the oatmeal dishes. + +Jewel leaned forward quickly. "Grandpa," she said earnestly, "if you +would declare every day, over and over, that no error could come near +your house, I think she would go away of her own accord." + +Mr. Evringham stared, open paper in hand. "What? Who?" + +"Mrs. Forbes." + +"Go away? Mrs. Forbes? What are you thinking of! I couldn't get on +without Mrs. Forbes." + +"Oh!" Jewel leaned back with the long-drawn exclamation. "I thought she +was what made you look sorry." + +"No indeed. I have enough things to make me sorry, but she isn't one of +them." + +"Do you like her?" wonderingly. + +"I--why--I respect her profoundly." + +"Oh! It must be lots easier to respect her pro--the way you do, than to +like her; but," with firm lips, "I've got to love her. I told Anna Belle +so this morning, and especially if you want her to stay." + +"Bless my soul!" Mr. Evringham looked in dismay as his _vis-à-vis_. "You +must be very careful, Julia, not to offend or trouble her in any way," +he said. + +"All right, grandpa, I will, and then will you do me a favor too?" + +"I must hear it first." + +"Would you mind calling me Jewel? You know it isn't any matter about the +rest, because they're not my real relations, but Julia is mother's name, +and Jewel is mine; and when I love people very much, I like them to call +me Jewel." + +Mrs. Forbes here entered with a tray, and Mr. Evringham merely said, +"Very well," twice over, and retreated into his newspaper. + +On the tray were boiled eggs. Jewel glanced quickly up at Mrs. Forbes's +impassive face. She might have remembered. Probably she did remember. + +Life had not taught the child to be shy, as has been evidenced; so +although Mrs. Forbes was an awing experience, she felt strong in the +presence of her important grandfather, and only kept silence now in +order not to interrupt his reading. + +When at last he laid down his paper and began to chip an egg, Jewel +glanced at those which Mrs. Forbes had set before her. Her little face +had grown very serious. + +"Grandpa, do you think it's error for me not to like eggs?" she asked. +"Mother never said it was. She was willing I should eat something else." + +"Of course, eat whatever you like," responded Mr. Evringham quickly. + +Mrs. Forbes seemed to swell and grow pink. "You always have eggs, sir, +and if there's two breakfasts to be got, will you kindly tell me what +the other shall be?" + +Mr. Evringham glanced up in some surprise at the unfamiliar tone. + +"Oh, the oatmeal is a plenty," said Jewel, looking at the housekeeper, +eager to mollify her. + +"Try an egg. Perhaps you'll like them by this time," suggested Mr. +Evringham. + +"Do you like everything to eat, grandpa?" + +Mr. Evringham, being most arbitrary and peculiar in his tastes, could +only gain time by clearing his throat again, and taking a drink of +coffee. + +"Mrs. Forbes will bring you a glass of milk, I dare say," he returned +at last, without looking up; and the housekeeper turned with ponderous +obedience and left the room. + +Nimbly Jewel slid down from her chair, and running around the table to +her grandfather's place, put both her arms around his neck and whispered +to him eagerly and swiftly, "If you have such a pro--something respect +for Mrs. Forbes, and it makes her sorry because I won't eat eggs, +perhaps I ought to. If it offends thy brother to have you eat meat, you +mustn't, the Bible says, so I suppose, if it makes Mrs. Forbes turn red +and perhaps get the stomach ache to have me not eat eggs, I ought to; +but grandpa, if you decide I must, please let me wait till to-morrow +morning, so I can say the Scientific Statement of Being all day--" + +Here Mrs. Forbes entered with a glass of milk on a little tray. She +stood transfixed at the sight that met her. + +"That child hasn't the fear of man before her eyes!" she ejaculated +mentally, then she marched forward and deposited the milk beside Jewel's +empty plate, while the child ran back and took her seat. + +Mr. Evringham, gazing at his visitor in mute astonishment, was much +disconcerted to receive a confiding gesture of raised shoulders and +eyebrows, which, combined with a little smile, plainly signified that +they had been caught. He took up his newspaper mechanically. + +He had never had a daughter, and caresses had seldom passed between +him and his children. His duties as a family man had always been +perfunctory. He was tingling now from the surprise of Jewel's action, +the feeling of the little gingham clad arms about his neck, the touch +of the rose-leaf skin as she swept his cheek and ear in her emphatic +half-whisper. + +His mental processes were stiff when the subject related to things +apart from the stock market, his horses, and golf, but he was finally +understanding that his granddaughter had come to Bel-Air, prepared by +accounts which had cast a glamour over everything and everybody in it. +She had evidently found Mrs. Forbes fall below her expectations. He had +been disillusioned concerning Mrs. Evringham and Eloise. As yet the halo +with which he himself had been invested was intact. Was it to remain +so? He still saw how foolish he had been to send for the child. He +still wished, of course, that she was in Chicago now, instead of sitting +across there from him in crisp short skirts, her head and shoulders only +showing above the high table, and a little smile of good understanding +waiting for him each time he looked up. + +He had done very well during a lifetime without being hugged, yet the +innocent incense, which had been rising spontaneously before him ever +since the child entered the dining-room, had a strangely sweet savor. +Such was the joy of breakfast alone with him that it made her feel as if +she had a birthday! Perfectly absurd! Quite the most absurd thing that +he had ever heard in his life. + +Mrs. Forbes spoke. "Perhaps it is to be the same way about the rubbers, +Mr. Evringham!" she said, much flushed. "Perhaps you will not insist +upon Julia wearing rubbers!" + +"Oh yes, yes, certainly," returned Mr. Evringham hastily, anxious +to reinstate himself. "I wish you to have a pair of rubbers at once, +Julia--Jewel. You surely don't mean that your mother has allowed you to +wet your feet." + +"I--I never noticed, grandpa, but," hopefully, "she lets me wet my +hands, so why not my feet?" + +"Bless me, what ignorance! Because the soles of your feet have large +pores through which to catch cold. Hasn't any one ever told you that?" + +Jewel smiled. "That would be a queer arrangement for God to make, don't +you think?" she asked softly. "Just as if He expected us to walk on our +hands." + +Mrs. Forbes's eyes widened, and an irrepressible "Well!" escaped from +her lips. "Has that young one reverence for anything in heaven above or +earth beneath?" she queried mentally. + +Mr. Evringham managed to recover himself sufficiently to say, "You +shouldn't speak so, Jewel." + +"But you know how it was about the tree of knowledge, grandpa," replied +the child earnestly. "God told Adam not to eat of it, because then he'd +believe in good _and_ evil, and that always makes such lots and _lots_ +of trouble. The Indians don't have to wear rubbers." + +"Drink your milk, Jewel," returned Mr. Evringham uncomfortably, not +having the temerity to lift his eyes as high as his housekeeper's +countenance. "No matter about the Indians. You are a civilized little +girl, and you must wear rubbers while you live with me. Mrs. Forbes will +very kindly buy them for you." + +"Oh, I have money," returned Jewel brightly. "I have three dollars," +she added, trying not to say it boastfully. "Fifty cents for every week +father and mother are going to be away." + +Mr. Evringham wiped his mustache. "You need not spend any of it for the +rubbers," he returned. "You are buying those to please me." + +"I shall love to wear them to please you, grandpa," she returned +affectionately. "I'll put them on every time I can think of it." + +"Only when it is wet, of course," he said. "When it is rainy." + +"Oh yes," she returned, "when it's rainy." + +"Harry looked like my father, and she does, by Jove," mused Mr. +Evringham. "She's like me. Knows what she wants to eat, and cares for a +horse, if she is a strange little being." + +"You say you like horses?" he remarked suddenly. + +"I just love them," answered Jewel, "and I came real close to them once. +Father took me to the horse show." + +"He did, eh?" + +"Yes, he told mother he was going to blow me to it." The child laughed. +"Father's the greatest joker; he says the funniest things. He didn't +blow me to it at all. He took me in the cable car, and we had more +_fun_! It was the most be--eautiful place you ever saw." + +"It was, eh?" + +"Yes. The music was playing, and there were coaches and four-in-hands +and horns and men in red coats and beautiful little shiny carriages--and +the horses! Oh, they all looked so proud and glad, and they trotted and +ran and jumped over high fences, and the harness jingled and the people +cheered!" The child's cheeks were glowing. + +Mr. Evringham gave an exclamation that was almost a laugh. "You didn't +sleep much that night, I'll wager!" + +"No, I didn't want to. I stayed awake a long time to realize that God +doesn't love one of His children any better than another, so of course +some time I'll wear a tall shiny hat and ride over fences just like +flying. I'll have a horse," Jewel added slowly, looking off with a rapt +expression as at a long-cherished vision, "with a white star in his +forehead!" + +"H'm! Very good taste," returned Mr. Evringham, scarcely knowing what he +was saying, so dazed was he by the extraordinary mixture of ideas. + +After breakfast he had his usual interview with Mrs. Forbes concerning +the important event of dinner. Jewel had run upstairs to dress Anna +Belle. + +The menu decided upon, Mr. Evringham still lingered. + +"Mrs. Forbes, I have never had any experience with little girls. You +have, no doubt," he said. "Am I right in thinking that my granddaughter +is--is a rather unusual specimen?" + +"She's older than Dick's hatband, sir," rejoined the housekeeper +promptly. + +"Are they, perhaps, teaching differently in the schools from what they +used to?" + +"Not that I know of, Mr. Evringham." + +"She uses very unusual expressions. I can't make it out. You are an +intelligent woman, Mrs. Forbes. Did you ever happen to hear of such a +thing as the--a--a--Scientific Statement of Being!" + +"Never in my life, sir," returned the housekeeper virtuously. + +"Extraordinary language that, from a--a child of her years. She seems +to have been peculiarly brought up. You heard her reference to--in fact +to--the Creator." + +"I did, sir. At the breakfast table, too! I was as shocked as you were, +sir. Her mother put a Bible into her trunk, but it's plain she never +taught her any reverence. The Almighty give her a jumping horse indeed! +If you'll excuse me, Mr. Evringham, I think you should have said +something right there." + +The broker pulled his mustache. "I've listened to more unreasonable +views of heaven," he returned. + +"Do you think it was heaven she was talking about!" + +Mr. Evringham shrugged his shoulders. "You can't prove anything by me. +She's the most extraordinary child I ever listened to." + +Mrs. Forbes pursed her lips. "You'd not believe, sir, how differently +she behaves when she is alone with me. As mild-mannered and quiet as +you'd wish to see anywhere. She scarcely speaks a word." + +Mr. Evringham bit his lip and nodded. It gave him some amusement in +the midst of his perplexity to remember the manner in which he had been +advised to exorcise this tower of strength altogether. + +"It's my opinion, sir, that children should be made to eat what is set +before them," went on Mrs. Forbes, reverting to her principal grievance. + +"It would save you a lot of trouble if I had been trained that way--eh, +Mrs. Forbes?" returned the other, with extraordinary lightness. + +"You are a very different thing, I should hope!" exclaimed Mrs. Forbes +solemnly. + +"Yes, about fifty years different. Hard to teach an old dog new tricks, +eh? You might have some chops for her luncheon, perhaps, and an extra +one for her breakfast. She hasn't eaten anything this morning." + +For the first time an order from Mr. Evringham evoked no reply from +his housekeeper. He felt the weight of her disapproval. "But get the +overshoes by all means, as soon as convenient," he made haste to add. +"Ring for Zeke, if you please, Mrs. Forbes. I must be off." + + + +CHAPTER IX + +A SHOPPING EXPEDITION + +The housekeeper warned Jewel not to run out of doors that morning as she +wished to accompany her to the shoe store. + +"I'm not going to take you, Anna Belle," Jewel said to her doll. "I +don't like to ask the giantess if I may, and of course, it won't be a +very good time anyway, so you be patient and we'll go out together this +afternoon." + +Mrs. Forbes's long widow's veil, a decoration she never had discarded +hung low over her black gown as she stepped deliberately down the stairs +from her barn chamber. + +"I am going with the little girl, Zeke, to buy her a pair of rubbers," +she announced to her son. + +"Going foot-back? Why don't you have out the 'broom'? One +granddaughter's got as good a right to it as the other, hasn't she?" + +"I should say so, but that child, Zeke, in addition to her wonderful +boldness this morning with Mr. Evringham, that I told you about, is +perfectly crazy over horses." + +"H'm. That don't surprise me. A young one that can stand up to the +governor wouldn't be afraid of anything in the way of horseflesh." + +"So I decided," continued Mrs. Forbes, pulling on her roomy black +gloves, "that it would be better for her to go this morning in the +trolley." + +"You _did_? Well if that ain't a regular step-mother act!" returned +Zeke in protest. "The kid had a bully time coming home from the depot +yesterday. Dick felt good, and he just lit out. I tell you her eyes +shone." + +"I like to do what's best for folks in the end," declared Mrs. Forbes +virtuously. "Julia's parents are poor, and likely to be. She's only +going to be here six weeks, and what is the sense of encouraging a taste +she can't ever indulge? No, I'll take her in the trolley. It's a nice +morning, and I shan't mind the walk down to the gate." The speaker +marched with the dignity which was always inseparable from the veil +toward the back door of the house to give some last orders, and Zeke +lounged out with his rake toward the grounds at the front. There he +caught sight of a small figure in hat and jacket waiting on the piazza. +He turned toward it, and Jewel advanced with a smile of recognition. +She had had to look twice to identify her fine plum-colored companion of +yesterday's drive with this youth in shirt sleeves and a soft old hat. + +"Well, little girl, how are you getting on?" he asked. + +"Pretty well, thank you." Her beaming expression left no doubt that she +was very glad to see him. + +"Not particularly flattering if she is," he mused. "Fine ladies not out +of their rooms yet, and ma doin' her duty by her to beat the band." + +"Where's your doll?" he asked. + +"I didn't bring her. I thought perhaps the--Mrs. Forbes would--would +just as lief she didn't come." + +"Ma _hasn't_ played with dolls for quite a spell," agreed Zeke, with a +smile that was sunshine to the child. + +"You live out in the barn with the horses, don't you?" she asked +eagerly. "Will you give me permission to go out there some time?" + +"Sure. Come any time." + +"Mrs. Forbes said I must ask permission," responded the child with +an apprehensive glance behind her to see if her escort were arriving. +"What--what is your name?" + +"Forgotten this soon? I told you Zeke." + +"I thought you did, but your mother said it was something very +different." + +"Ezekiel, perhaps." + +"Yes, that's it. I won't forget again. How many horses has grandpa?" + +"Two here, but I guess he's got more in the country. You come out to the +barn any time you feel like it. You've heard of a bell cow, haven't you? +Well, we've got the belle horse out there. She beats all creation." + +"The one I saw yesterday," eagerly, "the one that runs away all the +time?" + +"No. This is Mr. Evringham's riding horse." + +Jewel hopped and clapped her hands. "I'll see grandpa ride. Goody! I'll +watch him." + +"Go to your paths, Zeke," said a voice, and the veil appeared around the +corner of the house. + +Jewel quietly joined her stately companion, and walked away sedately +beside her. + +They did not exchange many words on their way to the park gates, for +Mrs. Forbes needed her breath for the rather long promenade, and Jewel +was busy looking at the trees and trim swards and crocus beds beside the +winding road. + +Outside the gate they had to wait but a minute before the car came, and +after they had boarded it, the little girl was entertained by looking +out of the window, and often wished for Anna Belle's sympathy in some +novel sight or sound. + +A ride of fifteen minutes brought them to the shoe store. Mrs. Forbes +seemed to know the clerk, and Jewel was finally fitted to her guardian's +satisfaction, but scarcely to her own, the housekeeper having selected +the species known as storm rubbers, and chose them as large as would +stay on. + +"They're quite warm, aren't they?" said Jewel, looking down at her shiny +feet and trying to speak cheerfully. + +"When you wear them you want to be warm," was Mrs. Forbes's rejoinder. + +"I brought my money," said the child, in a low voice. + +"No. Your grandfather wishes to make you a present of these." The +housekeeper's tone was final, and she paid for the overshoes, which were +wrapped up, and then she led Jewel out of the store. + +Next door was a candy shop with alluring windows. + +"I'd like to go in here," said the little girl. "Would you mind?" + +"Do you spend your money for candy, Julia?" + +"Yes'm. Don't you like it?" Jewel lingered, looking at the pretty +display. Easter had recently passed, and there were bright-eyed little +yellow chickens that especially took her fancy. + +"It isn't a question of liking it when people are poor," returned Mrs. +Forbes. "I'm astonished that your mother encourages you to spend money +for candy." + +Jewel looked up quickly. "Did you think we were poor?" she asked, with +disconcerting suddenness. + +Mrs. Forbes hesitated. "Your mother is a dressmaker, isn't she?" + +"Yes, she's just a splendid one. Everybody says so. We couldn't be poor, +you know. She found out about God before I was old enough to talk, so +you see all her poor time came before I can remember." + +The housekeeper glanced about her furtively. "Julia, don't you know you +shouldn't use your Creator's name on the street!" she exclaimed, when +she had made certain that no one was listening. + +"Why not?" asked the child. + +"Why--why--it isn't a proper place. Some one might hear you." + +"Well, won't you let me get some candy now? If I knew what kind you +liked, Mrs. Forbes, I'd get it." + +"I don't eat candy as a rule. It's not only extravagant, it's very +unhealthy." + +The little girl smiled. "How do you suppose your stomach knows what you +put into it?" she asked. "I guess you're just a little--bit--afraid, +aren't you?" + +"Odder than Dick's hatband!" quoth Mrs. Forbes again, mentally. "I take +horehound drops sometimes," she said aloud, "for a cold." + +"Can't you sneeze a little now?" asked Jewel, amusement twinkling in her +blue eyes. "I do want so much to go in here." + +"Don't tempt Providence by making fun of sickness, Julia, or you'll +live to regret it," returned Mrs. Forbes. "I don't mind getting some +horehound drops, but be careful now and don't spend too much. A little +girl's money always burns in her pocket." + +"Yes'm," returned the child dutifully, skipping up to the door of the +shop and opening it. + +Mrs. Forbes followed slowly, and once inside, fell into conversation +with the girl of whom she bought the cough candy. This gave Jewel +opportunity to buy beside her caramels one of the lovely yellow +chickens, which she designed for a special purpose. + +"Now don't you eat that candy before lunch. It will take away your +appetite. It is nearly lunch time now," said Mrs. Forbes as they left +the store. + +"And won't you either?" asked the child, offering the open caramel bag +with a spontaneous politeness which somehow made the housekeeper feel at +a disadvantage. + +"No, thank you. Stop that car, Julia, and make them wait for me," she +said, making haste slowly. + +Once within, it took Mrs. Forbes a minute or two to get her breath, but +she soon noticed that her companion's eyes were fixed upon a man seated +a little way from them across the car. A smile kept coming to the +child's lips, and at last the gentleman himself recognized that he was +an object of interest. He looked at the strange little girl kindly. Her +hand went unconsciously to the small gold pin she wore. The man smiled +and touched one of similar pattern which was fastening his tie. In a +minute more his street was reached, and as he passed Jewel on his way +out of the car, he stooped and gave her ready hand a little pressure. + +She colored with pleasure, and Mrs. Forbes swelled with curiosity and +disapproval. She knew the man by sight as a highly respectable citizen. +What was this wild Western child doing now? The car made too much noise +to permit of investigation, so she waited until they had left it and +entered the park gates. + +"Julia," she said then, "where did you ever see that gentleman before?" + +"I never did," replied the child. + +"What do you mean by such bold actions, then? What will he think of +you?" + +"He'll think it's all right," returned Jewel. "We have the same--the +same friends." + +The housekeeper looked at her. It was beneath her dignity to ask further +questions at present, but some time she meant to renew the subject. + +"It's very wrong for a little girl to take any notice of strangers," she +said. + +"Yes'm," replied Jewel, "but he was--different." + +Mrs. Forbes maintained silence henceforth until they reached home. "You +may hang your hat and jacket in the closet under the stairs whenever +you don't wish to go to your room," she said when she parted with her +companion at the piazza, "but don't wander away anywhere before lunch." + +"No'm. Thank you for taking me, Mrs. Forbes." + +"You're welcome," returned that lady, and the long black veil swept +majestically toward the barn. + +Sweet and rippling music was proceeding from the house. Jewel tiptoed +across the piazza to a long window, from whence she could see the +interior of the drawing-room. + +"It is the enchanted maiden," she said to herself, and sank down softly +by the window, listening eagerly to the melodious strains and smooth +runs which flowed from beneath the slender fingers. One piece followed +another in quick succession, now gay, now grave, and the listener +scarcely stirred in her enjoyment. + +At last, suddenly, in the midst of a Grieg melody, the player ceased, +and crossing her arms upon the empty music rack, bowed her head upon +them in such an attitude of abandon that Jewel's heart leaped in +sympathy. + +"Oh cousin Eloise! What makes her so sorry?" she thought. The child's +intuition had been strong to perceive the nature of her aunt Madge. "It +must be such an awful thing to have your own mother an error fairy. That +must be the reason. I wish I could tell her"--Jewel jumped to her feet, +but just as she was determining to go to her cousin, the soft-toned gong +pealed its mellow summons, and she saw Eloise rise from the piano in +time to meet her mother, who at that moment entered the room. + +Jewel went into the house, hung up her hat and jacket, and deposited her +packages. By the time she reached the dining-room her aunt and cousin +were already seated. Mrs. Evringham put up her lorgnette as she greeted +the child. Eloise nodded a grave good-morning, and Mrs. Forbes began to +serve the luncheon. + +Jewel looked in vain for any trace of excitement or tears on her +cousin's lovely face. Eloise did not address her or any one. Mrs. +Evringham did the talking. After a question as to how Jewel had spent +the morning, and without listening to the child's reply, she began to +talk to her daughter of a drive she wished to take that afternoon. + +Jewel discerned that Mrs. Forbes was not kindly disposed toward the +mother and daughter, and that they ignored the housekeeper; that Eloise +was languid and out of sympathy with her mother, and that Mrs. Evringham +was impatient with her, often to the verge of sharpness. The child was +glad when luncheon was over; but before going upstairs she brought her +small bag of caramels and offered them to the ladies. + +Mrs. Evringham gave a little laugh of surprise and looked at Eloise, who +took one with a sober "Thank you." + +"I don't believe I could, child," said aunt Madge, glancing with +amusement at the striped bag. "Keep them for yourself." + +"You'll have some, won't you, Mrs. Forbes?" asked Jewel, and the +housekeeper so strongly disapproved of Mrs. Evringham's manner that she +accepted. + +"Perhaps you would like to try some of our candy, Julia," said Mrs. +Evringham, as the child followed her aunt and cousin upstairs. + +Jewel paused while aunt Madge brought from her room into the hall a +large box, beribboned and laced, full of a variety of confections. + +"How pretty!" exclaimed the child. + +"This is from your friend, Dr. Ballard," said her aunt. "He sent it to +the charming little girl, Eloise." + +Jewel, running on up to her room eating the creamy chocolate, wondered +still more why her cousin should seem so sorry, with so much to make her +happy. + +"Now, Anna Belle, the time has really come," she said happily to her +doll, as she took her in her arms and began putting on her jacket and +hat. "We're going away from Castle Discord to seek our fortunes. We're +going to leave the giantess, and leave the impolite error fairy, and +leave the poor enchanted maiden, and go to find the ravine and the +brook. Wait till I put on my oldest shoes, for we shall have to climb +deep, deep down to get near to father." + +At last she was ready, and when she had closed the heavy house door +behind her, and had run down the driveway to the park road, a delicious +sense of freedom possessed her. + +"There goes the little Westerner," observed Mrs. Evringham, looking from +her window. "It's a good thing she knows how to amuse herself." + +"A good thing, indeed," returned Eloise. "There is no one here to do +anything for her." + +"She has wonderful assurance for such a plain little monkey," went on +Mrs. Evringham. + +"She has extremely good breeding," returned her daughter, coming to the +window and following Jewel's retreating figure with her eyes, "and a +charming face when she smiles." + +"Very well. Look out for yourself, then. I thought last night, once or +twice, at dinner, that she was rather entertaining to her grandfather." + +"She has her doll," said Eloise wistfully. "Where can she be going? I +wish I were going with her." + +Mrs. Evringham laughed. "Well, you _are_ bored. Pshaw, my dear! Lie +down and get a little beauty sleep. Then we will go driving and see +that charming spot Dr. Ballard told us about. I'm sure he will call +to-night." + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE RAVINE + +Outside the well-kept roads of Bel-Air Park, Nature had been encouraged +to work her sweet will. The drive wound along the edge of a picturesque +gorge, and it was not long before Jewel found the scene of her father's +favorite stories. + +The sides of the ravine were studded with tall trees, and in its depths +flowed a brook, unusually full now from the spring rains. + +The child lost no time in creeping beneath the slender wire fence at +the roadside, and scrambling down the incline. The brook whispered and +gurgled, wild flowers sprang amid the ferns in the shelter and moisture. +The child was enraptured. + +"Oh, Anna Belle!" She exclaimed, hugging the doll for pure joy. "Castle +Discord is far away. There's nobody down here but God!" + +For hours she played happily in the enchanting spot, all unconscious +of time. Anna Belle lay on a bed of moss, while Jewel became acquainted +with her wonderful new playmate, the brook. The only body of water with +which she had been familiar hitherto was Lake Michigan. Now she drew +stones out of the bank and made dams and waterfalls. She sailed boats of +chips and watched them shoot the tiny rapids. She lay down on the bank +beside Anna Belle and gazed up through the leafy treetops. Many times +this programme had been varied, when at last equipages began to pass on +the road above. She could see twinkling wheels and smart liveries. + +With a start of recollection, she considered that she might have been a +long time in the ravine. + +"I wish somebody would let me bring a watch the next time," she said +to her doll, as she took her up. "Haven't we had a beautiful afternoon, +Anna Belle? Let's call it the Ravine of Happiness, and we'll come here +every day--just every day; but perhaps it's time for grandpa to be home, +dearie, so we must go back to the castle." She sighed unconsciously as +she began climbing up the steep bank and crept under the wire. "I hope +we haven't stayed very long, because the giantess might not like it," +she continued uneasily; but as she set her feet in the homeward road, +every sensation of anxiety fled before an approaching vision. She saw +a handsome man in riding dress mounted on a shining horse with arched +neck, that lifted its feet daintily as it pranced along the tree-lined +avenue. + +"Grandpa!" ejaculated Jewel, stepping to the roadside and pausing, her +hands clasped beneath her chin and her eyes shining with admiration. + +Mr. Evringham drew rein, not displeased by the encounter. The child +apparently could not speak. She eyed the horse rather than its rider, a +fact which the latter observed and enjoyed. + +"Remind you of the horse show?" he inquired. + +"It _is_ the horse show," rejoined the child. + +"This is Essex Maid, Jewel," said Mr. Evringham. He patted the mare's +shining neck. "You shall go out to the barn with me some time and visit +her." His eyes wandered over the ruffled hair, the hat on the back of +the child's head, and the wet spots on her dress. "Run home now," he +added. "I heard Mrs. Forbes asking for you as I came out." + +He rode on, and Jewel, her face radiant, followed him with her eyes. In +a minute he turned, and she threw rapid kisses after him. He raised his +hat, and then a curve in the road hid him from view. + +Jewel sighed rapturously and hurried along the road. The giantess had +asked for her. Ah, what a happy world it would be if there were nothing +at Bel-Air Park but grandpa, his horses, and the ravine! + +Mrs. Forbes espied the child in the distance, and was at the door when +she came in. + +"After this, Julia, you must never go away without telling me +where"--she began, when her eyes recognized the condition of the gingham +frock, and the child's feet. "Look at how you've drabbled your dress!" +she ejaculated. + +"It's clean water," returned Julia. + +"But your feet! Why, Julia Evringham, they are as wet as sop! Where have +you been?" + +"Playing by the brook in the ravine." + +Mrs. Forbes groaned. "Nothing will satisfy a child but finding the place +where they can get the dirtiest and make the most trouble. Why didn't +you wear your rubbers, you naughty girl?" + +"Why--why--it wasn't raining." + +"Raining! Those rubbers are to keep your feet dry. Haven't you got any +sense?" + +Jewel looked a little pale. "I didn't know I should get wet in the +brook," she answered. + +"Well, go right upstairs now, up the backstairs, and take off every one +of those wet things. Let me feel your petticoat. Yes, that's wet, too. +You undress and get into a hot bath, and then you put on your nightgown +and go right to bed." + +"Go to bed!" echoed the child, bewildered. + +"Yes, to bed. You won't come down to dinner. Perhaps that will teach you +to wear your rubbers next time and be more careful." + +Jewel found the backstairs and ascended them, her little heart hot +within her. + +"She's the impolitest woman in the whole world, Anna Belle!" she +whispered. "I'm going to not cry. Mother didn't know what impoliteness +there was at grandpa's or she wouldn't have let us come." + +The child's eyes were bright as she found her room and began undressing. +"But you mustn't be angry, dearie," she continued excitedly to her doll. +"It's the worst error to be angry, because it means hating. You treat +me, Anna Belle, and I'll treat you," she went on, unfastening her +clothes with unsteady hands. + +With many a pause to work at a refractory elastic or button, and many +interruptions from catches in her breath, she murmured aloud during the +process of her undressing: "Dear Father in Heaven, I seem to feel sorry +all over, and full of error. Help me to know that I'm not a mortal mind +little girl, hating and angry, but I am Thy child, and the only things I +know are good, happy things. Error has no power and Love has all power. +I love Mrs. Forbes, and she loves me. Thou art here even in this +house, and please help me to know that one of Thy children cannot hurt +another." Here Jewel slipped into the new wrapper her mother had made, +and hurried into the white tiled bathroom near by. While she let the +water run into the tub she put her hand into her pocket mechanically, in +search of a handkerchief, and when she felt the crisp touch of paper she +drew it out eagerly. It was covered, and she read the words written in +her mother's distinct hand. + +"Love to my Jewel. Is she making a stepping-stone of every trial, and +learning to think less and less about herself, and more and more about +other people? And does she remember that little girls cannot always +understand the error that grown-up people have to meet, especially those +who have not Science to help them? They must be treated very gently, and +I hope my little Jewel will be always kind and patient, and make her new +friends glad she is there." + +The child folded the paper and put it carefully back in her pocket. +Then she took her bath, and returning to her room undressed her doll in +silence. Finally, changing her wrapper for her nightdress, she climbed +into bed, where she lay thinking and looking at the sunlight on the +wall. + +At dinner time the maid Sarah appeared with a tray. "Here's your dinner, +Miss Julia," she said, looking at the heavy-eyed little girl. "It's too +bad you're not well." + +"I am well, thank you," replied Jewel. "I'm sorry you had to carry that +heavy tray up so many stairs." + +"Oh, I don't mind that," returned the girl good-naturedly. "I'll set it +right here by the bed." + +"Is grandpa down there?" asked Jewel wistfully. + +"Yes, Miss Julia. They're all eating their dinner. I hope you'll enjoy +yours." + +Sarah went away, and the little girl spread some bread and butter and +ate it slowly. + +Meanwhile, when the family had gathered at the dinner table, Mr. +Evringham looked up at his housekeeper. + +"Where is Jewel?" he asked shortly. "I object to her being unpunctual." + +"Yes, sir. She is having dinner in her room. She was very naughty and +got wet in the brook." + +"Ah, indeed!" Mr. Evringham frowned and looked down. He had been a +little disappointed that the bright face was not watching to see him +come home from his ride, but of course discipline must be maintained. +"I'm sorry to hear this," he added. + +Mrs. Evringham and Eloise found him a shade less taciturn than usual +to-night. He felt vaguely that he now had an ally of his own flesh and +blood in the house, a spirit sufficiently kindred to prefer his society +to theirs, and this made him unusually lenient. + +He meant to go upstairs after dinner, and warn Jewel to be more careful +in future to conform to all Mrs. Forbes's rules; but the meal was +scarcely over when a friend called to get him to attend some business +meeting held that evening in the interests of the town, and he became +interested in his statements and went away with him. + +"Wasn't father quite agreeable this evening?" asked Mrs. Evringham of +Eloise. "What did I tell you? I could see that he felt relief because +that plain little creature was not in evidence. Father always was so +fastidious. Of course it is selfish in a way, but it is no use to blame +men for caring for beauty. They will do it." + +"It was a shame to make that little girl stay upstairs," returned +Eloise. "I judge she managed to amuse herself this afternoon, and so she +gets punished for it. I should like to go up and sit with her." + +"It would not be worth while," returned Mrs. Evringham quickly. "I'm +sure Dr. Ballard will be here soon. You would have to come right down +again." + +"That is not the reason I don't go," returned the girl. "It is because +I am not an Evringham, and I have determined not to arrive at friendly +relations with any one of the name. When I once escape from here, they +will have seen the last of me." + +"The way of escape lies open," returned her mother soothingly. "I'm glad +you have on that gown. If a man cares for a woman, he always loves to +see her in white." + +As soon as dinner was over, Mrs. Forbes ascended the stairs to see +her prisoner. Jewel was lying quietly in bed, the tray, apparently +untouched, beside her. The latter circumstance Mrs. Forbes observed at +once. + +"Why haven't you eaten your dinner, Julia?" she asked. "I hope you are +not sulking." + +"No'm. I don't believe I am. I don't know what that means." + +"You don't know what sulky means?" suspiciously. "It is very naughty for +a little girl to refuse to eat her dinner because she is angry at being +punished for her own good." + +"Did you send me to bed because you loved me?" asked Jewel. Her cheeks +were very red, but even the disconcerted housekeeper could see that she +was not excited or angry. + +"Everybody loves good little girls," returned Mrs. Forbes. "Now eat your +dinner, Julia, so I can carry down the tray." + +"I did eat the bread. It was all I wanted. It was very nice." + +The polite addition made the housekeeper uncertain. While she paused +Jewel added, "I wish I could see grandpa." + +"He's gone out on business. He won't be back until after you are asleep. +And if you were thinking of complaining to him, Julia, I tell you it +won't do any good. He will trust everything to me." + +"Do you think I would trouble grandpa?" returned the child. + +The housekeeper looked at her in silent perplexity. The blue eyes were +direct and innocent, but there was a heaviness about them that stirred +Mrs. Forbes uncomfortably. + +"You must have got too tired playing this afternoon, Julia," she said +decisively, "or you would be hungry for your dinner. You took that hot +bath I told you to?" + +"Yes'm." + +"Where have you put your wet things? Oh, I see, you've spread them out +very nicely; but those shoes--I shall have to have them cleaned and +polished for you. Now go to sleep as quick as you can and have a +long night's rest. I'm sure the next time you go out you won't be so +careless." + +Jewel's eyes followed the speaker as she bustled about and at last took +up the tray. + +"Will you kiss me good-night, Mrs. Forbes?" asked the child. + +The surprised housekeeper set down her burden, stooped over the bed and +kissed her. + +"There now, I see you're sorry," she said, somewhat touched. + +Jewel gave her a little smile. "No'm, I've stopped being sorry," she +replied. + +"She'd puzzle a Philadelphia lawyer," soliloquized the housekeeper +as she descended the stairs with the tray. "I suppose her mother is +uneducated and uses queer English. As the old ones croak, the young ones +learn. The child uses words nobody ever heard of, and is ignorant of the +commonest ones. I'm glad she's so fond of me if I've got to take care of +her." + + + +CHAPTER XI + +DR. BALLARD + +Mr. Evringham looked about, half in apprehension, half in anticipation, +as he entered the dining-room the following morning. Jewel had not +arrived, so he settled himself to read his paper. Each time there was +a sound he glanced up, bracing himself for the approach of light feet, +beaming face, and an ardent embrace. His interest in the news gradually +lessened, and his expectancy increased. She did not come. At last he +began to suspect that the unprecedented had happened, and that Mrs. +Forbes herself was late. + +He looked at his watch with suddenly rising amazement. It was ten +minutes past the appointed time. He began feeling around with his foot +for the electric bell. It was an unaccustomed movement, for his wishes +were usually anticipated. By the time he found it, he had become a +seriously injured man, and the peal he rang summoned Sarah suddenly. + +"Bring me my coffee at once, if you please. What is the matter?" + +The maid did not know. He was drinking his first cup when the +housekeeper entered the room, flushed of countenance. + +"You'll have to excuse me, Mr. Evringham. I couldn't come a minute +sooner. Julia is sick." + +"Sick! I should like to know why?" + +"Why, she got sopping wet in that brook yesterday, and here, just as I +knew it would be, she's got a fever." + +"A fever, eh?" repeated Mr. Evringham in a startled tone. + +"Yes, sir, and what's more, when I told her you would send for the +doctor, it was worse than about the rubbers. She talked all the rubbish +you can think of. I'm sure she's flighty--said she never had a doctor, +that she always got well, and even cried when I told her that that was +nonsense." + +"Was she ill all night, do you think?" + +"I don't know. I found her trying to get up when I went to her room, and +I saw at once that she wasn't able to. + +"Well, Mrs. Forbes, all I can do is to ask your pardon for adding so +much to your cares. Let Sarah bring me my eggs, and then, if you please, +telephone for Dr. Ballard to come over before his office hour." + +"I will, sir, but I'll ask you to see the child before you go to town +and make her promise to behave about the doctor. You'd have thought I +was asking to let in a roaring lion." + +"Shy, probably." + +"Shy! That child shy!" thought Mrs. Forbes. + +"She knows Dr. Ballard," continued the broker, "and if you had thought +to mention him, she wouldn't have made any fuss." + +"If you'll excuse me differing with you, Mr. Evringham, I don't think +that child's got a shy bone in her body. In the trolley car yesterday, +didn't she make up to a perfect stranger! She eyed him and fingered that +little gold pin she wears, till he smiled and touched one of the same +pattern in his own cravat. Young as she is, she's some kind of a free +mason or secret society, you may be sure. I actually saw him take her +hand and give her the grip as he got out of the car. Why you know who it +is, it was Mr. Reeves of Highland Street." + +"H'm. You are imaginative, Mrs. Forbes. Mr. Reeves is fond of children, +and Jewel has a friendly way of looking at people." + +The housekeeper bridled. "Well, all is, I guess, you'll find I ain't +imaginative when you come to talk with her about the doctor," was the +firm response. "When I said medicine she looked as scared as if I'd said +poison." + +"H'm. Been dosed then. Mother an allopath probably. Burnt child dreads +the fire. I think homeopathy is the thing for children. Guy will do very +well. Call him up at once, please. He might go out." + +When Mr. Evringham had finished his breakfast, he climbed to the +white room, planning as he went a short and peremptory speech to the +rebellious one; for he had less time left than usual for his daily talk +with his housekeeper before catching the train. + +The curtains in the room were half drawn as he entered, and the child's +figure looked small in the big white bed. She exclaimed as he drew near, +and seizing his hand, kissed it. + +"You'd better not kiss me, grandpa, because I'm so hot and +uncomfortable," she said thickly. "Oh, how I wanted to see you all +night!" + +The little hands clinging to his were burning. He sat down on the edge +of the bed. + +"I'm very sorry for this, Jewel. It's your own fault, I understand, my +girl." + +"Yes, I know it is. When I first called the house Castle Discord and +talked to Anna Belle about the error fairy, and the enchanted maiden, +and the giantess, I didn't see it was hate creeping in and making me not +careful to deny it all. I know it is all my fault." + +Mr. Evringham gazed at the flushed face with startled eyes. "Dear +me, this is really very bad!" he thought. "Delirious so early in the +morning. I wish Guy would come!" + +"Well, we'll soon have Dr. Ballard here," he said aloud, trying to speak +soothingly. "He'll set you all right very soon." + +"Oh, grandpa, dear grandpa," with the utmost earnestness, "would you +please not send for the doctor? I won't be any trouble. I don't want +anything to eat, only a drink of water, and I'll soon be well." + +Her beseeching tone and her helplessness touched some unsuspected chord +in her listener's breast. + +"Jewel, don't you want to go out to the stable with me and feed Essex +Maid with sugar?" he asked. + +"Yes, grandpa," with a half sob. + +"You don't want me to be unhappy and worried about you when I get into +my office?" + +"No, grandpa." + +"And you liked Dr. Ballard, I'm sure, when you came out with him on the +train day before yesterday." + +"Day before yesterday! Oh, _was_ it? It seems a year ago! But I wanted +to come and see you so much I was willing to let father and mother go +away, and I never thought that I wouldn't know when error was getting +hold of me. + +"Well, never mind now, Jewel. Dr. Ballard will help you, and as soon as +you get well I'll take you for a fine long drive, if you'll be good. I'm +sure you don't want to trouble me." + +"No." Another half sob caught the child's throat. "Here is something +I bought for you yesterday, grandpa." She drew from under the further +pillow the yellow chicken, somewhat disheveled, and put it in his hand. +"I meant to give it to you last night, but Mrs. Forbes kept me upstairs +because she thought she ought to make me sorry, and so I couldn't." + +The stockbroker cleared his throat as he regarded his new possession. +"It was kind of you, Jewel," he returned. "I shall stand it on my desk. +Now--ahem"--looking around the big empty room, "you won't be lonely, I +hope, until the doctor comes?" + +"No, I'd like to be alone, I have so much work to do." + +"Dear me, dear me!" thought Mr. Evringham, "this is very distressing. +She seems to have lucid intervals, and then so quickly gets flighty +again." + +"Besides, I like to think of the Ravine of Happiness," continued the +child, "and the brook. Supposing I could lay my cheek down in the +brook now. The water is so cool, and it laughs and whispers such pretty +things." + +"Now if you would try to go to sleep, Jewel," said Mr. Evringham, +"it would please me very much. Good-by. I shall come to see you again +to-night." He stooped his tall form and kissed the child's forehead, and +her hot lips pressed his hand, then he went out. + +At the foot of the stairs he encountered Mrs. Forbes waiting, and +hastily put behind him the hand that held the chicken. + +"Well, sir?" + +"She's very badly off, very badly off, I'm afraid." + +"I hope not, sir. Children are always flighty if they have a little +fever. What about dinner, sir?" + +"Have anything you please," returned Mr. Evringham briefly. "I wish to +see Dr. Ballard as soon as he arrives. Tell Zeke I shall not go until +the next train." With these words the broker entered his study, and his +housekeeper looked after him in amazement. It was the first time she had +ever seen him indifferent concerning his dinner. + +"I wonder if he thinks she's got something catching," she soliloquized. +Then a sudden thought occurred to her. "No great loss without some small +gain," she thought grimly. "'T would clear the house." + +She watched at the window until she saw Dr. Ballard's buggy approaching. +Then she opened the door and met him. + +"Your little visitor do you say?" asked the young doctor as he greeted +her and entered. "What mischief has she been up to so soon?" + +"Oh, the usual sort," returned Mrs. Forbes, and recounted her +grievances. "She's the oddest child in the world," she finished, "and +her last freak is that she doesn't want to have a doctor." + +"Dear me, what heresy!" The young man smiled. "Which room, Mrs. Forbes?" + +"Please go into the library first, Dr. Ballard. Mr. Evringham is waiting +to see you." + +The broker was sitting before his desk as the doctor entered, and he +turned with a brief greeting. + +"I'm glad you've come, Ballard. I'm very much troubled about the +child. Her father and mother abroad you understand, and I feel the +responsibility. She seems very flighty, quite wild in her talk at +moments. I wished to warn you that one of her feverish ideas is that she +doesn't want a doctor. You will have to use some tact." + +The physician's face lost its careless smile. "Delirious, you say?" + +"Yes, go right up, Guy. I'll wait for you here. It's so sudden. She was +quite well, to all appearances, yesterday." + +"Children are sensitive little mortals," remarked Dr. Ballard, and then +Mrs. Forbes ushered him up to the white room. He asked her to remain +within call, and entered alone. + +The child's eyes were open as he approached the bed, the black case +she remembered in his hand. By her expression he saw that her mind was +clear. + +"Well, well, Jewel, this isn't the way I meant you to receive me the +first time I called," he said pleasantly, drawing up a chair beside the +bed. The child put out her hand to his offered one and tried to smile. +As he held the hand he felt her pulse. "This isn't the way to behave +when you go visiting," he added. + +"I know it isn't," returned Jewel contritely. + +"The next time you go wading in the brook, take off your shoes and +stockings, little one, and I think you would better wait until later +in the season, anyway. You've made quick work of this business." As +he talked the doctor took his little thermometer out of its case. "Now +then, let me slip this under your tongue." + +"What is it?" asked Jewel, shrinking. + +"What! Haven't you ever had your temperature tried? Well, you have been +a healthy little girl! All the better. Just take it under your tongue, +and don't speak for a minute, please." + +"Please don't ask me to. I can't." + +"There's nothing to be afraid of. It won't hurt you." The doctor smiled. + +"I know what that is now," said Jewell, regarding the little tube. "A +man was cured of paralysis once by having a thing like that stuck in his +mouth. He thought it was meant to cure him. I haven't paralysis." + +The doctor began to consider that perhaps Mr. Evringham had not +exaggerated. "Come, Jewel," he said kindly. "I thought we were such good +friends. You are wasting my time." + +A moment more of hesitation, and then the child suddenly opened her +mouth and accepted the thermometer. She kept her eyes closed during +the process of waiting, and at last Dr. Ballard took out the little +instrument and examined it. + +"Let me see your tongue." + +The child stared in surprise. + +"Put out your tongue, Jewel," he repeated kindly. + +"But that is impolite," she protested. + +He changed his position. The poor little thing was flighty, and no +wonder, with such a temperature. He took her hand again. "I'll overlook +the impoliteness. Run out your tongue now. Far as you can, dear." + +The child obeyed. + +Presently she said, "I feel very uncomfortable, Dr. Ballard. I don't +feel a bit like visiting, so if you wouldn't _mind_ going away until I +feel better. You interrupted me when you came in. I have lots of work +to do yet. When I get well I'd just love to see you. I'd rather see you +than almost anybody in Bel-Air." + +"Yes, yes, dear. I'll go away very soon. Where does your throat feel +sore? Put your finger on the place." + +Jewel looked up with all the rebuke she could convey. "You ought not to +ask me that," she returned. + +Dr. Ballard rose and went to the door. "Get me a glass of water, please, +Mrs. Forbes." + +"Not a glass. I want a whole pitcher full right side of me," said Jewel. + +"Yes, a pitcher full also, if you please, Mrs. Forbes. Just let the maid +bring them up." + +The doctor returned to the bedside. "Now we'll soon forget that you wet +those little feet," he said. + +"That didn't do me any harm, that clean sweet brook. Mrs. Forbes didn't +know what was the real matter." + +"What was it, then?" + +"My own fault," said Jewel, speaking with feverish quickness and +squeezing the doctor's hand. "When I came here I found that nobody loved +one another and everybody was afraid and sorry, and instead of denying +it and helping them, I began voicing error and calling them names. +I didn't keep remembering that God was here, and I called it Castle +Discord and called Mrs. Forbes the giantess, and aunt Madge the error +fairy, and cousin Eloise the enchanted maiden, and of course how could I +help getting sick?" + +Dr. Ballard leaned toward her. Was this an impromptu tale, or was it a +fact that this child had been coldly treated and unhappy? "You have a +sensitive conscience, Jewel," he returned. + +Here Sarah entered, set down the tray with pitcher, glasses, and spoon, +and departed. The doctor loosed the little hand he had been holding, +took up his case, and opened it. + +Jewel watched him with apprehension. "That's--medicine isn't it?" she +asked with bated breath. + +"Yes." The doctor carefully selected a bottle of liquid and set it on +the table. "I think this one will do us." + +Jewel's remark on the train about materia medica recurred to him, and he +smiled. + +"Dr. Ballard, aren't you a Christian?" she asked suddenly. + +He glanced up. "I hope so." + +"Then you'll forgive me if I won't take medicine. I put out my tongue, +and I sucked the little glass thing because I didn't want to trouble +you; but I have too much faith in God to take medicine." The child +looked at the doctor appealingly. + +He began to see light, and in his surprise, for a moment he did not +reply. + +"Jesus Christ would have used drugs if they had been right," she added. + +"But He isn't here now," returned the astonished young man. + +"Why, Dr. Ballard," in gentle reproach, "Christ is the Truth of God. +Isn't He here now, healing us and helping us just the same as ever? +Didn't He say He would be? You will see how much better I shall be +to-night." + +Dr. Ballard met the heavy eyes with his own kind, clear ones. "I see you +have been taught in new ways, Jewel," he said seriously, "but you are +only a little girl, and while you are in your grandfather's house you +ought to do as he wishes. He wishes you to let me prescribe for you. No +one who is ill can help making trouble. You have no right not to try to +get well in the way Mr. Evringham and Mrs. Forbes wish you to." + +Jewel felt herself in a desperate position. The corners of her lips +twitched down. Dr. Ballard thought he saw his advantage, and leaned his +fine head toward her. She impulsively threw her arms around his neck. + +"You don't want to hurt my feelings, Jewel," he said. She was crying +softly. + +"No--it would make me--very--sorry, but it would be--worse--to +hurt--God's. Please don't make me, please, please don't make me, Dr. +Ballard!" + +She was increasingly excited, and he feared the effect. + +"Very well then, Jewel," he returned. "I don't want to do you more harm +than good." + +"Oh, thank you!" she exclaimed fervently, through her tears. + +"But Mrs. Forbes must think you have the medicine. You haven't told her +that you are--ahem--a Christian Scientist. I suppose that is what you +call yourself." + +"Yes, sir. A Christian Scientist. Oh, you're the kindest man," pursued +the relieved child. "I realized in my prayer that you didn't know it was +wrong to believe in material medica, for you reflect love all the time." + +While she was talking and wiping her eyes the doctor took the pitcher +and one of the glasses to the window, and stood with his back to her. + +"Now then," he said, returning, "we'll put this half glass of water on +the table. I put the spoon across it so, and when Mrs. Forbes is next in +the room you take a couple of spoonfuls and that will satisfy her. You +may tell her that I wanted you only to take it about four times during +the day. If you are better when I come back this evening, I will not +insist upon your taking any pellets on your tongue. Here is the other +glass for you to drink from." + +With a few more kind words Dr. Ballard took his departure, and going +downstairs met Mrs. Forbes. "The little girl has a heavy feverish cold. +She understands how to take her medicine. She will probably sleep a good +deal. Let her be quiet." + +He went on to the study, where Mr. Evringham was waiting, sitting at the +desk, his head on his hand, frowning at the yellow chicken. He looked up +expectantly as the doctor entered. + +"Well?" he asked. + +Dr. Ballard came forward and seated himself in a neighboring chair. + +"Do you know what you have upstairs there?" he asked in a low tone. + +"For heaven's sake, Guy, don't tell me it's something serious--something +infectious!" Mr. Evringham turned pale. + +The doctor's sudden smile was reassuring. "It does seem to be infectious +to some degree," he returned, "but I don't believe you'll catch it." + +"What are you grinning at, boy?" asked the broker sharply. + +"Don't be alarmed, Mr. Evringham, but the fact is, that you have in your +house a small and young but perfectly formed and well-developed specimen +of a Christian Scientist." + +"What, man!" The broker grew red again. + +Dr. Ballard nodded deliberately. "Your little granddaughter belongs to +the new cult; and I can assure you she is dyed in the wool, and moreover +is all wool and a yard wide." + +"The devil you say!" ejaculated Mr. Evringham. "But," he added with +a sudden thought, "that may be a part of the poor child's feverish +nonsense. She was full of talk of castles and giantesses and fairies and +what not when I was up there." + +"Yes. She is no flightier than you are this minute. All these titles are +those she has given to your house and household in the last two days, +and according to her diagnosis, it is that indulgence from which she +is suffering now, and not from too much brook. She says she has 'voiced +error.'" + +The doctor looked quizzically at his friend, who returned his gaze, +nonplussed. + +"That's it--'error,'" rejoined Mr. Evringham, "that's what she is +often saying. This explains her vocabulary, in all probability. She +has sometimes the strangest talk you ever listened to. Well, that's the +mother's doing, of course, and not the child's fault. I maintain it is +not the child's fault. With it all, Ballard, I tell you she's a very +well meaning child--a rather winning child, in fact. Good natured +disposition. I hope she's not very ill. I do, indeed. Ha! That, then, is +why she was so excited at the thought of having a doctor. Tomfoolery!" + +"Yes, that was it. We've had some argument." The young doctor smiled. +"She doesn't consider me hopeless, however. She told me that she had +mentioned to the Lord that she was sure I didn't know it was wrong to +believe in materia medica." + +No one for years had heard Mr. Evringham laugh as he laughed at this. +The doctor joined him. + +"I'm not surprised," said the broker at last. "If there is anything she +does not mention to her Creator, I have yet to learn what it is. How did +you get around her, Ballard?" + +"Oh, I used a little justifiable hocus-pocus about the medicine. That's +all." + +"And you think it's not anything very serious, then?" + +"I think not. Where there's so much temperature it is a little hard to +tell at first with a child. This evening I shall make a more thorough +examination. The ice is broken now, and it will be easier. She will be +less excited. I see," glancing at the yellow chicken, whose beady eyes +appeared to be following the conversation, "the little girl has found +her way even into this sanctum." + +Mr. Evringham cleared his throat as he followed the doctor's glance. +"No," he responded shortly. "She has not found her way in here yet. That +is--my chicken. She bought it for me." + +Dr. Ballard lifted his eyebrows and smiled as he arose. + +"Come back before dinner if possible, Ballard. I shall be uneasy." + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE TELEGRAM + +Mrs. Forbes entered Jewel's room after speaking with the doctor. The +little girl looked at her eagerly. A plan had formed in her mind which +depended for its success largely on the housekeeper's complaisance, and +she wished to propitiate her. + +"I want to fix it so you can call me when you need anything, Julia," she +said. "The doctor has told you about taking the medicine, and here is a +little clock I'm going to put on your table right by the bed, and I've +brought up a bell. I shall leave the farther door open so the sound of +this bell will go right down the backstairs, and one of us will come up +whenever you ring. Dr. Ballard says it's best for you to be quiet." + +"Yes'm," replied Jewel. "Do you think, Mrs. Forbes--would it be too much +trouble--would he have time--could I see Jeremiah just a few minutes?" + +"See who?" + +"Jeremiah--the gentleman who lives with the horses." + +"Do you mean my son Ezekiel?" + +"Oh, yes'm. Ezekiel. I knew it was a prophet. He always speaks very +kindly to me, and I like him. I wish I could see him just a few +minutes." + +Mrs. Forbes was very much astonished and somewhat flattered. "It's +wonderful, the fancy that child has taken to me and mine," she thought. + +"Well, folks must be humored when they're sick," she replied. "Let me +see," looking at the little clock, "yes, Mr. Evringham's missed the +second train. There'll be five or ten minutes yet, and 'Zekiel's got to +wait anyway. I guess he can come up and see you." + +"Oh, thank you, Mrs. Forbes!" returned Jewel. + +The housekeeper made her way out to the barn, where her son in his +livery was waiting and reading the paper. + +"The doctor's gone, Zeke, and the child wants to see you." + +"Me?" returned the coachman in surprise. "Why the bully little kid!" + +"Yes, come and be quick. There won't be much time. You watch the clock +that's side of her bed, and don't you be late." + +'Zekiel followed with alacrity. His mother, starting him up the +backstairs, gave him directions how to go, and remained below. + +Jewel, her eyes fixed on the open back door of her room, felt a leap +of the heart as Zeke, fine in his handsome livery, came blushing and +tiptoeing into the room. + +"I'm so glad, I'm so glad!" she exclaimed in her soft, thick voice. +"Shut the door, please." + +"I told you to remember you'd only got to say 'Zeke' and I'd come," he +said, approaching the bed. "I'm awful sorry you're sick, little kid." + +"Did you ever hear of Christian Science, Zeke?" she asked hurriedly. + +"Yes, I did. Woman I knew in Boston cured of half a dozen things. She +held that Christian Science did it." + +"Oh, good, good. I'm a Christian Scientist, and nobody here is, and I +want to send a telegram to Chicago, to a lady to treat me. Nobody would +do it for me but you. _Will_ you?" + +It would have taken a hard heart to resist the appeal, and Zeke's was +soft. + +"Of course I will," he answered. "Going right to the station now to take +Mr. Evringham. I can send it as well as not." + +"Get some paper, Zeke, in the top bureau drawer. There's a pencil on the +bureau." + +He obeyed, and she gave him an address which he wrote down. "Now this: +'Please treat me for fever and sore throat. Jewel.'" + +Zeke wrote the message and tucked it into a pocket. + +"Now please get my leather bag in the drawer," said the child, "and take +out money enough." + +The young fellow hesitated. "If you haven't got plenty of money"--he +began. + +"I have. You'll see. Oh, Zeke, you've made me so happy!" + +The coachman's clumsy hands fumbled with the clasp of the little bag. + +"I can do it," said Jewel, and he brought it to her and watched her +while she took out the money and gave it to him. He took a coin, +returned the rest to the bag, and snapped it. + +"Say, little girl," he said uneasily, "you look to me like a doctor'd do +you a whole lot o' good." + +Jewel gazed at him in patient wonder. + +"Who made the doctor?" she asked. + +Zeke stood on one foot and then on the other. + +"God did, and you know it, Zeke. He's the one to go to in trouble." + +"But you're going to that Chicago woman," objected Zeke. + +"Yes, because she'll go to God for me. I'm being held down by something +that pretends to have power, and though I know it's an old cheat, I +haven't understanding enough to get rid of it as quickly as she will. +You see, I wouldn't have been taken sick if I hadn't believed in a lie +instead of denying it. We have to watch our thoughts every minute, and I +tell you, Zeke, sometimes it seems real hard work." + +"Should say so," returned 'Zekiel. "The less you think the better, I +should suppose, if that's the case. I've got to be going now." + +"And you'll send the telegram _surely_, and you won't speak of it to any +one?" + +"Mum's the word, and I'll send it if it's the last act; but don't put +all your eggs in one basket, little kid. I know Dr. Ballard's been here, +and now you do everything he said, like a good girl, and between the two +of 'em they ought to fix you up. I'd pin more faith to a doctor in the +hand than to one in the bush a thousand miles away, if 't was _me_." + +Jewel smiled on him from heavy eyes. "Did you ever hear of God's needing +any help?" she asked. "I'll never forget your being so kind to me, +never, Zeke; and when error melts away I'm coming out to the stable with +grandpa. He said I should. Good-by." + +As soon as the plum-colored livery had disappeared Jewel drew herself +up, took the water pitcher between her hot little hands, and drank long +and deeply. Then with a sigh of satisfaction she turned over in bed and +drew Anna Belle close to her. + +"Just see, dearie," she murmured, "how we are always taken care of!" + +Mrs. Evringham saw Dr. Ballard's buggy drive away and lost no time in +discovering who had needed his services. + +"It's the child," she announced, returning to Eloise's room. + +"Poor little thing," returned the girl, rising. + +"Where are you going? Stay right where you are. She has a high fever, +and they're not sure yet what it may be. Mrs. Forbes is doing everything +that is necessary. Father has waited over two trains. He hasn't gone to +the city yet." + +At the mention of Mr. Evringham Eloise sank back in her chair. + +"Dr. Ballard is coming again toward evening," continued Mrs. Evringham, +"and I shall talk with him and find out just the conditions. Mrs. +Forbes is very unsatisfactory, but I can see that she thinks it may be +something infectious." + +Eloise lifted a suddenly hopeful face. "Then you would wish to leave at +once?" she said. + +"Not at all. Father would surely hear to reason and send the child to +the hospital. They are models of comfort in these days, and it is the +only proper place for people to be ill. I shall speak to Dr. Ballard +about it to-night." + +As soon as Eloise had seen her grandfather drive to the station she +eluded her mother, and gathering her white negligee about her, went +softly up to Jewel's room and stood at the closed door. All was still. +She opened the door stealthily. With all her care it creaked a little. +Still no sound from within. She looked toward the bed, saw the flushed +face of the child and that she was asleep, so she withdrew as quietly. + +During the day she inquired of Mrs. Forbes if she could be of any +service, but the housekeeper received the suggestion with curt respect, +assuring her that Dr. Ballard had said Jewel would sleep a good deal, +and should not be disturbed. + +Mrs. Evringham overheard the question and welcomed the reply with +relief. + +Jewel ate the bread and fruit and milk that Mrs. Forbes gave her for her +late lunch, and said that she felt better. + +"You look so," returned the housekeeper. The child had not once called +her upstairs during the morning. She certainly was as little trouble as +a sick child could be. + +"If 't was anybody else," mused Mrs. Forbes, regarding her, "I should +say that she sensed the situation and knew she'd brought it on herself +and me, and was trying to make up for it; but nobody can tell what she +thinks. Her eyes do look more natural. I guess Dr. Ballard's a good +one." + +"It don't seem to hurt you to swallow now," remarked Mrs. Forbes. + +"No'm, it doesn't, she answered. + +"Now then, you see how foolish and naughty it was the way you behaved +about having the doctor this morning. Look how much better you are +already!" + +"Yes'm, I love Dr. Ballard." + +"You well may. He's done well by you." Mrs. Forbes took the tray. "Now +do you feel like going to sleep again? The doctor won't come till about +six o'clock. Your fever'll rise toward evening, and that's the time he +wants to see you. I shall sleep in the spare room next you to-night." + +"Thank you, Mrs. Forbes. You are so kind; but you won't have to," +replied the child earnestly. "Would you please draw up the curtains +and put Anna Belle's clothes on the bed? Perhaps I'll dress her after a +while. It doesn't seem fair to make her stay in bed when it wasn't her +error." + +"I don't think you'd better keep your arms out," returned Mrs. Forbes +decidedly. "I'll put up the curtains, but when you come to try to do +anything you'll find you are very weak. You can ring the bell when you +want to, you know. And don't take your medicine again for an hour after +eating. I'd take another nap right away if I was you." + +When she had gone out, Jewel shook her head at the doll, whose face was +smiling toward her own. "You denied it, didn't you, dearie, the minute +she said it," she whispered. "Error is using Mrs. Forbes to hold me +under mortal mind laws, but it can't be so, because God doesn't want it, +and I'm not afraid any more." + +Jewel put her hand under her pillow and drew out the two slips of paper +that bore her mother's messages. These she read through several times. +"Of course there are more, Anna Belle. I shouldn't wonder if there was +one in every pocket, but I don't mean to hunt. Divine love will send +them to me just when I need them, the way He did these. I'm sorry I +can't dress you, dearie, because you've just reflected love all the +time, and ought not to be in bed at all; but I must obey, you know, so +there won't be discord. I'd love to just hop up and get your clothes, +but you'll forgive me for not, I know." + +Again Jewel put her hand under her pillow and drew forth her copy of +"Science and Health." "I'll read to you a little, dearie." She opened +the book to page 393 and read, "Rise in the strength of Spirit to resist +all that is unlike God." Jewel paused and thought for a minute. "You +might think, Anna Belle, that that meant rise against Mrs. Forbes, but +it doesn't. It means rise against all error, and one error is believing +that Mrs. Forbes is cross or afraid." She went on reading for several +minutes, passing glibly over familiar phrases and sticking at or +skipping words which presented difficulties. + +While she was thus employed Eloise again stole quietly to her cousin's +door, and hearing the soft voice she grew pale. Her mother had exacted +a promise from her that she would not enter the room until Dr. Ballard +consented, so after a minute's hesitation she fled downstairs and found +Mrs. Forbes. + +"I think the little girl must be worse! She is talking to herself +incessantly." + +Mrs. Forbes regarded the pale face coldly. "I guess there's some +mistake. She was better when I saw her half an hour ago. I'll go up in a +minute." + +The minute stretched to five; Jewel had slept scarcely at all the night +before, and by the time the housekeeper had laboriously reached her +door, her voice had grown fainter, then stopped, and she was sound +asleep. + +"I wish Mamzell would keep her finger out of this pie," soliloquized +Mrs. Forbes as she retraced her steps. + +When Mr. Evringham returned from the city, his first question, as Zeke +met him, was concerning Jewel. + +"Mother says she's slept the most of the day," replied the coachman, his +head stiff in his high collar and his eyes looking straight ahead. + +"H'm. A good sign does she think, or is it stupor?" + +"I couldn't say, sir." + +Reaching the house, a long pasteboard box in his hands, Mr. Evringham +found that his grandchild was still asleep. + +"I fear the worst, Mrs. Forbes," he said with nervous curtness. "When a +stupor attacks children it is a very bad sign I am told. I'll just ring +up Ballard." + +He did so, but the doctor had gone out and was intending to call at the +park before he returned. + +"I really think it is all right, Mr. Evringham," said Mrs. Forbes, +distressed by her employer's uneasiness. "Dr. Ballard expected she'd +sleep a great deal. He told me not to disturb her." + +"Oh, very well then, perhaps it is not to be regretted. Kindly put those +roses in the deep vase, Mrs. Forbes." + +"Yes, sir." She took up the box. "Besides, Mr. Evringham, if she does +get worse, you know the hospital here is one of the very best, and +you"-- + +Mr. Evringham wheeled and frowned upon the speaker fiercely. "Hospital!" +he ejaculated. "An extraordinary suggestion, Mrs. Forbes! Most +extraordinary! My granddaughter remains in my house." + +Mrs. Forbes, crimson with surprise and mortification, retreated. "Very +well, sir," she faltered. "Will you have the roses on the dinner table, +Mr. Evringham?" + +"No. Set them here on my desk if you please." With this Mr. Evringham +began walking up and down the floor, pausing once to take up the yellow +chicken. During the day the soft moan, "I wanted you so all night, +grandpa," had been ringing in his ears. + +"Mrs. Forbes has no understanding of the child," he muttered, "and of +course I cannot expect anything from the cat and her kitten." + +With this he began again his promenade. Mrs. Forbes returned with the +roses, and simultaneously Mr. Evringham saw Essex Maid arching her neck +as she picked her steps past the window. + +"By the way," he said curtly, "let Zeke take the Maid back to the barn. +I'll not ride to-day." + +"It's very fine weather, sir," protested Mrs. Forbes. + +"I'll not ride. I'll wait here for Dr. Ballard." + +The housekeeper went forth to give the order. + +"I never saw Mr. Evringham so upset in my life," she said in an +awestruck tone. + +"I saw the governor wasn't real comfortable," returned the boy. "Guess +he's afraid he's goin' to catch the mumps or something. It would be real +harrowin' if he got any worse case of big head than he's got already." + +Mr. Evringham was little accustomed to waiting, and by the time Dr. +Ballard appeared, his nervousness had become painful. "The child's slept +too much, I'm sure of it, Ballard," was his greeting. "I don't know what +we're going to find up there, I declare I don't." + +"It depends on whether it's a good sleep," returned the doctor, and his +composed face and manner acted at once beneficially upon Mr. Evringham. + +"Well, you'll know, Guy, you'll know, my boy. Mrs. Forbes saw you +coming, and she has gone upstairs to prepare the little girl. She'll be +glad to see you this time, I'll wager." + +The broker, roses in hand, ascended the staircase after the physician. +Mrs. Forbes was standing at the foot of the bed, and the room was +pleasantly light as they entered. Jewel, the flush of sleep on her +cheeks, was looking expectantly toward the door. Dr. Ballard came in +first and she smiled in welcome, then Mr. Evringham appeared, heavy +roses nodding in all directions before him. + +"Grandpa!" exclaimed the child. "Why, grandpa, did _you_ come?" + +There was no mistaking the joy in her tone. Dr. Ballard paused in +surprise, while the stockbroker approached the bed. + +"I brought you a few flowers, Jewel," he said, while she pressed his +disengaged hand against her cheek. + +"They're the most lovely ones I ever saw," she returned with conviction. +"They make me happy just to look at them." + +"Well, Jewel," said the doctor, "I hear you've been making up for +lost sleep in great shape." His eyes, as he spoke, were taking in with +concentrated interest the signs in her face. He came and sat beside the +bed, while Mr. Evringham fell back and Mrs. Forbes regarded the child +critically. + +"Well, now, you're a good little patient," went on the doctor, as he +noted the clear eyes. + +"Yes, Dr. Ballard, I feel just as nice as can be," she answered. + +"No thickness in the voice. I fancy that sore throat is better." The +young doctor could not repress his smile of satisfaction. "I was certain +that was the right attenuation," he thought. "Now let us see." + +He took out the little thermometer, and Jewel submitted to having it +slipped beneath her tongue. + +As Dr. Ballard leaned back in his chair to wait, he looked up at Mr. +Evringham. "It is very gratifying," he said, "to find these conditions +at this hour of the day. I felt a little more uneasy this morning than I +confessed." He nodded in satisfactory thought. "I grant you medicine is +not an exact science, it is an art, an art. You can't prescribe by hard +and fast rules. You must take into consideration the personal equation." + +Presently he leaned forward and removed the thermometer. His eyes smiled +as he read it, and he lifted it toward Mr. Evringham. + +"I can't see it, boy." + +"Well, there's nothing to see. She hasn't a particle of temperature. +Look here, little one," frowning at Jewel, "if everybody recovered as +quickly as you have, where would we doctors be?" + +Turning again and addressing Mr. Evringham, he went on, "I'm +particularly interested in this result because that is a remedy over +which there has been some altercation. There's one man to whom I shall +be glad to relate this experience." The doctor leaned toward his +little patient. "Jewel, I'm not so surprised as I might be at your +improvement," he said kindly. "You will have to excuse me for a little +righteous deception. I put medicine into that glass of water, and now +you're glad I did, aren't you? I'd like you to tell me, little girl, as +near as you can, how often you took it?" + +"I didn't take it," replied the child. + +Dr. Ballard drew back a little. "You mean," he said after a moment, "you +took it only once?" + +"No, sir, I didn't take it at all." + +There was a silence, during which all could hear the ticking of the +clock on the table, and the three pairs eyes were fixed on Jewel with +such varying expressions of amazement and disapproval that the child's +breath began to come faster. + +"Didn't you drink any of the water?" asked Dr. Ballard at last. + +"Yes, out of the pitcher." + +"Why not out of the glass?" + +"It didn't look enough. I was so thirsty." + +They could not doubt her. + +Mr. Evringham finally found his voice. + +"Jewel, why didn't you obey the doctor?" His eyes and voice were so +serious that she stretched out her arm. + +"Oh, grandpa," she said, "please let me take hold of your hand." + +"No, not till you answer me. Little girls should be obedient." + +Jewel thought a minute. + +"He said it wasn't medicine, so what was the use?" she asked. + +Mr. Evringham, seeming to find an answer to this difficult, bit the end +of his mustache. + +Dr. Ballard was feeling his very ears grow red, while Mrs. Forbes's lips +were set in a line of exasperation. + +"Grandpa," said Jewel, and the child's voice was very earnest, "there's +a Bible over there on the table. You look in there in the Gospels, and +you'll find everywhere how Jesus tells us to do what I've done. He said +he must go away, but he would send the Comforter to us, and this book +tells about the Comforter." Jewel took the copy of "Science and Health" +from under the sheet. + +"God's creation couldn't get sick. It's just His own image and likeness, +so how could it? And when you can get right into God's love, what do you +want of medicine to swallow? God wouldn't be omnipotent if He needed any +help. You see I'm well. Isn't that all you want, grandpa?" + +The appeal of her eyes caused the broker to stir undecidedly. "I never +did have any use for doctors," he thought, after the manner of many who, +nevertheless, are eager to fly to the brotherhood for help at the first +suggestion of pain. Moreover, the humor of the situation was beginning +to dawn upon him, and he admired the fine temper and self-control with +which the young physician pulled himself together and rose. + +"_I_ am glad you are well, Jewel, very," he said; "but the next time I +am called to prescribe for a little Christian Scientist I shall put +the pellets on her tongue." He smiled as he took up his case and said +good-by. + +Mr. Evringham followed him down the stairs, heroically resisting the +impulse to laugh. Only one remark he allowed himself as he bade the +doctor good-by. + +"You're quite right, Ballard, in your theory. Jewel has been here only +three days, but I could have told you that in doing anything whatever +for her, it is always absolutely necessary to consider the personal +equation." + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +IN THE LIBRARY + +As Mr. Evringham turned from the closed door he met his daughter-in-law +coming out into the hall. + +"I've been watching for Dr. Ballard," she said with annoyance. "I don't +see why I didn't hear him come down." At this juncture she paused, +surprised to observe that her father-in-law was laughing. She attributed +this unusual ebullition to ridicule of herself. + +"I only wanted to ask if Julia's illness is infectious," she went on +with dignity. "Eloise and I are naturally very anxious. We should like +to do anything for her we can, if it is quite safe." + +"Madam, don't, I pray, for all our sakes, run any risk," returned Mr. +Evringham, his lips still twitching as he bowed mockingly. + +"It would be very foolish," answered Mrs. Evringham, unabashed. "You +wouldn't care to have more invalids on your hands. It has been all I +could do to keep Eloise away from the sick room to-day." + +"Is it possible!" commented Mr. Evringham, smoothing his mustache. + +"Not only possible but true, and I wished to go to headquarters and find +out the exact state of the case." + +Again the broker's shoulders began to shake. + +"Ballard isn't headquarters," he replied. + +Mrs. Evringham regarded him, startled. She wondered if affairs were +perhaps very serious, and her father-in-law's nerves overstrained. +She knew that he had dispensed with the afternoon ride which was so +important to him. + +She grew a shade paler. "I wish you would tell me, father, just what the +doctor said," she begged. + +Mr. Evringham raised a protesting hand. "I couldn't think of it," he +laughed. "It would give me apoplexy." + +His daughter-in-law began to retreat, and the broker passed her and went +into his study, still laughing. + +Mrs. Evringham stood with lips parted, looking after him. Her heart beat +fast. The doctor had called twice. He had come down the stairs in dead +silence just now. She knew it, for she had been listening and waiting +to intercept him. She had meant to say a number of pretty things to him +concerning Eloise's anxiety about her little cousin. Her own anxiety +redoubled, and she hurried to her daughter's room and narrated her +experience. + +"I really think we may have to go, Eloise," she finished nervously. +"Even if it isn't infectious, it is so dreadfully dispiriting to be in a +house where there is a dangerous illness, and possibly worse. I've been +thinking perhaps we might go in town and take lodgings for a while. No +one need know it. We could even stay there through the summer. None of +our friends would be in town; then in autumn we could come back here." + +Eloise's lip curled. "I doubt that," she returned. "Grandfather will +be forearmed. I prophesy, mother, that you will never get our trunks up +here again after you once take them out." + +"Really, Eloise, you do put things most repulsively," returned Mrs. +Evringham with vexation. "Besides, how do we know what the future is +going to bring forth? Father behaves to me as if he might be on the +verge of brain fever himself." + +"Poor little Jewel!" exclaimed the girl. "I hope she will pull through, +but if she is the cause of our leaving here, I shall always love her +memory." + +"I don't know whether father will even come to dinner," said Mrs. +Evringham, pursuing her own thoughts, "but I suppose we shall see Mrs. +Forbes. I do hope she has some sense about using disinfectants. It's +outrageous for her to come near the dining-room when she is taking care +of that child. Of course they'll have a nurse at once. Forbes doesn't +like going out of her beaten track." + +"I can't forget that poor little voice rambling on so monotonously this +afternoon," said Eloise. "I strained my ears to listen, but I could +make out only that she said something about 'love' and then about +'righteousness.' What a word for that little mouth." + +"I've seen smaller," remarked Mrs. Evringham. + +When finally they entered the dining-room punctually at the appointed +hour,--even Mrs. Evringham dared take no liberties with that,--the host +was there and greeted them as usual. Mrs. Forbes came in and took her +position near him. Her employer gave her a side glance. His fears for +Jewel allayed, his regard for his housekeeper's opinions had returned in +full force. + +He wished to ask for the little girl, to ask what she was doing now, and +what she would like sent up for dinner, but he had not the courage. The +aghast countenance which Mrs. Forbes had exhibited at the moment when +the enormity of Jewel's conduct transpired remained in his memory. The +housekeeper's appearance at present was noncommittal. Mrs. Evringham +sent her piercing and questioning glances in vain. + +The silence in the usually silent room had not had time to become +noticeable when the portiere was pushed aside and Jewel, arrayed in +the dotted dress and carefully bearing the tall vase of nodding roses, +entered the room. + +Mrs. Evringham uttered a little cry and dropped her spoon. Eloise stared +wild-eyed. The housekeeper flushed. + +"Good evening," said the child, glancing about as she approached, and +sighing with relief as she set the heavy vase on the edge of the table. +"I had to come down so carefully not to spill, grandpa, that it made +me a little late. Mrs. Forbes said you brought me the roses under +false--false pretends, so I thought perhaps you would like them on the +table." + +The housekeeper, hurrying forward, seized the vase from its precarious +position and placed it in the centre of the board. "I didn't tell you +you might come downstairs," she said, as she buttoned the middle button +of Jewel's dress. + +The little girl looked up in innocent surprise. "You said I might dress +me, so why should anybody have to bring up my dinner?" she asked. + +Mrs. Forbes's countenance looked so lowering that Mr. Evringham hastened +to speak in his brusque and final fashion. "She is here now. Might as +well let her stay." + +Jewel jumped into her chair and turned toward him with an apologetic +smile. "I couldn't make my hair look very nice," she said, with the +lift of her shoulders which he had come to connect with her confidential +moments. Remembering the feverish child of the morning, he looked at her +in silent wonder. The appearance of her flaxen head he could see was +in contrast to the trim and well-cared-for look it had worn when she +arrived. + +"Poor little thing!" he thought. "She looks motherless--motherless." +Involuntarily he cast a glance of impatience at his other guests. The +expression of blank amazement on their faces stirred him to amusement. + +"If you are afraid of infection, Madge, don't hesitate to retire to your +room," he said. "Your dinner will be sent to you." + +"What does this mean!" ejaculated Mrs. Evringham. "Why is Dr. Ballard +coming twice a day to see that child?" + +"To cure her, of course," returned the broker, his lips breaking into +smiles. "Why do doctors generally visit patients?" + +"Then when he came the second time he found her well?" + +"Ha, ha," laughed Mr. Evringham, "yes, that's it. He found her well." + +Eloise and her mother gazed at him in astonishment. Mrs. Forbes's +face was immovable. A sense of humor was not included in her mental +equipment, and she considered the whole affair lamentable and unseemly +in the extreme. + +"Grandpa," said Jewel, looking at him with gentle reproach, "you're not +laughing at Dr. Ballard, are you? He's the _kindest_ man. I love him, +next to you, best of anybody in Bel-Air"--then thinking this declaration +might hurt her aunt and cousin, she added, "because I know him the best, +you know. He tried to deceive me about the medicine, but it was only +because he didn't know that there isn't any righteous deceiving. He +meant to do me good." + +Mrs. Evringham looked curiously from the child to her father-in-law. As +she herself said later, she had never felt so "out of it" in her life. +As the subject concerned Dr. Ballard, she wished to understand clearly +what circumstance could possibly have induced Mr. Evringham to laugh +repeatedly. + +"I was passing your door this afternoon," said Eloise, addressing Jewel, +"and I heard you talking. I knew there was no one with you, and I feared +you were very ill." + +The little girl was always pleased when her beautiful cousin looked at +her. + +"I guess I was reading. Of course I was in a hurry to get well, so as +soon as the fever was gone and I felt comfortable, I began to read +out loud from 'Science and Health' to Anna Belle. She's a Christian +Scientist, too." + +The faces of Mrs. Evringham and Eloise were studies as they gazed at the +speaker. + +Mr. Evringham glanced at them maliciously under his heavy brows as Sarah +brought in the second course. + +"Is Anna Belle your doll?" asked Eloise, for the moment sufficiently +interested almost to lose her self-consciousness. + +"Yes," eagerly. "Would you like to see her?" Jewel gave a fleeting +glance at Mrs. Forbes. "She always comes to the table with me at home," +she added. + +"Sit still," murmured Mrs. Forbes in low, sepulchral warning. + +"Now then, Jewel," said Mr. Evringham as he began to serve the filet, +"you didn't take the doctor's medicine. What do you think made that high +fever go away?" + +The little girl looked up brightly. "Oh, I telegraphed to Mrs. Lewis, +one of mother's friends in Chicago, to treat me." + +"The dev--What do you mean, child?" + +Mr. Evringham gazed at her, and his tone was so fierce, although he was +only very much amazed, that Jewel's smile faded. The corners of her +lips drew down pitifully, and suddenly she slipped from her chair, and +running to him threw her arms around his neck and buried her averted +face, revealing two forlorn little flaxen pigtails devoid of ribbons. + +"What's this, Jewel?" he said quickly, fearfully embarrassed before his +wondering audience. "This is very irregular, very irregular." He dropped +his fork perforce, and his hand closed over the little arm across his +cravat. + +Jewel was trying to control a sob that struggled to escape, and saying +over and over, as nearly as he could understand, something about God +being Love. + +"Go right back to your chair now, like a good girl." + +"Do you--love me?" whispered Jewel. + +"Yes--yes, I do." + +"You spoke like"--a sob--"like hating." + +"Not at all, not at all," rejoined Mr. Evringham quickly, "but I was +very much surprised, very." + +"Shall I take her upstairs, sir?" asked Mrs. Forbes, nearly bursting +with the outrage of such an interruption to her employer's sacred +dinner. + +"No, she's going to sit right down in her chair and not make any +trouble. Don't you like those roses I brought you, Jewel?" he added +awkwardly, hoping to make a diversion. He was successful. She lowered +her face, a fleeting April smile flitting over it. + +"Did grandfather bring you those lovely roses?" asked Eloise. + +Mr. Evringham flashed her his first glance of approval for so quickly +taking the cue. + +"Yes," replied the child, her breath catching as she went back to her +chair. "I seemed so sick when he went away this morning was the reason; +so now I'm well again--they belong to everybody, don't they, grandpa?" + +Mr. Evringham paused to consider a reply. He desired to be careful in +public not to draw upon himself that small catapult. + +"They belong to you still, Jewel. I never take back my presents," he +returned at last. + +"And I think Mrs. Forbes was mistaken about the false pretends," said +the child, swallowing and looking apologetically at the housekeeper, +"because who would pretend such error as sickness, and of course you'd +know I didn't pretend." + +"Certainly not," said Mr. Evringham. "Mrs. Forbes didn't mean that. The +whole thing seems like a dream now," he added. + +"What else could it seem like?" returned Jewel, smiling faintly toward +her grandfather with an air of having caught him napping. + +"Like reality," he returned dryly. + +She gazed at him, her smile fading. + +He looked up apprehensively and cringed a little, not at all sure that +the next instant would not find the rose-leaf cheek next his, and a +close whisper driving cold chills down his back; but the child only +paused a moment. + +"Reality is so much different from sin, disease, and death," she said at +last, in a matter-of-fact manner. It was too much for Mrs. Evringham's +risibles. She laughed in spite of her daughter's reproachful glance. + +"How wonderful if true!" she exclaimed. + +"It is true," returned Jewel soberly. "Even Anna Belle knows that; but +I'm sure that you haven't learned anything about Christian Science, aunt +Madge," she added politely. + +"What makes you so sure?" returned Mrs. Evringham banteringly. + +Jewel flushed with embarrassment and glanced at her grandfather +involuntarily, but he was busy eating and evidently would not help her. + +"I'd rather not say," replied the child at last, and her rejoinder +incited her aunt to further merriment. + +"Aunt Madge doesn't laugh in a nice way," thought Jewel. "It's even +pleasanter when she looks sorry." + +"What is real then, Jewel?" asked Eloise gravely. + +The child flashed upon her a sweet look. + +"Everything good and glad," she answered. + +Something rose in the girl's throat, and she pressed her lips together +for an instant. + +"You are happy to believe that," she returned. + +"Oh, I don't believe it," replied Jewel. "It's one of the things I +_know_. Mother says we only believe things when we aren't sure about +them. Mother knows such a lot of beautiful truth." + +The child looked at her cousin wistfully as she spoke. Eloise could +scarcely retain her proud and nonchalant bearing beneath the blue eyes. +They seemed to see through to her wretchedness. + +She did not look at Jewel again during dinner. At the close Mr. +Evringham pushed his chair back. + +"I should like you to come with me into my study, Jewel, for a few +minutes." + +The child's face brightened, and she left the table with alacrity. Mr. +Evringham stood back to allow his guests to pass out. They went on to +the drawing-room, where Mrs. Evringham's self-restraint was loosed. + +"The plot thickens, Eloise!" she said. + +"And we are not going away," returned the girl. + +"Decidedly not," declared her mother with emphasis. + +"There is no hope of our catching anything that Jewel has now," went on +Eloise. + +Her mother glanced at her suspiciously. "What, for instance?" + +"Oh," returned the girl, shrugging her shoulder, "faith, hope, and +charity." + +Mrs. Evringham laughed. "Indeed! Is the wind in that quarter? Then with +the Christian Science microbe in the house, there's no telling what may +happen to you. Something more serious than a fever, perhaps." She nodded +knowingly. "This sudden recovery looks very queer to me. I'd keep the +child in bed if I were in authority. Some diseases are so treacherous. +There's walking typhoid fever, for instance. She may have it for all we +know. I shall have a very serious talk with Dr. Ballard when he comes." + +An ironical smile flitted over the girl's lips as she drifted toward the +piano. "I judge from the remarks at the table, that the less you say to +Dr. Ballard on the subject of to-day's experiences the better." + +"I know it," indignantly. "I'm sure that child must have played some +practical joke on him. I want to get to the bottom of it. What a strange +little monkey she is! How long will father stand it? What did you think, +Eloise, when she swooped upon him so suddenly?" + +"I thought of just one sentence," returned the girl. "'Perfect love +casteth out fear.'" + +"Why in the world should she love him?" protested Mrs. Evringham. + +"She would love us all if we would let her," returned Eloise, the +phrases of "Vogel als Prophete" beginning to ripple softly from beneath +her fingers. "I saw it from the first. I felt it that first evening, +when we behaved toward her like a couple of boors. Any one can see she +has never been snubbed, never neglected. She got out of the lap of love +to come to this icebox. No wonder the change of temperature made her +ill!" + +"Why, Eloise, what has come over you? You never used to be disagreeable. +It's a good thing the child is amiable. It's the only thing left for a +plain girl to be." + +"No one will ever remember that she is plain," remarked Eloise. + +Her mother raised her eyebrows doubtingly. "Perhaps your perceptions are +so keen that you can explain how Jewel managed to telegraph to Chicago +to-day," she said. "It reminded me of Dooley's comments on Christian +Science. Do you remember what he said about 'rejucin' a swellin' over a +long distance tillyphone'?" + +"I can't imagine how she managed it," admitted Eloise. + + + +Neither could Mr. Evringham. He had taken Jewel into his study now +with the intention of finding out, deeming a secluded apartment more +desirable for catechism which might lay him liable to personal attack. + +As they entered the library he turned on the light, and Jewel glanced +about with her usual alert and ready admiration. + +"Is this your own, own particular room, grandpa?" she asked. + +"Yes, where I keep all my books and papers." + +The child's eye suddenly lighted on the yellow chicken, and she looked +up at Mr. Evringham with a pleased smile. He had forgotten the chicken, +and took the seat before his desk, glancing vaguely about to see which +chair would be least heavy and ponderous for his guest. She settled +the matter without any hesitation by jumping upon his knee. Jewel had a +subject on her mind which pressed heavily, and before her companion +had had time to do more than wink once or twice in his surprise, she +proceeded to it. + +"Do you know, grandpa, I think it's hard for Mrs. Forbes to love people +very much," she said in a lowered voice, as if perhaps the walls might +have ears. "I wanted to ask her yesterday morning if she didn't love me +whom she had seen, how could she love God whom she hadn't seen. Grandpa, +would you be willing to tie my bows?" + +"To tie"--repeated Mr. Evringham, and paused. + +The child was gazing into his eyes earnestly. She put her hand into her +pocket and took out two long pieces of blue ribbon. + +"You see, you're my only real relation," she explained, "and so I don't +like to ask anybody else." + +The startled look in her grandfather's face moved her to proceed +encouragingly. + +"You tie your neckties just beautifully, grandpa; and Mrs. Forbes does +her duty so _hard_, and she wants to have my hair cut off, to save +trouble." Jewel put her hand up to one short pigtail protectingly. + +"And you don't want it cut off, eh?" + +"No; and mother wouldn't either. So it would be error, and I'm sure I +could learn to fix it better than I did to-night, if you would tie the +bows. Just try one right now, grandpa." + +"With the house full of women!" gasped Mr. Evringham. + +"But none of them my real relatives," replied Jewel, and she turned the +back of her head to him, putting the ribbons in his hands. + +His fingers fumbled at the task for a minute, and his breathing began to +be heavy. + +"Is it hard, grandpa?" she asked sympathetically. "You can do it. +You reflect intelligence." Then in an instant, "Oh, I've thought of +something." She whisked about, took the ribbons and tied one tightly +around the end of each braid, then ducking her forehead into his shirt +front, "Now put your arms around my neck and tie the bow just as if it +was on yourself." Eureka! The thing was accomplished and Mrs. Forbes +outwitted. The broker was rather pleased with himself, at the billowy +appearance of the ribbon which covered such a multitude of sins in the +way of bad parting and braiding. He took his handkerchief and wiped +the beads of perspiration from his brow, while Jewel regarded him with +admiring affection. + +"I knew you could do just _anything_, grandpa!" she said. "You see," +looking off at a mental vision of the housekeeper, "we could come in +here every morning for a minute before breakfast, and she'd never know, +would she?" The child lifted her shoulders and laughed softly with +pleasure at the plot. + +Mr. Evringham saw his opportunity to take the floor. + +"Now Jewel, I would like to have you explain what you meant by saying +that you telegraphed to Chicago to-day, when you didn't leave your bed." + +She looked up at him attentively. "Ezekiel took it for me," she replied. + +Mr. Evringham unconsciously heaved a sigh of relief at this commonplace +information. His knowledge of the claims of Christian Science was +extremely vague, and he had feared being obliged to listen to a +declaration of the use of some means of communication which would make +Marconi's discoveries appear like clumsy makeshifts. + +"But I think, grandpa, perhaps you'd better not tell Mrs. Forbes." + +"How did you manage to see Zeke?" + +"I asked his mother if he might come to see me before he took you to the +train." + +Mr. Evringham pulled his mustache in amusement. "Did he pay for the +telegram?" + +"Why no, grandpa. I told you I had plenty of money." + +"And you think that Mrs. Somebody in Chicago cured you?" + +"Of course not. God did." + +"But she asked Him, eh?" + +Jewel's innocent eyes looked directly into the quizzical ones. "It's +pretty hard for a little girl to teach you about it if you don't know," +she said doubtfully. + +"I _don't_ know," he replied, his mood altered by her tone, "but I +should like to know what you think about it. Your cure was a rather +surprising one to us all." + +"I can tell you some of the things I know." + +"Do so then." + +"Well"--a pause--"there wasn't anything to cure, you see." + +"Ah! You weren't ill then!" + +"No--o," scornfully, "of course not. I knew it all the time, but it +seemed so real to me, and so hot, I knew I'd have to have some one else +handle the claim for me." + +"It certainly did seem rather real." Mr. Evringham smiled. + +Jewel saw that he did not in the least comprehend. + +"You know there isn't any devil, don't you, grandpa?" she asked +patiently. + +"Well, sometimes I have my doubts." + +The little girl tried to discover by his eyes if he were in earnest. + +"If you believe there is, then you could believe that I was really +sick; but if you believe there isn't, and that God created everybody and +everything, then it is so easy to understand that I wasn't. Think of God +creating anything bad!" + +Mr. Evringham nodded vaguely. "When mother comes home she'll tell you +about it, if you want her to." She sighed a little and abruptly changed +the subject. "Grandpa, are you going to be working at your desk?" + +"Yes, for a while." + +"Could I sit over at that table and write a letter while you're busy? I +wouldn't speak." She slipped down from his knee. + +"I don't know about your having ink. You're a rather small girl to be +writing letters." + +"Oh no, I'll take a pencil--because sometimes I move quickly and ink +tips over." + +"Quite so. I'm glad you realize that, else I should be afraid to have +you come to my study." + +"You'd better not be afraid," the child shook her head sagely, "because +that makes things happen." + +Her grandfather regarded her curiously. This small Bible student, who +couldn't tie her own hair ribbons, was an increasing problem to him. + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +FAMILY AFFAIRS + +He continued to watch the child furtively, while she made her +arrangements for writing. Finding that no chair in the room would bring +her to a proper height for the table, she looked all about, and finally +skipped over to the morocco lounge and tugged from it a pillow almost +too heavy for her to carry; but she arrived with it at the chair, +much to the amusement of Mr. Evringham, who affected absorption in +his papers, while he enjoyed the exhibition of the child's energy and +independence. + +"She's the kind that 'makes old shears cut,' as my mother used to say," +he mused, and turning, the better to view the situation, he found Jewel +mounted on her perch and watching him fixedly. + +She looked relieved. "I didn't want to disturb you, grandpa, but may I +ask one question?" + +"Yes." + +"Did I consult Dr. Ballard this afternoon?" + +"Not that I noticed," returned Mr. Evringham; and Jewel suspected from +his expression that she had said something amusing. + +"Well, it was a word that sounded like consult that Mrs. Forbes said I +did." + +"Insult, perhaps," suggested Mr. Evringham. + +"Oh yes. How do you spell it, grandpa?" + +Mr. Evringham told her, and added dryly, "That was rather too strong +language for Mrs. Forbes to apply to the fact." + +"Yes," replied the child. "I knew it was a hating word." Then without +further parley she squared her elbows on the table and bent over her +sheet of paper. + +"I wonder what version of it she'll give her mother," thought the +broker, rummaging vaguely in the pigeon holes of his desk. His labors +finally sifted down to the unearthing of a late novel from a drawer at +his right hand, and lowering a convenient, green-shaded electric light, +he lit his cigar, and was soon lost in the pages of the story. + +At last he became conscious that the pencil at the table had ceased to +move, and lowering his book he looked up. His granddaughter had been +watching for this happy event, and she no sooner met his eyes than, with +a smile of satisfaction, she jumped from her morocco perch and brought +him a sheet of paper well and laboriously covered. + +"I suppose it isn't all spelled right," she said. "I didn't want to +disturb you to ask; but will you please direct this to Dr. Ballard?" + +"To Dr. Ballard!" repeated Mr. Evringham. His curiosity impelled him. +"Shall I see if it is spelled right?" + +Jewel assenting, he read the following in a large and waving hand. + +DEAR DOCTOR BALUD--Mrs. Forbs felt bad because I did not take your +Medsin. She said it was an insult. I want to tell you I did not meen an +Insult. We can't help loving God beter than any body, but I love you and +if I took any medsin I would rather take yours than any boddy's. Mrs. +Forbs says you will send a big Bill to Grandpa and that it was error to +waist it. Please send the Bill to me because I have Plenty of munny, and +I shall love to pay you. You were very kind and did not put any thing on +my Tung. + +Your loving JEWEL. + + +Mr. Evringham continued to look at the signature for a minute before he +spoke. Jewel was leaning against his arm and reading with him. The last +lines slanted deeply, there being barely room in the lower corner for +the writer's name. + +"I can't write very straight without lines," she said. + +"You do very well indeed," he returned. "About that bill, Jewel," he +added after a moment. "Perhaps you would better let me pay it. I believe +you said you had three dollars, but even that won't last forever, you +know. You've spent some of it, too. How much, now?" + +"I've spent fifty cents." Jewel cast a furtive look around at the +chicken, "And, oh yes, fifty cents more for the telegram. How much do +you think Dr. Ballard's bill will be?" + +"I think it will take every cent you have left," returned Mr. Evringham, +gravely, curious to hear what his granddaughter would say in this +dilemma. + +Her reply came promptly and even eagerly. "Well, that's all right, +because Divine Love will send me more if I need it." + +"Indeed? How can you be sure?" + +Jewel smiled at him affectionately. "Do you mean it grandpa?" + +"Why yes. I really want to know." + +"Even after God sent you Essex Maid?" she asked incredulously. + +"You think the mare is the best thing in my possession, eh?" + +"Ye--es! Don't you?" + +"I believe I do." As Mr. Evringham spoke, this kinship of taste induced +him to turn his face toward the one beside him. Instantly he found +himself kissed full on the lips, and while he was recovering from the +shock, Jewel proceeded:-- + +"God has given you so many things, grandpa, that's why it surprised me +to have you look so sorry when I first came." The child examined his +countenance critically. "I don't think you look so sorry as you used to. +I know you must have lots of error to meet, and perhaps," lowering her +voice to an extra gentleness, "perhaps you don't know how to remember +every minute that God is a very present help in trouble. Mother says +that even grown-up people are just finding out about it." + +As she paused Mr. Evringham hesitated, somewhat embarrassed under +the blue eyes. "We all have plenty to learn, I dare say," he returned +vaguely. + +He had more than once wished that he had taken more notice of Harry's +wife during his opportunity at the hotel. He had looked upon the +interview as a distasteful necessity to be disposed of as cursorily as +possible. + +His son had married beneath him, some working girl probably, whose +ability to support herself had turned out to be a deliverance for +her father-in-law when the ne'er-do-well husband shirked his +responsibilities; and Mr. Evringham had gone to the hotel that evening +intending to make it clear that although he performed a favor for his +son, there were no results to follow. + +His granddaughter's fearlessness, courtesy, and affection had forced +him to wonder as to the mother who had fostered these qualities. He +remembered the eloquence of his son's face when Harry expressed the wish +that he might know Julia, and a vague admiration and respect were being +born in the broker's heart for the deserted woman who had worked with +hand and brain for her child--his grandchild was the way he put it--with +such results as he saw. + +Some perception of what Harry's sensations must have been during the +last six months came to him as he sat there with the little girl's arm +about him. Harry had come home and discovered his child, his Jewel. A +frown gathered on the broker's brow as he realized the hours of vain +regret his son must have suffered for those lost years of the child's +life. + +"Served him right, served him perfectly right!" + +"What grandpa?" + +The question made Mr. Evringham aware that the indignant words had been +muttered above his breath. + +"I was thinking of your father," he replied. "Has he learned these +things that your mother has taught you?" + +"Oh yes," with soft eagerness; "father is learning everything." Jewel +saw her grandfather's frown and she lowered her voice almost to a +whisper. "Don't feel sorry about father, grandpa. He says he's the +happiest man in the world. Mother didn't find out about God till after +father had gone to California, or he wouldn't have gone; and for a long +time she didn't know where he was, and I was only beginning to walk +around, so I couldn't help her; but when I got bigger I had father's +picture, and we used to talk to it every day, and at last mother knew +that Divine Love would bring father back; and pretty soon he began +to write to her, and he said he couldn't come home because he felt so +sorry, and he was going to the war. So then mother and I prayed a great +deal every day, and we knew father would be taken care of. And then +mother kept writing to him not to be sorry, because error was nothing +and the child of God could always have his right place, and everything +like that, and at last the war was over and he came home." Jewel paused. + +Mr. Evringham wondered what she was seeing with that far-away look. + +Presently she turned to him with the smile of irresistible +sweetness--Harry's smile--and a surprising fullness came in the broker's +throat. "Father's just splendid," she finished. + +Her grandfather was not wholly pleased with the verdict. He had gained a +taste for incense himself. + +"He has been at home over six months, I believe," he returned. + +"Yes, all winter; and we have more _fun_!" + +"Your father is not a Christian Scientist, I presume," remarked Mr. +Evringham. + +"Oh yes, he's learning to be. Of course he goes to church--" + +"He does, eh?" put in the broker, surprised. + +"Of course; and he studies the lesson with us every day. He had been +sorry so much and so long, you know, mother said he was all ready; and +beside--beside"--Jewel hesitated and became silent. + +"Beside what?" + +She began very softly and half reluctantly. "Father had a sickness two +or three times when he first came home, and he was healed, and so he was +very grateful and wanted to know about God." + +"H'm. I'm glad he was. I hope he will make your mother very happy after +this." + +"He does." The child lost her seriousness and laughed reminiscently. +"Father and I have the _best_ times. Mothers says he's younger than I +am." + +"You miss him, eh?" Mr. Evringham half frowned into the fresh little +face. + +"Oh yes, I do," with a sigh, "but it would be error to be sorry when I +could come to see you, grandpa." + +Mr. Evringham cogitated a minute on the probable loneliness of the last +three days, and began to wonder what this philosophy could be which +gave practical help to a child of eight years. He was still holding the +letter to Dr. Ballard in his hand. + +"I think I'll let you direct this yourself, Jewel," he said. He rose and +brought the morocco cushion to his desk chair. "Sit up here and I will +tell you the address." + +She obeyed, and Mr. Evringham watched the little fingers clenched around +the pen as she strove to resist its tendency to write down hill on the +envelope. + +"And you're quite sure that more money will be forthcoming when yours is +gone, eh?" he asked when the feat was accomplished. + +"Oh yes; if I need it." + +"How will it come, for instance?" + +She looked up quickly. "I don't need to know that," she replied. + +Mr. Evringham bit his lip. "That's unanswerable," he thought, "and +rather neat." + +At this moment a knock sounded at the library door, and a moment +afterward Mrs. Forbes presented herself. + +"Excuse me, Mr. Evringham. I'm afraid Julia has been in your way, +staying so long." + +"No, Mrs. Forbes, thank you," he returned. "She had a letter to write, +and I have been reading." + +"Very well. It is her bedtime now." The housekeeper's tone was +inexorable, and Jewel lifted her shoulders as she glanced up at her +grandfather, and again he found himself taken into a confidence which +excluded his excellent housekeeper. "It is better for us to yield," said +Jewel's shoulders and mute lips. Before Mr. Evringham could suspect her +intention, she had jumped up on the cushion nimbly as a squirrel, and +hugging him in a business-like manner, kissed him twice. + +"Good-night, grandpa." + +"Good-night, Jewel," he returned, going to the length of patting her +shoulder. + +She jumped down and ran to Mrs. Forbes. "You needn't come with me, you +know," she said, holding up her face. Mrs. Forbes hesitated a moment. +She had not as yet recovered from this latest liberty taken with the +head of the house. + +"Let me feel of your hands, Julia." She took them in hers and touched +the child's cheeks and forehead as well. "You seem to feel all right, do +you?" + +"Yes'm." + +"No soreness or pain anywhere?" + +"No'm. Good-night, Mrs. Forbes." + +The housekeeper stooped from her height and accepted the offered kiss. + +"Do you prefer to go alone, Jewel? Isn't it lonely for you?" asked Mr. +Evringham. + +"No--o, grandpa! Anna Belle is up there." + +"You're not afraid of the dark then?" + +Jewel looked at the speaker, uncertain of his seriousness. He seemed in +earnest, however. "The dark is easy to drive away in this house," she +replied. "It is so interesting, just like a treatment. The room seems +full of darkness, error, and I just turn the switch," she illustrated +with thumb and finger in the air, "and suddenly--there isn't any +darkness! It's all bright and happy, just like me to-day!" + +"Indeed!" returned Mr. Evringham, standing with his feet apart and his +arms folded. "Is that what the lady in Chicago did for you to-day?" + +"Yes, grandpa," Jewel nodded eagerly. She was so glad to have him +understand. "She just turned the light, Truth, right into me." + +"She prayed to the Creator to cure you, you mean." + +Jewel looked off. "No, not that," she answered slowly, searching for +words to make her meaning plain. "God doesn't have to be begged to do +anything, because He can't change, He is always the same, and always +perfect, and always giving us everything good, and it's only for us--not +to believe--in the things that seem to get in the way. I was believing +there was something in the way, and that lady knew there wasn't, and +she knew it so _well_ that the old dark fever couldn't stay. Nothing can +stay that God doesn't make--not any longer than we let it cheat us." + +"And she was a thousand miles away," remarked Mr. Evringham. + +"Why, grandpa," returned Jewel, "there isn't any space in Spirit." She +gave a little sigh. "I'm real sorry you're too big to be let into the +Christian Science Sunday-School." + +Mrs. Forbes lips fell apart. + +"One moment more, Jewel," said Mr. Evringham. "Mrs. Forbes was telling +me of the gentleman who spoke to you on the trolley car yesterday." + +"Oh yes," returned the child, smiling at the pleasing memory. "The +Christian Scientist!" + +"What makes you think he is a Christian Scientist?" asked Mr. Evringham. + +"I know he was. He had on the pin." Jewel showed the one she wore, and +her grandfather examined the little cross and crown curiously. + +"I wonder if it's possible," he soliloquized aloud. + +"Oh yes, grandpa, he is one, and if he's a friend of yours he can +explain to you so much better than a little girl can." + +After the child had left the room Mr. Evringham and his housekeeper +stood regarding one another. His usually unsmiling countenance was +relaxed. Mrs. Forbes observed his novel expression, but did not suspect +that the light twinkling in his deep-set eyes was partly due to the +sight of her own pent-up emotion. + +He hooked one thumb in his vest and balanced his eyeglasses in his other +hand. + +"Well, what do you think of her?" he inquired. + +"I think, sir," returned the housekeeper emphatically, "that if anybody +bought that child for a fool he wouldn't get his money's worth." + +"Even though she is a Scientist?" added Mr. Evringham, his mustache +curving in a smile. + +"She's too smart for me. I don't like children to be so smart. The idea +of her setting up to teach you Mr. Evringham!" + +"That shouldn't be so surprising. I read a long time ago something about +certain things being concealed from the wise and prudent and revealed +unto babes." + +"Babes!" repeated Mrs. Forbes. "We've been the babes. If that young one +can lie in bed with a fever, and wind every one of us around her finger +the way she's done to-day, what can we expect when she's up and around?" + +The broker laughed. "She's an Evringham, an Evringham!" he said. + +"You may laugh, sir, but what do you think of her wheedling me into +sending Zeke up, and then getting him off on the sly with that telegram? +I faced him down with it to-night, and Zeke isn't any good at fibbing." + +"I'll be hanged if I don't think it was a pretty good thing for me," +rejoined Mr. Evringham, "and money in my pocket. It looked as if I was +in for Ballard for a matter of weeks." + +"But the--the--the audacity of it!" protested Mrs. Forbes. "What do you +think she said after you and Dr. Ballard had done downstairs? I tried to +bring her to a sense of what she'd done, and all she answered was that +she had known that God would deliver her out of the snare of the fowler. +Now I should like to ask you, Mr. Evringham," added Mrs. Forbes in an +access of outraged virtue, "which of us three do you think she called +the fowler?" + +"Give it up, I'm sure," returned the broker; "but I can imagine that we +seemed three pretty determined giants for one small girl to outwit." + +"She'd outwit a regiment, sir; and I don't see how you can permit it." + +Mr. Evringham endeavored to compose his countenance. "We must allow her +religious liberty, I suppose, Mrs. Forbes. It's a matter of religion +with her--that is, we must allow it as long as she keeps well. If +Ballard had found her worse to-night, I assure you I should have +consigned all Christian Scientists to the bottom of the sea, and that +little zealot would have taken her medicine from my own hand. All's well +that ends well, eh?" + +Mrs. Forbes had caught sight of the incongruous adornment of her +employer's desk. + +With majestic strides she advanced upon the yellow chicken and swept it +into her apron. "Julia must be taught not to litter your room, sir." + +"I beg your pardon," returned the broker firmly, also advancing and +holding out his hand. "That is my chicken." + +Slowly Mrs. Forbes restored the confiscated property, and Mr. Evringham +examined it carefully to see that it was intact, and then set it +carefully on his desk. + +Mrs. Forbes recalled the confectioner's window. "She must have bought +that chicken when my back was turned!" she thought. "That young one +could have given points to Napoleon." + + + +CHAPTER XV + +A RAINY MORNING + +The next morning it rained so heavily that Mr. Evringham was obliged to +forego his ride. Wet weather was an unmixed ill to him. It not only +made riding and golf miserable, but it reminded him that rheumatism was +getting a grip on one of his shoulders. + +"It is disgusting, perfectly disgusting to grow old," he muttered as he +descended the broad staircase. On the lower landing Jewel rose up out +of the dusk, where she had been sitting near the beautiful clock. Her +bright little face shone up at him like a sunbeam. + +"You didn't expect to see me, grandpa, did you?" she asked, and as it +did not even occur to him to stoop his head to her, she seized his hand +and kissed it as they went on down the stairs. + +"I was so disappointed because it rained so hard. I was going to see you +ride." + +"Yes. Beastly weather," assented Mr. Evringham. + +"But the flowers and trees want a drink, don't they?" + +"'M. I suppose so." + +"And the brook will be prettier than ever." + +"'M. See that you keep out of it." + +"Yes, I will, grandpa; and I thought the first thing this morning, I'll +wear my rubbers all day. I was so afraid I might forget I put them right +on to make sure." + +They had reached the hall, and Jewel exhibited her feet encased in the +roomy storm rubbers. + +"Great Scott, child!" ejaculated Mr. Evringham, viewing the shiny +overshoes. "What size are your feet?" + +"I don't know," returned the little girl, "but I only have to scuff +some, and then they'll stay on. Mrs. Forbes said I'd grow to them." + +"So you will, I should think, if you're going to wear them in the house +as well as out." It was against Mr. Evringham's principles to smile +before breakfast, at all events at any one except Essex Maid; but the +large, shiny overshoes that looked like overgrown beetles, and Jewel's +optimistic determination to make him happy, even offset his painful arm. + +"The house doesn't leak anywhere," he said. "I think it will be safe for +you to take them off until after breakfast." + +Jewel lifted her shoulders and looked up at him with the glance he knew. + +"Unless we're going out to the stable," she said suggestively. + +He hesitated a moment. "Very well," he returned. "Let us go to the +stable." + +"But first we must tie the ribbons," she said with a joyous chuckle. +She would have skipped but for the rubbers. As it was, she proceeded +circumspectly to the library, drawing the broker by the hand. "I want +you to see, grandpa, if you don't think I made my parting real straight +this morning," she said as she softly closed the door. + +"Gently on my arm, Jewel," he remonstrated, wincing as she returned, +flinging her energetic little body against him. "I have the rheumatism +like the devil--pardon me." + +She looked at him suddenly, wondering and wistful. "Oh, have you?" she +returned sympathetically. "But it is only like the devil, grandpa," she +added hopefully, "and you know there isn't any devil." + +"I can't discuss theology before breakfast," he returned briefly. + +"Dear grandpa, you shan't have a single pain!" She held her head back +and looked at him lovingly. + +"Very likely not, when I've begun playing the harp. Now where are those +con--those ribbons?" + +Jewel's eyes and lips grew suddenly serious and doubtful, and he +observed the change. + +"Yes, your hair ribbons, you know," he added hastily and with an attempt +at geniality. + +"Not if you don't like to, grandpa." + +"I love to," he protested. "I've been looking forward to it all the +morning. I thought 'never mind if I can't go riding, I can tie Jewel's +hair ribbons.'" + +The child laughed a little, even though her companion did not. "Oh +grandpa, you're such a joker," she said; "just like father." + +But he saw that she doubted his mood, and the toe of one of the +overshoes was boring into the carpet as she stood where she had +withdrawn from him. + +"Let us see if you parted your hair better," he said in a different and +gentler tone, and instantly the flaxen head was bent before him, and +Jewel felt in her pocket for the ribbons. He had not the heart to say +what he thought; namely, that her parting looked as though a saw had +been substituted for a comb. + +"Very well, very well," he said kindly. + +When the ribbons were at last tied, the two proceeded to the +dining-room. Here an open fire of logs furnished the cheerful light that +was lacking outside. The morning paper hung over the back of a chair, +warming before the blaze. + +Mrs. Forbes entered from the butler's pantry and looked surprised. +"I didn't expect you down for half an hour yet, sir. Shall I hurry +breakfast?" + +"No; I'm going to take Jewel to the stable." Mr. Evringham stopped and +took a few lumps of sugar from the bowl. + +"Julia, where are your rubbers?" asked the housekeeper. + +"On," said the child, lifting her foot. + +"I only hope they'll stay there," remarked her grandfather. "I think, +Mrs. Forbes, you must buy shoes as I've heard that Chinamen do,--the +largest they can get for the money." + +He disappeared with his happy little companion, and the housekeeper +looked after them disapprovingly. + +"They're both going out bareheaded," she mused. "I'd like to bet--I +would bet anything that she asked him to take her. He never even stopped +to look at the paper. He's just putty in her hands, that's what he is, +putty; and she's been here three days." + +Mr. Evringham's apprehensions proved to have foundation. Halfway to +the barn Jewel stepped in a bit of sticky mud and left one rubber. Her +companion did not stop to let her get it, but picking her up under his +well arm, strode on to the barn, where they appeared to the astonished +Zeke. + +Jewel was laughing in high glee. She was used to being caught up in a +strong arm and run with. + +Mr. Evringham shook the drops from his head. "Get Jewel's rubber please, +Zeke," he said, pointing with his thumb over his shoulder. + +"I was Cinderella," cried the child gayly. "That's my glass slipper out +there in the mud." + +Zeke would have liked to joke with her, but that was an impossibility in +the august presence. He cast a curious glance at the little girl as +he left the barn. He had received his mother's version of yesterday's +experience. "Well, it looks to me as if there was something +those Christian Science folks know that the rest of us don't," he +soliloquized. "I saw her with my own eyes, and felt her with my own +hands. Mother says children get up from anything twice as quick as grown +folks, but I don't know." + +"Don't you love a stable, grandpa?" exclaimed Jewel. "Oh, I'm too happy +to scuff," and she kicked off the other rubber. Even while she spoke +Essex Maid looked around and whinnied at sight of her master. + +"She knows you, she knows you," cried the little girl joyously, hopping +up and down. + +"Of course," said Mr. Evringham, holding out his hand to the delighted +child and leading her into the stall. The mare rubbed her nose against +him. "We couldn't get out this morning, eh, girl?" said the broker, +caressing her neck, while Jewel smoothed the bright coat as high as she +could reach. Her grandfather lifted her in his arms. "Here, my maid, +here's a new friend for you. In my pocket, Jewel." + +The child took out the lumps of sugar one by one, and Essex Maid ate +them from the little hand, touching it gently with her velvet lips. Zeke +came in and whistled softly as he glanced at the group in the stall. + +"Whew," he mused. "He's letting her feed the Maid. I guess she can put +her shoes in _his_ trunk all right." + +Mr. Evringham set Jewel on the mare's back and she smoothed the bright +mane and patted the beautiful creature. + +"I'd like to gallop off now over the whole country," she said, her face +glowing. + +"I shouldn't be surprised either if you could do it bareback," returned +Mr. Evringham; "but you must never come into either of the stalls +without me. You understand, do you?" + +"Yes, grandpa. I'm glad you told me though, because I guess I should +have." The child gave a quick, unconscious sigh. + +"Well we'd better go in now." + +"How kind you are to me," said the child gratefully, as she slid off the +horse's back with her arms around her grandfather's neck. + +He had forgotten his rheumatic shoulder for the time. + +"You can bring those rubbers in later," he said to Zeke, and so carried +Jewel out of the barn, through the rain, and into the house. + +Mrs. Forbes watched the entrance. "Breakfast is served, sir," she said +with dignity. She thought her employer should have worn a hat. + +Jewel was not offered eggs this morning. Instead she had, after her +fruit and oatmeal, a slice of ham and a baked potato. + +Her roses were fresh this morning and opening in the warmth of the fire, +but Mr. Evringham's eyes were caught by a mass of American Beauties +which stood in an alcove close to the window. + +"Where did those come from?" he demanded. + +"They belong to Miss Eloise," replied Mrs. Forbes. "She asked me to take +care of them for her." + +"Humph! Ballard again, I suppose," remarked the broker. + +"I hope so," responded Mrs. Forbes devoutly. + +Mr. Evringham had spoken to himself, and he glanced up from his paper, +surprised by the prompt fervor of the reply. The housekeeper looked +non-committal, but her meaning dawned upon him, and he smiled slightly +as he returned to the news of the day. + +"Dr. Ballard must love Cousin Eloise very much," said Jewel, mashing her +potato. "He sent her a splendid box of candy, too." + +She addressed her remark to Mrs. Forbes, and in a low tone, in order not +to disturb her grandfather's reading. + +"Any girl can get candy and flowers and love, if she's only pretty +enough," returned Mrs. Forbes; "but she mustn't forget to be pretty." + +The speaker's tone appealed to Jewel as signifying a grievance. She +looked up. + +"Why, somebody married you, Mrs. Forbes," she said kindly. + +Mr. Evringham's paper hid a face which suddenly contorted, but the +housekeeper's quick-glancing eyes could not see a telltale motion. + +She gave a hard little laugh. "You think there's hope for you then, do +you?" she returned. + +"I guess I'm not going to be married," replied Jewel. "Father says I'm +going to be his bachelor maid when I grow up." + +"Shouldn't wonder if you were," said Mrs. Forbes dryly. + +The owner of the American Beauties and the beribboned bonbon box was +taking her coffee as usual in bed. This luxurious habit had never been +hers until she came to Bel-Air; but it was her mother's custom, and +rather than undergo a tete-a-tete breakfast with her host, she had +adopted it. + +Now she had made her toilet deliberately. There was nothing to hurry +for. Her mother's voice came in detached sentences and questions from +the next room. + +"Dear me, this rain is too trying, Eloise! Didn't you have some +engagement with Dr. Ballard to-day?" + +"He thought he could get off for some golf this afternoon." + +"What a disappointment for the dear fellow," feelingly. "He has so +little time to himself!" + +Eloise gave a most unsympathetic laugh. "More than he wishes he had, I +fancy," she returned. + +She came finally in her white negligee into her mother's room. Mrs. +Evringham was still in bed. Her eyeglasses were on and she regarded her +daughter critically as she came in sight. She had begun to look upon her +as mistress of the fine old Ballard place on Mountain Avenue, and +the setting was very much to her mind. The girl sauntered over to the +window, and taking a low seat, leaned her head against the woodwork, +embowered in the lace curtains. + +"How it does come down!" said Mrs. Evringham fretfully. "And I lack +just a little of that lace braid, or I could finish your yoke. I suppose +Forbes would think it was a dreadful thing if I asked her to let Zeke +get it for me." + +"Don't ask anything," returned Eloise. + +"When you are in your own home!" sighed Mrs. Evringham. + +"Don't, mother. It's indecent!" + +"If you would only reassure me, my child, so I wouldn't have to undergo +such moments of anxiety as I do." + +"Oh, you have no mercy!" exclaimed the girl; and when she used that tone +her mother usually became tearful. She did now. + +"You act as if you weren't a perfect treasure, Eloise--as if I didn't +consider you a treasure for a prince of the realm!" + +A knock at the door heralded Sarah's arrival for the tray, and Mrs. +Evringham hastily wiped her eyes. + +"Yes, you can take the things," she said as the maid approached. "I +can't tip you as I should, Sarah. I'm going to get you something pretty +the next time I go to New York." + +Sarah had heard this before. + +"And if you know of any one going to the village this morning, I want a +piece of lace braid. Have you heard how Miss Julia is?" + +"She was down at breakfast, ma'am, and Mr. Evringham had her out to the +stable to see Essex Maid." + +"He did? In the rain? How very imprudent!" + +After Sarah had departed with her burden, Mrs. Evringham took off her +eyeglasses. + +"There, Eloise, you heard that? It's just as I thought. He is taking a +fancy to her." + +The girl smiled without turning her head. "Oh no, that wasn't your +prophecy, mother. You said she was too plain to have a chance with our +fastidious host." + +"Well, didn't she look forlorn last night at the dinner table?" demanded +Mrs. Evringham, a challenge in her voice. + +"Indeed she did, the poor baby. She looked exactly as if she had two +female relatives in the house, neither of whom would lift a finger to +help her, even though she was just off a sick bed. The same relatives +don't know this minute how or where she spent the evening." + +"I felt very glad she was content somewhere away from the drawing-room," +returned Mrs. Evringham practically. "You know we expected Dr. Ballard +up to the moment the roses arrived, and from all I gathered at the +dinner table, it would have been awkward enough for him to walk in upon +that child. Besides, I don't see why you use that tone with me. It has +been your own choice to let her paddle her own canoe, and you've had an +object lesson now that I hope you won't forget. You wouldn't believe me +when I begged you to exert yourself for your grandfather, and now you +see even that plain little thing could get on with him just because she +dared take him by storm. She has about everything in her disfavor. The +child of a common working woman, with no beauty, and a little crank of +a Christian Scientist into the bargain, and yet now see! He took her +out to the stable to see Essex Maid! I never knew you contradictory and +disagreeable until lately, Eloise. You even act like a stick with Dr. +Ballard just to be perverse." Mrs. Evringham flounced over in bed, with +her back to the white negligee. + +Eloise had seen what she had been watching for. Her grandfather had +driven away to the station, so she arose and came over to the foot of +the bed. + +"I know I'm irritable, mother," she said repentantly. "The idleness and +uselessness of my life have grated on me until I know I'm not fit to +live with. If I had had any of the training of a society girl, I could +bear it better; but papa kept my head full of school,--for which I bless +him,--and now that the dream of college is hopeless, and that the +only profession you wish for me is marriage, I dread to wake up in the +mornings." + +The young voice was unsteady. + +Mrs. Evringham heaved a long sigh. "Give me patience!" she murmured, +then added mentally, "It can't be many days, and she won't refuse him." + +"Go down to the piano and play yourself good-natured," she returned. +"Then come up and we'll go on with that charming story. It quite +refreshed me to read of that coming-out ball. It was so like my own." + +Eloise, her lips set in a sad curve, rose and left the room. Once in the +hall, she paused for a minute. Then instead of descending the stairs, +she ran noiselessly up the next flight. The rain was pelting steadily +on the dome of golden glass through which light fell to the halls. She +stole, as she had done yesterday, to the door of Jewel's room. + +Again as yesterday she heard a voice, but this time it was singing. The +tones were very sweet, surprisingly strong and firm to proceed from lips +which always spoke so gently. The door was not quite closed, and Eloise +pressed her ear to the crack. Thus she could easily hear the words of +Jewel's song:-- + + "And o'er the earth's troubled, angry sea + I see Christ walk; + And come to me, and tenderly, + Divinely, talk." + +The hymn stopped for a minute, and the child appeared to be conversing +with some one. + +Eloise waited, openly, eagerly listening, hoping the singer would +resume. Something in those unexpected words in the sweet child voice +stirred her. Presently Jewel sang on:-- + + "From tired joy, and grief afar, + And nearer Thee, + Father, where Thine own children are + I love to be!" + +The lump that rose in the listener's throat forced a moisture into her +eyes. + +"I never could hear a child sing without crying," she said to herself in +excuse, as she leaned her forehead on her hand against the jamb of the +door and waited for the strange stir at her heart to quiet. + +The house was still. The rain swept against the panes, and tears stole +from under the girl's long lashes--tears for her empty, vapid life, for +the hopelessness of the future, for the humiliations of the present, for +the lack of a love that should be without self-interest. + +"I like that verse, Anna Belle," said the voice within. "Let's sing that +again," and the hymn welled forth:-- + + "From tired joy, and grief afar, + And nearer Thee, + Father, where Thine own children are + I love to be!" + +"Is there a haven?" thought the swelling, listening heart outside. "Is +there a place far alike from tired joy and grief?" + +"'Father, where Thine own children are,'" quoted Jewel. "We know where +a lot of them are, don't we, Anna Belle, and we do love to be with +them." A pause, and a light sigh, which did not reach the listener. "But +we're at grandpa's now," finished the child's voice. + +Eloise's breaths came long and deep drawn, and she stood motionless, her +eyes hidden. + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE FIRST LESSON + +Jewel looked up as she heard a knock. Sarah had made the bed and gone. +Who could this be? + +At her "Come in," Eloise entered the room. The child's face brightened +questioningly. She rose and gazed at the enchanted maiden, very lovely +in the wrapper of white silk, open at the throat, and with little +billows of lace cascading down to the toes of her white Turkish +slippers. + +"Good-morning, cousin Eloise," said the child, waiting for the message +or order which she supposed to be forthcoming. + +"Good-morning." The girl cast a comprehensive glance around the rather +bare room. Her eyes bore no traces of the tears so recently shed, but +her face was sad. "I heard you singing," she said. + +"Yes. Did I disturb anybody?" asked the child quickly. + +"No. It is nice to be like the birds that sing in the rain." + +"Like the robin out there," returned Jewel, relieved. "Did you hear +him?" She ran to the window and threw it open, listening a minute. "No, +he has gone." + +"You said you would show me your doll," went on Eloise when the window +was closed again. + +"Oh," returned Jewel pleased, "did you come to see Anna Belle? She's +right here. We were just going to have the lesson." She took the doll +from the depths of a big chair and held her up with motherly pride. +"Would you--won't you sit down a minute?" + +To her great satisfaction, her beautiful visitor condescended to take +the chair Anna Belle had vacated, and held out her white, ringless hands +for the doll. + +"How neatly her clothes are made," said the girl, examining Anna Belle's +garments. + +"Yes, my mother made her all new ones when she knew she was going to +Europe, so that she would be neat and not mortify me. Would you like to +see her clothes?" eagerly. + +"Yes, I should." + +Jewel brought them, her quick little fingers turning them back and +forth, exhibiting the tiny buttonholes and buttons, and chattering +explanations of their good points. + +"It was a great deal for your mother to do all this, when she is such a +busy woman," said Eloise. + +"Yes, she did it evenings, and then surprised me just when we were +coming away. Wasn't it lovely?" + +"Very." + +"I love prettiness," said the child. As she spoke she regarded the grave +face beside her. "When I first noticed that my nose wasn't nice, and +neither were my eyes, I almost cried." + +Eloise looked up at her, at a loss for a reply. + +"But then I remembered that of course God never made anything that +wasn't perfectly beautiful, so I knew that it would come right some +time, and I asked mother when she thought it would." + +"What did she say?" returned Eloise, wondering at this original +optimism. + +"She said we could never tell how soon anything would come right to our +sense, but so long as we knew that Creation was perfect and beautiful, +we could be patient about everything--big things and little things; and +then I remember how she talked to me about being careful never to pity +myself." Jewel gave her head a little serious shake. "You know it's very +bad error to pity yourself, no matter what kind of a nose you have." + +Eloise had sunk back in the large chair and was attentively watching +the child standing beside her, while she still held Anna Belle. She had +never before held converse with a Christian Scientist, but her state of +mind precluded the perception of a humorous side to anything. + +"Wrong to pity yourself no matter what happens?" she asked. + +"Yes--because--because--" Jewel looked off. She knew that it was error, +but it was hard to explain why to the lovely grown-up cousin who was so +strangely sorry. "Well, you see," she added after the moment's thought, +"it isn't having faith in God, it isn't knowing that you're His child, +and that He takes care of you." + +"No, I suppose not; but I have never learned how to know that, Jewel." + +"I know you haven't," returned the little girl, and she slipped her hand +toward her cousin's. The girl met it halfway and held it close. "Since +I've seen you," Jewel went on slowly, "I know that prettiness isn't +enough to make a person happy--nor all your lovely clothes--nor having +people fond of you and sending you presents--nor making the sweetest +music; but you can be happy, cousin Eloise, unless you're doing wrong." + +"I am doing wrong, but I can't help it." The girl took her supporting +hand from the doll and pressed it to her eyes a second before dropping +it. "What were you doing when I came in?" + +"I was just going to get the lesson." + +"Oh, do you go on with your studies? Perhaps I can help you better than +Anna Belle." + +"Would you cousin Eloise?" Jewel flushed with pleasure. "Some of the +words are so long. I thought I'd ask grandpa to-night." + +"Why didn't you wish to come to me?" questioned Eloise, well knowing +why. + +The little girl looked a trifle embarrassed. "I didn't want to trouble +you. Of course you aren't my real relations," she said modestly. + +"Do you remember that, too!" exclaimed Eloise. + +Jewel started at the hurt voice. "Would you like to be?" she asked +earnestly. "I wish you were, because"--she hesitated and smiled with her +head a little on the side, "because I might look more like you." + +The gravity of Eloise's lips remained unbroken. "I want you to promise +me something, Jewel. I want you to promise not to tell your grandfather +that I have been with you to-day." + +"Why? He'd be glad I was happy." + +"I have a reason. I will help you with your studies every day if you +won't tell him." + +"I might without meaning to," rejoined the child, her alert little mind +busy with the new problem suddenly presented to it. + +"I will make a rainbow scarf for Anna Belle if you will never speak of +me to your grandfather." + +"Why do you say my grandfather? He's yours, too." + +"Not at all. Didn't you just say I was not your real relation?" + +"Oh but, cousin Eloise," Jewel was sure of the hurt now, though the why +or wherefore was a mystery, "of course he wishes you were." + +"Oh no he doesn't." The answer came quick and sharp, and the child +reviewed mentally her own observations of the household. Her heart +swelled with the desire to help. + +"Now, cousin Eloise," her breath came a little faster with the thronging +thoughts for which her vocabulary was insufficient, "error does try +to cheat people so. Just think how kind you were inside all the time, +though you wouldn't smile at me. You're willing to make Anna Belle a +scarf. I called you the enchanted maiden, because you were too sorry +to try to make people happy, and now grandpa's just like that; he's +enchanted, too, if he doesn't make you happy, because he's just as +_kind_ inside, oh, just as _kind_ as he can be." + +"He likes you," returned Eloise. + +Jewel regarded her for a silent moment. "I noticed when I came," she +said at last, apologetically, "that nobody here seemed to love one +another; and the house was so grand and the people were so beautiful +that I couldn't understand; and I called it Castle Discord." + +Eloise gave a little exclamation. "I call it the icebox," she returned. + +Jewel's face lighted. "That's it, that's all it is," she said eagerly. +"It's easy to melt ice. Love melts everything." + +"It's pretty slow work sometimes," said Eloise. + +"Then you have to put on more love. That's all. Have you"--the child +asked the question a little timidly, "have you put on much love to +grandpa?" + +"Why should I love him?" asked Eloise. "He doesn't love me." + +"Oh dear," said Jewel. After a minute's thought her face brightened. "I +guess I'll show you my dotted letter." + +She ran to the closet where hung her dotted challie dress and took from +the pocket the message that had come to her the evening of her arrival. +"My mother put a letter into all my pockets for a happy surprise; and +this one came the first night, when I was feeling all sorry and alone, +and it comforted me. Perhaps it will comfort you." + +She put the paper into the girl's hand, and Eloise read it. She turned +it over and read it a second time. + +Jewel stood beside her chair watching, and seeing that her cousin seemed +interested, she ran and brought her little wrapper. "Perhaps you'd like +to see this one too," she said feeling in the pocket for the second +message. + +Eloise accepted and read it. Every word of the two notes came to the +mind of the young girl as suggestions from another planet, so foreign +were they to any instruction or advice that had ever fallen to her lot. + +She gave a slight exclamation as she finished. "Is your mother a saint?" +she asked, looking up suddenly. + +"No," returned Jewel innocently. "She's a Christian Scientist." + +Eloise suddenly put out her hand, and drawing Jewel to her, hid her +forehead on the child's breast. + +"I wish you were older," she said. + +Jewel put her little hands on the shining waves of hair she had admired +from afar. "I wish my mother was here," she answered. "Did you like +those things mother said?" + +"Oh yes; but they're from heaven, and I'm in the other place," replied +Eloise disconsolately. + +"Then let's look in another pocket!" exclaimed Jewel. "I'll look in my +best dress. Perhaps she'd put the best one there." + +The girl lifted her head, and the child went eagerly to the closet, +coming back with a folded paper. "We'll read it together. You read it +out loud, and I'll look over your shoulder." + +The rain slanted against the window in gusts as the two heads bent above +the paper. Eloise read:-- + +"Mother is thinking of you, little daughter, every day and every night, +and the thing she hopes the most is, that you never let the day go +by without studying the lesson. The words may be hard sometimes, but +perhaps some one will read it with you, and if they do not, then you go +on trying your best, and you will learn more and more all the time; for +truth will shine into your thought and help you. Grandpa will give +you plenty of bread and butter, but you must remember that Spirit, +not matter, satisfieth. You would starve without the Bible and the +text-book, and very soon the joy would go out of everything. Give my +love to Anna Belle, and tell her not to go out to play any day until you +have read the lesson." + +"Your mother speaks as if you learned Christian Science out of the +Bible," said Eloise. + +"Of course," returned Jewel. + +"I thought a woman got it up," said the girl. "I thought your church +worshipped her." + +The child smiled at the phrase. "You know Christ was the first one. +That's why we call ourselves that. We couldn't be Christian Scientists +if we worshipped any one but God," she answered. "Of course we love Mrs. +Eddy. Just think how good and unselfish a person has to be before they +can hear God's teaching. He showed her how to remind people of the +things that Christ taught, and how to get rid of their sins and +sickness. We love her dearly for helping people so much, and shouldn't +you think everybody would? But they don't. Some people think hating +thoughts about her, just as if she was teaching bad things instead of +good ones. Mother says it reminds her of what the Saviour said, 'For +which of these works do ye stone me?'" + +"Ah, but you see," returned Eloise, "Christian Scientists let people die +sometimes without a doctor." + +"But lots of people they do cure are the ones doctors said would have to +die." + +"I know they claim that." + +"And such a lot of people pass on while doctors are taking care of them +I wonder why it makes everybody so angry when a Scientist goes without +any." + +Eloise smiled faintly as she shook her head. "It is more respectable to +die with a doctor at your side," she returned. + +"Are you really willing to help me with the lesson, cousin Eloise? If +you are, it would be nice if you would get your Bible too." + +The girl looked embarrassed. "I haven't any." + +"Well, your mother's would do just as well," said Jewel politely. + +"She hasn't any--here, I'm sure." + +The little girl stood very still a moment. "No wonder they're sorry," +she thought. + +"All right. We can both look over one," she answered, and going to the +dresser she brought her books. + +"Was this the study you meant?" asked Eloise, looking at the three books +curiously. "I thought I was offering to help you with something I knew +about. I used to learn verses out of the Bible when I was a little girl +in Sunday-school. I don't know anything about it now." + +"But you can read everything, the big words and all," replied Jewel. "I +wish I could." + +Eloise saw that this reply was designed to minister to her self-respect. +She took up the small black book lying with the Bible. "What is this?" + +"That is 'Science and Health,' that Mrs. Eddy wrote to explain to us +what the Bible means; and this other one is to tell us where to pick out +the places for the day's lesson." Jewel pulled up a chair, and seating +herself, turned over the leaves of the Quarterly briskly until she found +the right date. + +"Please find Zechariah, cousin Eloise." + +"What's that?" asked the girl helplessly. + +"It's in the Old Testament. Would you rather I'd find them? All right, +then you can take 'Science and Health' and find that part." + +"I hope it's easy, for I'm awfully stupid, Jewel." + +"Oh, it's very easy. You'll see." The child found the chapter and verse +in the Bible and read, with her finger on the line. Eloise looked over +and read with her. Thus they went through all the verses for the day, +then Jewel began to give the page and line to be read in the text-book. + +This volume was small and agreeable to handle, the India paper pleasant +to the girl's dainty touch. According to the child's request, she read +aloud the lines which were called for. + +"That's all," said Jewel at last. "Oh cousin Eloise, it's just lovely +and easy to get the lesson with you," she added gratefully. + +Eloise made no response. Her eye had been caught by a statement on the +page before her, and she read on in silence. + +Jewel waited a minute and then, seeing that her cousin was absorbed, she +laid down the Quarterly and took up her doll and sat still, watching the +pretty profile, undisturbed by doubts as to what her cousin might think +of the book she held, and full of utter confidence that He who healeth +all our diseases would minister to her through its pages. + +At last Eloise again became conscious of her surroundings. She turned to +her companion, a skeptical comment on her lips, but she suppressed +the words at sight of the innocent, expectant face. She certainly had +nothing to give this child better than what she already possessed. + +"You can read it any time when you feel sorry, cousin Eloise, that and +my Bible too. Mother always does." + +"Does she ever feel sorry?" + +"Sometimes; but it can't last where the Bible is." + +"I never saw that the Bible had anything to do with us," said Eloise. + +"Why--ee!" Jewel suddenly dropped Anna Belle and again took up the +Bible. + +"What do you think I opened to?" holding the verse with her finger as +she looked up. Then she read, "'If ye love them that love you what thank +have ye?' Now isn't that something to do with you and grandpa?" + +"I don't see how I can love people who don't choose to be lovable," +returned Eloise. "What's the use of pretending?" + +"But then," said the child, "the trouble is that everything that isn't +love is hate." + +Her visitor raised her eyebrows. "Ah! I should have to think about +that," she returned. + +"Yes, you'd better," agreed Jewel. Then she turned to the Psalms and +read the ninety-first. + +When she had finished she looked up at her cousin, an earnest +questioning in her eyes. + +"That is very beautiful," said Eloise. "I never heard it before. How +well you read it, Jewel." + +"Yes," replied the child. "It's so much easier to read things when you +know them by heart." Then she turned to the Twenty-third Psalm and read +it. + +"Yes, I've heard that one. It's beautiful of course, but I never thought +of its having anything to do with us." Eloise was watching her cousin +curiously. It seemed too strange for belief that a healthy child of her +age should be taking a vital interest in the Bible and endeavoring to +prove a position from its pages. + +When the girl finally rose to go she turned at the door:-- + +"Remember your promise not to tell grandfather about this morning," she +said. + +Jewel, hovering about her, looked troubled. + +"Would you just as lief tell me why?" she asked. + +Eloise gave the ghost of a smile. "It would be a long story, and I +scarcely think you would understand." + +"I think I could obey you better if you would tell me." + +"Very well. We, my mother and I, are not Mr. Evringham's real +relations,--to put it as you do,--and we have come here because my poor +father lost his money and we have nowhere else to go. We came without +being invited, and it hurts to have to stay where we are not wanted. I +don't wish grandfather to think that I am being kind to you, for fear he +will believe that I am doing it to make him like me better and because I +want to stay here." + +The girl spoke slowly and with great clearness. + +Jewel looked at her, speechless with surprise and perplexity. + +Eloise went on: "I don't want to stay here, you understand. I wish to go +away. I would go to-day if my mother were willing." + +Her large eyes grew dark as she closed, and the child received a sense +of the turbulence that underlay her words. + +"Thank you for explaining," she returned in an awed tone. "I wish my +mother was here; but God is, and He'll take care of you, cousin Eloise. +Mother says we don't ever need to stay in the shadow. There's always the +sunshine, only we must do our part, we must come into it." + +"How Jewel? Supposing you don't know how." + +"You can learn how," replied the child earnestly, "right in those books. +Lots of sorry people grow glad studying them." + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +JEWEL'S CORRESPONDENCE + +While Jewel still stood turning over in her mind what she had heard, +charming strains of music began coming up through the hall. Cousin +Eloise had gone to the piano. + +"I almost which I hadn't made her tell me," thought the child, "for how +can I help grandpa not to be sorry they are here? Wouldn't I be sorry +to have aunt Madge come and live with me when I never asked her to?" +She stood for some minutes wrestling with the problem, but suddenly her +expression changed. "I was forgetting!" she exclaimed. "I mustn't get +sorry too. God is All. Mortal mind can't do anything about it." She +closed her eyes, and pressing her hand to her lips, stood for a minute +in mute realization; then with a smile of relief, she took up Anna +Belle. + +"Let's go down, dearie, and hear the music," she said light heartedly. + +When the summons to luncheon sounded and Mrs. Evringham entered the +parlor, she found the child curled up in a big chair, her doll in her +lap, listening absorbedly to the last strains of a Chopin Ballade. + +"Do you like music, Julia?" she asked patronizingly, as her daughter +finished and turned about. + +"The child's name is Jewel," said Eloise. + +"Yes, aunt Madge, I love it," replied the little girl; "and I didn't +know people could play the piano the way cousin Eloise does." + +Mrs. Evringham smiled. "I suppose you've not heard much good music." + +"Yes'm, I've heard our organist in church." + +"And Jewel can make good music herself," said Eloise. "She can sing like +a little lark. I've been up in her room this morning." + +Mrs. Evringham welcomed the look on her daughter's face as she made the +statement. "Thank fortune Eloise has played herself into good humor," +she thought. + +"Indeed? I must hear her sing some time. You're playing unusually well +this morning, my dear. I wish Dr. Ballard could have heard you. Come to +luncheon." + +The three repaired to the dining-room, where Mrs. Forbes's glance +immediately noted the presence of Anna Belle. She took her from Jewel's +arms and placed her on a remote corner of the sideboard, in the middle +of which glowed the American Beauty roses. + +Mrs. Evringham approached them with solicitude. + +"They're looking finely, Mrs. Forbes," she said suavely. "You surely +understand the care of roses." She lifted the silver scissors that hung +from her chatelaine and succeeded in severing one of the long stems. + +"Here, little girl," she added, advancing to Eloise, "you need this in +your white gown to cheer us up this rainy day." + +The girl shrank and opened her lips to decline, but restrained herself +and submitted to have the flower pinned amid her laces. + +Jewel gazed at her in open admiration. The glowing color lent a +wonderful touch to the girl's beauty. Mrs. Evringham laughed low at the +fascinated look in the plain little face, and luncheon began. + +To Jewel it differed much from the ones that had preceded it. Mrs. +Forbes might hover like a large black cloud, aunt Madge might rail +at the weather which cut her off from her afternoon drive, but the +morning's experience seemed to have put the child into new relations +with all, and Eloise often gave her a friendly glance or smile as the +meal progressed. + +It was destined to a surprising interruption. In the midst of the +discussion of lamb chops and Saratoga chips the door opened, and in +walked Dr. Ballard. The shoulders of his becoming raincoat were spangled +with drops, his hat was in his hand, a deprecatory smile brightened his +face. + +"Forgive me, won't you?" he said as he advanced to Mrs. Evringham and +clasped the outstretched hand which eagerly welcomed him. "It was my one +leisure half hour to-day." + +He brought the freshness of the spring air with him, and he went on +around the table shaking hands with the others, and finally drew up a +chair beside Jewel. + +"No, I can't eat anything," he declared in response to the urging of +Mrs. Evringham and the housekeeper. "Can't stay long enough for that." + +His eyes fastened on the graceful girl opposite him, who was trying +to offset her blushes by a direct and nonchalant gaze. The rose on her +breast seemed to be scorching her cheeks. She knew that her mother was +exulting in the lucky inspiration which had made her set it there. + +"How good of you to come and cheer us!" exclaimed Mrs. Evringham. "Do +take off your coat and stay for a cosy hour. We will have some music." + +"Don't tempt me. I have an office hour awaiting me. I came principally +to see this little girl." + +Jewel had leaned back in her chair and was watching his bright face +expectantly. + +"I'm glad of it," rejoined Mrs. Evringham devoutly. "I distrust these +sudden recoveries, Dr. Ballard. Do make very sure that she hasn't one of +those lingering, treacherous fevers. I've heard of such things." + +Dr. Ballard's eyes laughed into those of his little neighbor. "She +doesn't look the part," he returned. + +Jewel gave a glance around the table. "Will you excuse me?" she said +politely, then she reached up to the doctor's ear. + +"Shall I go and get my money?" she whispered. + +He shook his head. "No," he replied in a low tone. "I came to thank you +very much for your note, and to tell you that you don't owe me anything. +I'm not usually a 'no cure, no pay' doctor. I take the money anyway, but +this time I'm going to make an exception." + +"Why?" asked Jewel, speaking aloud as long as he did. + +"Well, you see, you didn't take the medicine. That makes a difference. +Most people take it." + +"Ye--es," rejoined Jewel rather doubtfully. She was not sure of this +logic. + +"So now we're perfectly square," went on the doctor, "but don't you fall +ill again." He shook his head at her. "I want us to remain friends." + +"We'd always be friends, wouldn't we?" returned Jewel, smiling into his +laughing eyes. + +"When is our golf coming off, Miss Eloise?" he asked, looking across the +table again. + +"When the weather permits," she responded graciously. + +"I guess that's going to be all right," commented Mrs. Forbes mentally. +"She's as pretty as a painting with that rose on, and her mother looks +as contented as a cat with her paw on a mouse. She don't mean to play +with that mouse, either. She won't run any risks. She'll take it right +in. You're pretty near done for, my young feller, and your eyes look +willing, I must say." + +The spring rain proved to be a protracted storm. Mr. Evringham made his +hours long in the city. Eloise came up to Jewel's room each morning +and read the lesson with her, always reading on to herself after it was +finished. She made the child tell her of the circumstances of her recent +illness and cure, and listened to Jewel's affectionate comments on Dr. +Ballard's kindness with an inscrutable expression which did not satisfy +the child. + +"You love him, don't you?" asked the little girl. + +Eloise gave a slight smile. "If everything that isn't love is hate, I +suppose I ought to," she returned. + +"Yes, indeed," agreed Jewel; "and he has been so kind to you I don't see +how you can help it." + +The girl sighed. "Don't grow up, Jewel," she said. "It makes lots of +trouble." + +On the second one of her visits to the child's room she put her hand +on the flaxen head. "I'd like to fix your hair," she said. "Mrs. Forbes +doesn't part it nicely." + +"I do it myself," returned Jewel; "but I'd be glad to have you." + +So Eloise washed the thick flaxen locks and dried them. Then she parted +and brushed the hair, and when it was finally tied, Jewel regarded the +reflection of her smooth head with satisfaction. + +"It looks just the way mother makes it," she said. "I'm going to write +to mother and father to-night, and I'm going to tell them how kind you +are to me." + +That evening, in Mr. Evringham's library, Jewel wrote the letter. + +Her grandfather, after making some extremely uncomplimentary comments +upon the weather, had lowered his green-shaded electric light and +established himself beneath it with his book. + +He looked across at the child, who was situated as before at the table, +her crossed feet, in their spring-heeled shoes, dangling beneath. + +"May I smoke, Jewel?" he asked, as he took a cigar from the case. He +asked the question humorously, but the reply was serious. + +"Oh yes, grandpa, of course; this is your room; but you know nobody +likes tobacco naturally except a worm." + +Mr. Evringham's deep-set eyes widened. "Is it possible? Well, we're all +worms." + +Jewel smiled fondly at him, her head a little on one side, in its +characteristic attitude. + +"You're such a joker," she returned. + +"If you really dislike smoke," said the broker after a minute, "perhaps +you'd better take your letter up to your room." + +"I don't mind it," she returned. "Father used to smoke. It's only a +little while since it gave him up." + +"You mean since he gave it up." + +"No. When people study Christian Science, the error habits that they +have just go away." + +"Indeed? I'm glad you warned me." Mr. Evringham blew a delicate ring of +smoke toward the table, but Jewel had begun to think of her parents, and +her pencil was moving. Her grandfather noted the trim appearance of the +bowed head. + +"I don't know but I was cut out for a man milliner after all," he mused +complacently. "Those bows have really a very chic appearance." + +His book interested him, and he soon became absorbed in its pages. Jewel +occasionally coming to an orthographic problem looked up and waited, but +he did not observe her, so she patiently kept silence and resumed her +work. At last the letter was finished. + +She looked again at her grandfather, and opened her cramped little hand +with relief. The back of her neck was tired with her bending posture. +She leaned back in the heavy chair to rest it while she waited. The +eyelids, grown heavy with her labors, wavered and winked. The rain +dripped down the panes, as if it had fallen into a monotonous habit. The +sound was soothing. Jewel fell asleep. + +When finally Mr. Evringham glanced at her he smiled. "Little +thoroughbred," he mused; "she'd never disturb me." He rose and crossed +to the child. There lay the finished letter. He took it up with some +anticipation:-- + +DEAR MOTHER AND FATHER----It is most time to get a leter from you but I +will not wait to tell you I am happy and well. + +Grandpa is the kindest man and he has the most Beautiful horse, her name +is Essecks made. He let me sit on her back and give her Sugar. Cosin +Elloees is the prettiest one of all. She has things that make her sorry +but she is very kind to me. She washed my hare today and she helps me +get the lesson. There is a docter here he is lovly. He tried to cure me +when I had a claim but Mrs. Lewis did. Cosin Elloees reads S. and H when +we get throo the lesson and I think she will be glad Pretty soon and +not afrade Grandpa doesn't want her and Ant maj. She won't let me tell +grandpa she is kind to me, but I can Explane beter when you come home. + +Grandpa's kindness is inside, and he Looks sorry but noboddy cood help +loving him. I love you both every minnit and the leters in my pocket +help me so much. + +Your dear + +JEWEL. + + +Mr. Evringham had scarcely finished reading this epistle when Jewel's +head slipped on the polished woodwork against which she was leaning and +bumped against the side of the chair with a jar which awoke her. + +Seeing her grandfather standing near she smiled drowsily. "I fell +asleep, didn't I?" she said, and rubbed her eyes; then noting the sheet +of paper in Mr. Evringham's hand, memory returned to her. She sat up +with a start. + +"Oh, grandpa, you haven't read my letter!" she exclaimed, with an +accent of dismay which brought the blood to the broker's face. He felt a +culprit before the shocked blue eyes. + +"To--to see if it was spelled right, you know," he said. "You had me do +it before." + +"Yes, I wanted you to then," returned the child; "but it is error to +read people's letters unless they ask you to, isn't it?" + +"Yes, it's confoundedly bad form, Jewel. I beg your pardon. You didn't +mean me to see those sweet things you said about me, eh?" + +"That was no matter. It was cousin Eloise's secret. She trusted me." The +child's eyes filled with tears. + +The broker cleared his throat. "No harm done, I'm sure. No harm done," +he returned brusquely, to cover his discomfiture. For the first time he +made an advance toward his granddaughter. "Come here a minute, Jewel." +He took her hand and led her to his chair, and seating himself, +lifted her into his lap. The corners of her lips were drawing down +involuntarily, and as her head fell against his broad shoulder, he took +out his handkerchief and dried her eyes. "I hope you'll forgive me," he +said. "After this I will always wait for your permission. Now what is +this about cousin Eloise?" + +Jewel shook her head, not trusting herself to speak. + +"You can't tell me?" + +"No." + +"Then don't you think perhaps it was a good thing I read your letter +after all, if it is something I ought to know?" + +The speaker was not so interested to discover the secrets of his +beautiful guest as to set himself right with this admirer. He did not +relish falling from his pedestal. + +"Do you think perhaps Divine Love made you do it, grandpa?" asked the +child tremulously, with returning hope. + +Mr. Evringham was quite certain that it had been curiosity, but he was +willing to accept a higher sounding hypothesis. + +"Mother explained to me about God making 'the wrath of man to praise +Him,'" added Jewel after the moment's pause. "If it makes you kind to +cousin Eloise, perhaps we can be glad you read it." + +"What is the matter with Eloise?" asked Mr. Evringham. + +Jewel sat up, fixed him with her eyes, pressed her lips together, and +shook her head. + +"You won't tell me?" + +The head went on firmly shaking. + +"Then let me read the letter again." + +"No, grandpa," decidedly. + +He kept one arm around her as he smoothed his mustache. "Is there +something you think I ought to do?" + +A light seemed to illumine the eyes that the little girl kept fixed on +his, but she did not speak. + +"Do you think it discourteous for me to spend my evenings away from +those two? They don't want me, child." + +Still she did not speak. Mr. Evringham was divided between a desire to +shake her and the wish to see the familiar fondness return to her face. + +"You wrote that Eloise thinks I do not want her and her mother here. Her +intelligence is of a higher order than I feared. Well, what can be done +about it? I've been asking myself that for some time. How would it do to +settle some money upon them and then say good-by?" + +"If you did it with love," suggested Jewel. + +"It's my impression that they could dispense with the love under those +circumstances." The broker gave a slight smile. + +The child put an impulsive little hand on his shoulder. "No indeed, +grandpa. Nobody can do without love. It hurts cousin Eloise because she +isn't your real relation. She doesn't know how kind you are inside." The +child's lips closed suddenly. + +"She fixed your hair very nicely," Mr. Evringham viewed the flaxen head +critically. "That's one thing in her favor." + +"She's full of things in her favor," returned Jewel warmly. "Error's +using you, grandpa, not to love her. If we don't love people we can't be +sure anything we do to them is right." + +Mr. Evringham raised one hand and scratched his head slowly, regarding +Jewel with what she felt was intended to be a humorous air. + +"Couldn't you give me an easier one?" he asked. + +"Oh grandpa," the flaxen head nestled against his breast and the child +sighed. "I wish everybody knew how kind you are," and the broker patted +her shoulder and enjoyed the clinging pressure of her cheek, for it +assured him that again he stood firmly on the pedestal. + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +ESSEX MAID + +The rain and wind lasted for three days, clearing at last on an evening +which proved eventful. + +Mr. Evringham had taken a long ride into the country roundabout, and +Jewel had been down at the gate to greet his return. He swung her up +into the saddle with him, and in triumph she rode to the barn. + +Mrs. Evringham observed this from the window and reported to Eloise. + +"I didn't suppose father would be so indulgent to any living thing as +he is to that child," she said rather dejectedly. "Do you know, Eloise, +Mrs. Forbes says that Jewel spends every evening with him in his study." + +"Indeed? I'm not surprised. He had to take pity on her since we would +not." + +Mrs. Evringham sighed. "I really believe nobody was ever so exasperating +as you are," she returned. "When Jewel first came, if you remember, I +wished to welcome her,--in fact I did,--but you refused to be decently +civil. Now you speak as if we had made a mistake, and that it was my +fault. I wish you would let Dr. Ballard prescribe for you. I don't think +you are well." + +"He does prescribe roses and chocolates, and I take them, don't I?" + +"Yes, and after this you can have some golf. It will do you good." + +To-day was the third during which Eloise had helped her cousin with +the morning lesson and brushed and braided her hair. Jewel had had many +minds about whether to tell Eloise of her escaped secret. An intuition +bade her refrain, but the sense of dishonesty was more than the +child could bear; so that morning, during the hair braiding, she had +confessed. She began thus:-- + +"I wrote to my father and mother last night how good you were to me." + +"Did you tell them how good you were to me?" asked the girl, so kindly +that the child's heart leaped within her and she more than ever wished +that she had nothing to confess. + +"I wish I could be, cousin Eloise; I meant to be, but error crept in." +The girl was learning something of the new phraseology, and she smiled +at Jewel in the glass and was surprised to find what troubled eyes met +hers. "I went to sleep that night waiting for grandpa to be through with +his book, and when I waked up he had read my letter." + +Eloise's smile faded. "Tell me again what you said in it," she returned. + +Jewel's lips quivered. "I said how kind you were, and washed my hair, +and asked me not to tell grandpa--" + +"You put that in?" Eloise interrupted eagerly. + +The child took courage from her changed tone. "Yes; I said you didn't +want him to know you were kind to me." + +The girl smiled slightly and went on with her brushing. + +"He wished he hadn't read it when he saw how sorry I was. He asked my +pardon and said he had done bad form. I don't know what that is." + +"It's the worst thing that can happen to some people," returned Eloise. +"Good form is said to be the New York conscience." + +"Oh," responded Jewel, not understanding, but too relieved and grateful +that her cousin was not unforgiving to press the matter. + +Eloise fell into thought. Mr. Evringham had certainly been more genial +at table, conversation had been more general and sustained last evening +than ever before the advent of Jewel, and he had not sneered, either. +Eloise searched her memory for some word or look that might have given +hurt to her self-esteem, but she could find none. + +On this evening Mr. Evringham was in unusual spirits at dinner time. He +told of the pleasure of Essex Maid at finding herself free of the stable +again, and of the gallop he had taken among the hills. + +The meat course had just been removed when Sarah came in with a troubled +face, saying that Zeke wanted to see Mr. Evringham. Something was the +matter with Essex Maid. She seemed "very bad." + +The master's face changed, and he moved back from the table. The +countenances of the others showed consternation. Mrs. Forbes turned +pale. Had Zeke done anything, or left something undone? She dropped her +tray and hastened after Mr. Evringham. Eloise noticed that Jewel's +eyes were closed. In a minute the child pushed back from the table, and +without a word to the others she hurried to the scene of trouble. She +met Mrs. Forbes rushing to the kitchen for hot water. + +"Go straight into the house, Jewel," cried the housekeeper with an anger +born of her excitement. "Don't you go near that barn and get in the +way." + +The child, scarcely hearing her, fled on. As she entered the barn she +heard her grandfather's voice addressing Zeke, who was flinging a saddle +on Dick. + +"Dr. Busby'll leave anything when he knows it's the Maid." He didn't +need to say "hurry." Zeke was as anxious as his master to get the +veterinary surgeon. + +Essex Maid had fallen in her stall and was making her misery apparent, +tossing her head and rolling her eyes. Her master's teeth were set. + +"Grandpa, may I try to help?" came Jewel's eager voice. + +"Go away, child," sternly. "You'll get hurt." + +"But may I treat her?" + +"Do anything," brusquely; "but don't come near." + +Jewel ran to the back of the barn, dropped on the floor, and buried her +face in her hands. + +Five minutes passed, ten, fifteen. Zeke rode up to the barn door, white +and wild-eyed in the twilight. + +"Dr. Busby was away!" he gasped. "They tried to get him on the +telephone, and at last did. He'll be here in a few minutes." + +"The Maid's better," said Mr. Evringham, wiping his forehead. "There +hasn't been a repetition of the attack." Mrs. Forbes stood by, fanning +herself with her apron. The mare was standing quietly. + +"Great Scott, but I'm glad!" replied Zeke devoutly. "I've seen 'em +keel up with that. You can go through me with a fine tooth comb, Mr. +Evringham, and you won't find a thing I've neglected for that mare." +Excitement had placed the young fellow beyond his awe for the master. + +"I believe you, boy," returned the broker. In his relief he would have +believed anything. + +"See the poor kid," said Zeke, catching sight of the little figure +sitting out of earshot, where the twilight touched her. + +Mr. Evringham wheeled and strode back to the child. Her face was still +hidden. + +"Don't cry, Jewel," he said kindly, his voice unsteady. "She's better." + +The child looked up radiantly. "I knew it!" + +The unexpected look and exclamation startled her grandfather. "Zeke says +the doctor can't get here for a little while," he went on, "but the mare +is out of pain." + +"It's all right," rejoined the child joyously. "The doctor ought not to +come. We shall do better without him." + +The first gleam of her meaning began to shine across the broker's mind. +He stared down at the little figure, uncertain whether to laugh or cry, +sufficiently shaken to do either. + +"Why, you midget you," he said, picking the child up in his arms; "have +you been trying your tricks over here in the corner?" + +"That isn't the way to talk, grandpa, when God has helped us so," +returned Jewel earnestly. + +Zeke, following his employer, had heard this colloquy, and stared open +mouthed. + +When Dr. Busby arrived he was a much injured man. "The mare's perfectly +fit," he grumbled. "You've made me leave an important case." + +"Very sorry," returned Mr. Evringham, trying to look so. "The fact is +the Maid has given us a scare in the last hour that I shouldn't like +repeated. Look her over carefully, Busby, carefully." + +"I have." The veterinary gave a cross look around the group, his glance +resting a moment on the upturned face of a little flaxen-haired girl who +stood with her hand in Mr. Evringham's. + +"He's falling into his dotage, I guess," said the doctor privately to +Zeke, as he prepared to ride away. + +"Don't fool yourself," returned the young fellow. "The mare pretty near +scared me into a fit. My knees ain't real steady yet." + +He stood watching the disappearing figure of the veterinary. "That kid +believes praying did it," he mused. "I ain't going to believe that, of +course, but the whole thing was the queerest ever." + +Mr. Evringham, after one more visit to the stall of Essex Maid, started +back to the house, Jewel skipping beside him. + +Mrs. Forbes remained in the barn, one hand still pressed to her ample +bosom, a teakettle in the other. + +"What'd you calc'late to do, ma?" inquired her son, approaching her. + +"Wring out hot flannels. It's sense to treat colic the same, whether +it's in a horse or a baby." + +Zeke laughed. "Essex Maid didn't think so, did she?" + +"Wouldn't let us do a thing. I saw the tears drip out of Mr. Evringham's +eyes plain as I see you now. Zeke Forbes, you'll never know what it was +to me to have you come in and speak the way you did. You couldn't have +done it if you'd mistreated the horse any way." + +"Thank you," returned the coachman emphatically. "I ain't monkeying with +buzz saws this year." + +"Not knowingly you wouldn't. But, child,"--Mrs. Forbes set down the +kettle and pressed the other hand tighter to her bosom as she came +closer to him, "last night you'd been drinking when you came home." + +"Ho!" laughed Zeke uncomfortably, "just a smile or two with the boys. By +ginger, you've got a nose on you, mother." + +"Can you think of your father and then laugh over it, Zeke? There hasn't +a man ever come to be a sot that didn't laugh about it in the first +place." + +"Now, mother, now, now," said the young fellow in half-impatient tones +of consolation, as he took the handkerchief from her apron pocket and +wiped her eyes, where tears began to spring. "You must trust a chap to +do what's right. I ain't a fool. Don't you think about this again. I +can take care of myself. Come now, to change the subject, what's your +opinion of Christian Science as applied to horses with the colic?" + +"What do you mean?" returned the housekeeper in an unusually subdued +tone. + +"Why, didn't you catch on? The kid was over there in the corner treating +the Maid. That's what they call it, treating 'em. Mr. Evringham laughed +when he found out, and she jumped on him. Yes, she did; came right out +and told him that wasn't the way to show his gratitude, or something +like that. Think of the nerve!" + +"I ain't surprised. That child can't surprise me." + +"But what do you think of it, ma? I tell you 't was queer, the way that +mare's pain stopped. Of course I ain't going to believe--but," firmly, +"I can't get away from a notion that those Christian Science folks know +something that we don't. Busby was madder'n a hornet. I didn't scarcely +know what to say to him." + +"Don't be soft, Zeke," returned his mother, picking up the kettle. "The +time for superstition has gone by." + +As Jewel and her grandfather entered the house they heard music. + +"That's cousin Eloise playing. Have you heard her grandpa?" + +"Yes, when they first came." + +"Than you haven't sat with them in the evening for a long time?" +suggested the child. + +"No. I--I didn't wish to monopolize their society. I wanted to give Dr. +Ballard a chance. He is a friend of theirs, you know." + +"Yes, but I think cousin Eloise would be glad if she thought you liked +her playing. It's very beautiful, isn't it, grandpa?" + +"Yes, I dare say. Then, besides, I'm not at all sure that Mrs. Evringham +would permit me to smoke in the drawing-room." + +"But wouldn't it be nice to go in there just a few minutes before you go +to your study? I love to hear cousin Eloise play, but I like to be with +you, grandpa." + +Mr. Evringham was in a yielding state of mind. He allowed the pressure +of the child's hand on his to lead him to the drawing-room, where his +entrance made a little stir. + +Dr. Ballard was sitting near the piano, listening to the music. +Everybody rose as the newcomers entered. + +"How are you, Ballard? Jewel wished to hear her cousin's music, and so +behold us. If we bring a reminder of the stable, blame her." + +"Oh father, that dear horse is all right, I'm sure," gushed Mrs. +Evringham, "or else you wouldn't be here!" + +"What? Something the matter with Essex Maid?" asked Dr. Ballard with +concern. + +"Yes." Mr. Evringham seated himself. "A sharp attack, but short. She +was relieved before we could get Busby here." The speaker contracted his +eyebrows and looked at the child, who was still beside him. "The mare +had received mental treatments meanwhile," he added gravely. + +Dr. Ballard smiled, and drawing Jewel to him, lifted her upon his knee. +"Look here," he said, "can't you let anything around here be sick in +peace? We doctors shall have to form a union and manage to get you +boycotted." + +The child smiled back at him, her head a little on one side, as her +manner was when she was in doubt how to respond. + +"What a blessing!" exclaimed Mrs. Evringham vivaciously. "Here, father, +is the best cup of coffee you ever drank, if I did make it myself." + +Many weeks had elapsed since the broker had accepted a cup of coffee +from that fair hand, but he rose now to take it with good grace. + +"Is there going to be some cambric tea for this baby?" inquired Dr. +Ballard. + +"You must be hungry, Jewel; you hadn't finished your dinner," said her +grandfather, but she protested that she was not. + +"How is Anna Belle?" asked Dr. Ballard. "It's a long time since I saw +her." + +"Would you like to?" asked Jewel doubtfully. + +"Why--of--course!--if she's still up. Don't have her dress on my +account." + +"She doesn't go to bed till I do," responded the child. "I know +she'd love to come down!" In a flash she had bounded to the door and +disappeared. + +Eloise was still sitting on the piano stool, facing the room. +"Grandfather," she said, leaning slightly forward in her earnestness, +"did Jewel really treat Essex Maid?" + +The broker shrugged his shoulders and smiled as he stirred his coffee. + +"I believe she did." + +"And do you think it did the horse any good?" + +"Don't be absurd!" cried her mother laughingly, on nettles lest the girl +displease the young doctor. + +"Don't crowd me, Eloise, don't crowd me," responded Mr. Evringham. "I'd +rather have something a little more substantial doing for a sick horse +than the prayers of an infant; eh, Ballard?" + +"I've been reading Jewel's Christian Science book a great deal the last +few days," said Eloise. "If it's the truth, then she helped Essex Maid." + +Mrs. Evringham was dismayed. "What a very large _if_, my dear," she +returned lightly. + +"She's a bright little girl," said Dr. Ballard, and as he spoke Jewel +came back. + +She brought her doll straight to him, and he took both child and doll on +his lap. + +"Dear fellow," thought Mrs. Evringham, "how fond he is of children! I'd +like to put Eloise in a strait-jacket. Do play some more, dear, won't +you?" she said aloud, eager to return to safe ground. + +"Oh yes, cousin Eloise," added Jewel ardently. + +"If you will sing afterward. Will you?" asked the girl. + +"Can you sing, Jewel?" asked Mr. Evringham. + +"No, grandpa, nothing but the tunes in church." + +"Well," he responded, half smiling again, "I don't know that a hymn +would be so out of place to-night." + +"Do play the lovely running thing about spring, cousin Eloise," begged +the child. + +The girl turned back to the piano. "Jewel is so modern that she doesn't +know the Mendelssohn 'Spring Song,'" she said, and forthwith she began +it. + +Jewel's head lay back against Dr. Ballard's shoulder, and her eyes never +swerved from the white-robed musician. + +When the player had finished and been thanked, the child and the doctor +exchanged a look of appreciation. "That sounds the way it does in the +Ravine of Happiness," said Jewel. + +"Where is that?" + +"Where the brook is." + +"Oh!" Dr. Ballard had unpleasant associations with the brook. "I +understand you are fond of horses," he added irrelevantly. + +"Oh yes." + +"Do you want to go driving with me to-morrow morning?" + +Jewel's face grew radiant. + +"Oh yes!" She looked across at her grandfather. + +"I promised to take you driving, didn't I, Jewel? Well, the pleasant +weather has come. I guess she'll go with me to-morrow, Ballard." + +"Guess again, Mr. Evringham," retorted the doctor gayly. "She has +accepted my invitation." + +Mrs. Evringham looked on and wondered. "What is it about that child that +takes them all?" she soliloquized. "She reminds me of that dreadfully +plain Madam what's-her-name, who was so fascinating to everybody at the +French court." + +Eloise was smiling. "Now it's your turn, Jewel," she said. + +The child looked from one to another. "I never sang for anybody," she +returned doubtfully. + +"Yes indeed, for Anna Belle. I've heard you," said Eloise. + +"Oh, she was singing with me." + +"Very well. Let her sing with you now." + +"What one?" + +"The one I heard,--'Father, where Thine own children are I love to be.'" + +"Oh, you mean. 'O'er waiting harpstrings.' All right," and the child, +sitting where she was, sang the well-loved hymn to a touched audience. + +"Upon my word, Jewel," said her grandfather when she had finished. "Your +music isn't all in your soul." His eyes were glistening. + +"Those are beautiful words," said Dr. Ballard. "I don't remember any +such hymn." + +"Mrs. Eddy wrote it," returned the child. + + + +"It wasn't Castle Discord to-night," she said later to Anna Belle, while +they were going to bed. "Didn't you notice how much differently people +loved one another?" + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +A MORNING DRIVE + +"I declare, Eloise," said Mrs. Evringham the next morning, "it is almost +worth three whole days of storm to have a spell of such heavenly weather +to follow. We're sure of several days like this now," She was standing +at the open window, having shown a surprising energy in rising soon +after breakfast. + +She glanced over her shoulder at her daughter, who was picking up the +garments strewn about the room. "Now you can live out of doors, I hope, +and get yourself toned up again. Really, last evening things were very +comfortable, weren't they?" + +"Yes. I thought the lump had begun to be leavened," returned the girl. + +"Talk English, please," said her mother vivaciously. "Father seemed +quite human, and that is all we have ever needed to make things +tolerable here. I suppose we reaped the benefit of his relief about the +horse." + +"It's all Jewel," said Eloise, smiling. "That's English, isn't it?" + +"Jewel!" Mrs. Evringham exclaimed. "Why, you're all daffy about that +child. What _is_ the attraction?" + +"That's what I'm trying to find out. It's time for me to go up now and +braid her hair and read the lesson." + +Mrs. Evringham regarded her daughter. "Young people are eager for +novelty, I know," she said, "and it would seem as if an interest in a +child was an innocent diversion for you at a time when you were growing +morbid, but I do think I'm the most unlucky woman in the world! To think +that the child should have to be a Christian Scientist, and that you +should take this perverse interest in her ideas just now. I haven't +spoken of your remarks about the horse last night, but it was in poor +taste, to say the least, to mention such nonsense before Dr. Ballard, +and apparently do it so seriously. I knew you had been helping Jewel +with lessons, but until last evening I didn't suspect that it might all +be on that odious subject. Is it, Eloise?" + +"Yes, but it isn't odious. I like the fruit of it in her." + +"You've never shown Dr. Ballard your most agreeable side, and now if +you're going to parade before him, an Episcopalian and a physician, an +interest in this--anarchism, I shan't blame him in the smallest degree +if he gives up all thought of you." + +Eloise, the undemonstrative, put an arm around her mother. "Shan't you, +really?" she replied wistfully. "If I could only hope that." + +"Do you want to give me nervous prostration?" rejoined Mrs. Evringham +sharply. "Eloise," her voice suddenly breaking, "do you love to torment +me?" + +"Indeed I don't, poor mother, but I've been so tormented myself, and so +desirous not to--oh, not to do anything ignoble! I can't tell you all +I've endured since--" She paused, her lips unsteady. + +"Since we lost your father," dismally. "Yes, I know it. I'm the most +unlucky woman in the world!" + +Eloise's arm tightened about her mother as she went on, "Since I was +enchanted and thrown into Castle Discord." She looked off at the mental +picture of her cousin. "Mother," she turned back suddenly, "what a +wonderful thing it is if there really is a God." + +"Why, Eloise Evringham, have you ever doubted it! That's positively +ill-bred!" + +"But One that would be any good to us! Jewel's mother thinks she knows +such a One, and so does the child. I wish you'd look into this Christian +Science with me. You might find it better than getting grandfather to +pay our bills, better than marrying me to Dr. Ballard." + +Mrs. Evringham raised her eyes to her deity. "What have I ever done," +she ejaculated, "that I should have a queer child! Well, I will not +look into it," she returned decidedly; "and if Dr. Ballard were not the +broad, noble type of man that he is, he wouldn't take the trouble to +notice and entertain a child who has treated him as she has. It might +touch even you to see the lengths to which he goes to please you. I hope +you will at least have the grace to go down with Jewel to the buggy and +see them off." + +"I couldn't in this wrapper," replied Eloise, releasing the speaker. + +"Of course not, so put on a dress before you go up to Jewel." + +"It's too late, dear. He'll be here by half-past ten. I must have her +ready." + +Mrs. Evringham looked after her daughter's retreating figure, and then +her lips came together firmly. She untied the ribbons of the loose gown +of lace and silk, in which she had keyed herself up by degrees to face +the requirements of luncheon and the afternoon's diversions, and donned +a conventional dress, in which she composed herself by the window to +watch for the doctor's buggy. There was a vista in the park avenue which +afforded a fair look at equipages three minutes before they could reach +Mr. Evringham's gateway. + +From the moment the doctor's office hour was over this stanch supporter +set herself to watch that gap. As soon as she saw Hector's dappled coat +and easy stride she sprang up and went downstairs, and when the shining +buggy paused at the steps and Dr. Ballard jumped out, she appeared on +the piazza to greet him. + +"What an inspiring morning!" she said, as he removed his hat. "That +insane girl!" she thought. "If he had chanced to be awkward and plain, +he would have been just as important to us. His good looks are thrown +in, and yet she won't behave herself." + +"Glorious indeed!" he replied heartily. "Where's my young lady?" + +Mrs. Evringham had plenty of worldly experience, and not even her +enemies called her stupid, but at this moment there was but one young +lady in the world to her, as she believed there was to him. + +"She is upstairs braiding Jewel's hair," she replied before she realized +her own insanity. Then she hastened on, coloring under the odd look in +his eyes, "But you mean Jewel, of course. She will be down at once, I'm +sure. It's so kind of you to take her." + +"Not at all. She's an original worth cultivating." + +Mrs. Evringham shrugged her shoulders. "I suppose she must be, since you +all say so. Eloise gives up a surprising amount of time to her, but I +can't judge much from that, because Eloise is so unselfish. For my part, +the child's ideas are so strange, and my little girl is still so young +and impressionable, I object to having them much together. It may seem +very absurd, when Jewel is so young." + +"No; I saw last evening how interested Miss Eloise already is." + +"Oh," hastily, "she pretends to be, and I assure you I object. Eloise +has a good mind, and I hope you will offer a little antidote now +and then to the stuff she has begun to read. A word to the wise, Dr. +Ballard. I need say no more." + +It was true. Mrs. Evringham had no need to say more. Her ideas, and +especially those which related to himself, had always been inscribed in +large characters and words of one syllable for her present companion, +who was a young man of considerable perception and discrimination. + +He had not time to reply before Jewel, radiant of face, appeared in the +doorway, where she hesitated, her doll in her arms. + +"I brought Anna Belle," she said doubtfully, "but I can leave her under +the stairs if there isn't room." + +"Anna Belle under the stairs on a morning like this! And in such a +toilet? Talk about error!" The doctor's tone was tragic as he lifted the +happy child into the buggy. + +Mrs. Evringham nodded a reply to their smiling farewells as Hector +sprang forward, and she looked after them in some perplexity. + +"Why should he take the trouble?" she reflected. "It would have been +such a splendid morning for them to have gone riding if he had this +leisure. Of course it must have been just one of his indirect and lovely +ways of trying to please Eloise." + +Just as she was solacing herself with the latter reflection, her +daughter stepped out on the piazza, a little black book in her hand. + +"Warm enough to sit out, isn't it?" she remarked. + +Her mother looked at her critically. She had not seen this care-free +look on her child's face since Lawrence died. + +"Why didn't you come out a little sooner?" + +"I wasn't presentable. How delicious the air is!" + +"Yes. Let us sit here and finish that novel." + +"All right." + +"What have you there?" + +"Mrs. Eddy's book,--'Science and Health.'" + +Mrs. Evringham made a grimace. "I read part of it once. That was enough +for me. Think of the price they charge for it, too. Think of pretending +it is such a good thing for everybody to have, and then putting a price +on it that prohibits the average pocketbook." Eloise's smile annoyed her +mother. "Weren't you with me the day Nat Bonnell's mother said so much +about it?" + +"How foolish she was not to try it," said Eloise. "Such a hopeless, +monotonous invalid." + +"Well, some of her friends worked hard enough to induce her to, but when +she found out the mercenary side of it, she saw at once that it couldn't +be trustworthy." + +"I suppose even Christian Scientists must have a roof and food and +clothes," returned Eloise coolly; "but I've thought a good deal the last +few days about the criticisms I've heard on the price of the book. The +fuss over that three dollars is certainly very funny, when the +average pocketbook goes to the theatre sometimes, has flowers for its +entertainments, and rejoices to find lace reduced from a dollar and a +quarter to ninety-five cents a yard for its gowns. It eagerly hoards and +spends three dollars for some passing pleasure or effect, but winces and +ponders over paying the same sum for a book that will last a lifetime, +and which, if it is worth anything, furnishes the key to every problem +in life." + +"But why isn't it as cheap as the Bible if it is so beneficial?" + +"It will be, probably, when it is generally respected. For the present +it wouldn't be wise to cast it about like pearls before swine." Eloise +smiled at herself. "You see I'm talking as if I knew it all. My wisdom +comes partially from what I have extracted from Jewel, and partly from +what is obvious. I haven't reached the place yet where I am convinced, +but this book is wonderfully interesting. It came to me in the darkest +hour I have ever known, and it has--it has seemed to feed me when I was +starving. I don't know how else to put it. I can't think of anything +else. Mother, why haven't we a Bible? I was ashamed when Jewel asked +me." + +Mrs. Evringham, astonished and dismayed by her daughter's earnestness, +drew herself up. "We have a Bible, certainly. What an idea!" + +"Where is it?" eagerly. + +"In the storage warehouse with the other books." + +Eloise's laugh nettled her mother. + +"The prayer books are upstairs on my table. What more do you want if you +are going to take an interest in such things? I wish you would, dear, +and embroider an altar cloth while you are here. I'm sure father would +gladly contribute the materials and feel a pride in it." + +"Oh mother," Eloise still smiled, "you know he never goes to church." + +"But he contributes largely." + +"Well, I haven't time to embroider altar cloths. Shall I get the story?" + +"Yes, do. We'll go around the corner, out of the wind." + +Meanwhile Dr. Ballard's buggy was covering the ground rapidly. Through +the avenues of the park sped Hector, and joy! Dr. Ballard allowed Jewel +to drive as long as they remained within its precincts. Slipping his +hand through the reins above where she grasped them, he held Anna Belle +on his knee. Jewel had not suspected the size of the park. One could +almost see the watered leaves increase in the sunshine, and the birds +were swelling their little throats to the utmost. The roses in her +cheeks deepened in her happy excitement. She allowed the doctor to do +most of the talking, while she kept her eyes on the horse's ears. Just +once she ventured to turn enough to glance at him. + +"I've had dreams of driving horses," she said. + +"Is this the first time you've done it waking?" + +"No, the second. Father took me once in Washington Park just before +he came away, but the horse didn't pull like this." She smiled +seraphically. + +"So, boy, steady," said the doctor soothingly, and Hector obeyed the +voice. + +"Did you play in the Ravine of Happiness when you were a little boy?" + +"Where's that?" + +"Where the brook is." + +"Oh yes. Are you planning to take me to that brook and wet my feet, +Jewel?" + +"We've gone long past it. Don't you know?" + +"I think my education has been neglected. I don't remember it." + +"We can go," returned Jewel suggestively. + +"Very well, we will; but first I have a couple of visits I must make." + +The horse was now trotting toward the park gate. As they reached it Dr. +Ballard returned Anna Belle and took the lines. + +Jewel gave an unconscious sigh of rapture. "Trolleys and so on, you +know," explained Dr. Ballard. "When you come back ten years from now you +shall drive outside too. How was Essex Maid this morning?" + +"She was all right, but grandpa took only a short ride. I guess he was a +little--bit--afraid." + +"She's the apple of his eye, or he wouldn't have been so nervous over a +trifle last evening," remarked the doctor. + +"Well, she made a great fuss," replied Jewel. "She fell down in her +stall, and everything like that." + +"Did she really?" + +"Yes. Zeke said his knees were shaking." + +"But she was all right by the time Dr. Busby arrived?" + +"Yes." + +Dr. Ballard looked at his small companion, a quizzical smile curving his +mustache. + +"I've never thought of taking a partner, Jewel, but I might consider +a mascot. What do you say to sharing my office and being my mascot? +Special high chair for Anna Belle, be it well understood." + +The little girl eyed him, her head on one side. It was her experience +that all men were jokers. "I don't know what a mascot is," she replied. + +"It's something or somebody that brings one good luck." + +"Do you think I could bring you good luck?" + +"It looks that way. Of course there are certain rules you would have to +observe. It wouldn't do for you to talk against materia medica to the +patients in the anteroom." + +"What is an anteroom?" + +"The place where my patients wait until I can see them in my office." + +Jewel lifted her shoulders and smiled. "I might read them 'Science and +Health' while they waited, and then they wouldn't have to go in." + +Dr. Ballard's laugh rang heartily along the leafy street. "Is that your +idea of mascoting a poor young physician?" he inquired. + +Jewel laughed in sympathy. She didn't quite understand him, but she knew +that they were having a very good time. + +Pretty soon her companion drove in at the gate of an imposing old +residence, set back from the street where the trolley ran with an air of +withdrawing from the intrusion of these modern tracks. + +"I thought it wouldn't injure your conscience to wait for me while I +made a couple of professional visits, Jewel, eh?" he asked, as he jumped +out and fastened Hector to the ring in the hand of a bronze boy. "I +won't be any longer than I can help, and don't you go to hoodooing me, +now, while I'm upstairs." The doctor returned to the buggy and took the +black case, frowning warningly at the child. "I have troubles enough +here without that. This old lady used to trot me on her knee, and she +wants to spend half an hour every morning proving that doctors don't +know anything before she'll let me get to business." + +"It must be hard for doctors," returned Jewel, "going to sorry people +all the time, and nothing to give them except something on their +tongues." + +Dr. Ballard gave his small companion a quick glance. If he secretly +considered her beliefs as too richly absurd to excite aught but +amusement, she evidently as honestly compassionated the poverty of ideas +in his learned profession. + +"Well, I'll hurry," he said, and vanished within the house. Time would +not have dragged for Jewel had he stayed all the morning. To sit in the +shining buggy in close proximity to the dappled gray Hector, and with +Anna Belle for a sympathizer, caused the minutes to be winged. + +When the doctor returned, a radiant face welcomed him. + +"I thought I should never get away," he sighed, "but you don't look +bored." + +He untied the horse, jumped into the buggy, and they were off again, +Hector striding along as if to make up for lost time. "Now only one more +call, Jewel, and then we'll get back out of the dust again," said the +doctor cheerily. + +"I haven't noticed any dust, Dr. Ballard. I'm having the most _fun_!" + +"Well now, I'm glad of that. It's a great thing to be eight years old, +Jewel." + +"That's what cousin Eloise says. She says she'd like to be." + +"Indeed? How is the enchanting--excuse me--I mean the enchanted maiden +this morning?" + +"She's well. She ties my bows now, so grandpa doesn't have to." + +"Ties your--" The doctor looked at the speaker, mystified. + +Jewel put her hand up to the small billows of silk behind her ear. "My +hair bows. They were real hard for grandpa to do." + +Dr. Ballard repressed a guffaw, and then turned solemn. "Do you mean to +say that Mr. Evringham tied your hair ribbons?" + +"Why yes." + +"That settles it, Jewel. You must go into partnership with me and wave +wands and things. Setting Essex Maid on her legs wasn't a patch on +that." + +Jewel regarded him questioningly a moment and then repeated, "But it was +real hard for grandpa." + +"I can believe it!" + +"And cousin Eloise is the kindest girl. She's like grandpa about that. +Her kindness is inside, too." + +"Is it indeed? You don't know how much I thank you for telling me where +to look for it." + +"Oh, she must be kind to _you_, Dr. Ballard!" + +"Once in a while, once in a while," he replied cautiously, but Jewel +couldn't get a look into his eyes, though she tried, he was so busily +engaged poking an invisible fly from Hector's side with the point of the +whip. "If you'll find a way to make her kind to me all the time, Jewel, +then you will be my mascot indeed." + +"All you have to do is to know she is," replied the child earnestly. +"I felt the way you do, at first, but now I've found out just because I +stopped being afraid." + +"Ah, that's the recipe, eh? All I've to do is to stop being afraid." + +"That's all!" cried Jewel, beaming at his ready comprehension. "You'll +find out there isn't a thing to be afraid of with Cousin Eloise, and +oh, Dr. Ballard," the child smiled at him wistfully, "she's getting +so--so--unenchanted." + +"You just waved your wand, I suppose, and said 'Presto change,'" +returned the young man. + +He turned Hector down a side street and drew rein under a large elm. +"Here's my rheumatic gentleman," he added, as he jumped from the buggy +and fastened the horse. "He won't keep me waiting while he abuses +doctors, so I shan't be quite so long this time." The speaker seized his +case and went up a garden path to the house, and Jewel, with a luxurious +sigh, set Anna Belle in the place he had vacated. + + + +CHAPTER XX + +BY THE BROOKSIDE + +Scarcely had she seen the doctor admitted and the house door closed when +an approaching pedestrian caught her eye. She recognized him at +once, and a little more color stole into her round cheeks, while an +unconscious smile touched her lips. + +The gentleman had observed the doctor enter the house, and glanced idly +as he passed, to see what child was waiting in the buggy. The half shy +look of recognition which he met surprised him. Somewhere he had seen +that rosy face. Going on his way and searching his memory he had left +the buggy behind, when in a flash it came to him how, one day, that same +shy, pleased smile had beamed wistfully upon him in a trolley car. + +Instantly he turned back, and in a minute Jewel saw him standing beside +her. He lifted his hat and replaced it as he held out his hand. + +"We've met before, haven't we?" he asked kindly. + +Jewel shook hands with him, much pleased. "My mother and father have +gone to Europe," she said "and it seemed as if there wasn't a Scientist +in the whole world until I saw you." + +"Another proof of what I always say--that we should all wear the pin. I +didn't know that Dr. Ballard had any Science relations." + +"Oh, Dr. Ballard and I are not relations," explained Jewel seriously. +"I think he wants to marry my cousin Eloise; but he hasn't ever said so, +and I don't like to ask him. He's the kindest man. I just love him, and +he's letting me ride around with him while he makes calls." + +"Why, that's very nice, I'm sure," returned Mr. Reeves, smiling broadly. +"Does he know that you're a Christian Scientist?" + +"Oh, yes, indeed. I had a claim, and my grandpa called him to help me, +so then I told him, but he kept on reflecting love just the same." + +Mr. Reeves scented an interesting experience, but he would not question +the child. "Nice fellow, Guy Ballard. He deserves a better fate than to +bow down to false gods all his days." + +"Yes, indeed," returned Jewel heartily. + +"But, as you say," continued Mr. Reeves, "he reflects love, and so we +shall hear of his being a successful physician." + +"Yes, I want him to be always happy," said the child. + +"Who is your grandfather, my dear?" + +"Mr. Evringham." + +"Is it possible? Then you are--whose child?" + +"My father's name is Harry." + +"Of course, of course." Mr. Reeves nodded, trying to conceal his +surprise. "And is he a Scientist now?" + +"Yes, my mother is teaching him to be." + +"Well, I'm sure I'm very glad to hear this. Your grandfather is not +unkindly disposed toward Science?" + +"My grandfather couldn't be unkind to anything! I thought you knew him." + +Mr. Reeves smoothed his mustache vigorously. "I thought I did," he +returned. "You spoke of your cousin. I knew your aunt and cousin were +with Mr. Evringham now. Well, I'm glad, I'm sure, that you are so +pleasantly situated. You must come to our little hall some Sunday +where we have service, you know. It will be rather different from your +beautiful churches in Chicago." + +"But I'd love to come," replied the child eagerly. "I didn't know there +was one here. I'll get grandpa to bring me." + +"Mr. Evringham!" The speaker could feel the tendency of his jaw to drop. + +"Yes, or else cousin Eloise. She helps me get the lesson every day, and +then she takes my book and reads and reads. She told me this morning she +read almost all last night." + +Mr. Reeves nodded slowly once or twice. "Still they come," he murmured +meditatively. + +"Would you--would you mind writing down where that hall is?" asked the +child. + +"Certainly I will." Mr. Reeves suited the action to the word, taking +an envelope from his pocket for the purpose. "And if I ever see +Mr. Evringham there"--he said slowly, "by the way, please tell your +grandfather that we met and had this chat." + +"I don't know your name," returned the child. + +"Why, of course. Pardon me. Reeves. Mr. Reeves. Can you remember that?" + +The little girl flashed a bright look at him. "We can't forget," she +reminded him. + +"Of course," he nodded. "Exactly. I'm very likely younger in Science +than you are, little one. How long have you known about it?" + +Jewel thought. "Seven years," she replied. + +Her companion gave a laughing exclamation. "There, you see. I've known +for only one year. What is your name?" + +"Jewel Evringham." + +"Good-bye, Jewel, till we meet again, some Sunday soon, I hope." + +They shook hands, and Mr. Reeves went smiling on his way. + +"Seven years," he reflected. "There's the simon pure article. She can't +be over nine. I'll wager Bel-Air Park has had its sensations of late. +Evringham! The high ball, the billiard ball, and the race track, and +now the reputation of being a difficult old martinet. Never unkind to +anything! Why, she's a little feminine Siegfried, that precious Jewel. +Ballard and the cousin, eh? I've heard that rumor." + +When Dr. Ballard returned to the buggy, Jewel began loquaciously telling +him of her pleasant experience. + +"And he knows you, Mr. Reeves does, and he said you were a nice fellow," +she finished, beaming. + +"Very civil of him, I'm sure," returned the doctor as the horse started. +"I distinctly remember his having a different opinion one night when he +caught me in his favorite cherry tree; but I don't yet understand the +levity of his behavior in scraping acquaintance with the young lady I +left unprotected in my buggy." + +"Oh, we'd met before in a trolley car," explained Jewel. "I wanted to +run right to him when I first saw that he was a Scientist." + +"A what? Mr. Reeves? Oh, go 'way, my little mascot. Go 'way!" + +"Yes, he had on the pin--this one, you know." Jewel touched the small +gold symbol, and Dr. Ballard examined it curiously. "So we smiled at +each other, and to-day he's told me where I can come to church, and I'm +nearly sure cousin Eloise will go with me." + +Dr. Ballard's eyes grew serious as he turned Hector's head toward the +park. "I can scarcely believe it of Mr. Reeves," he said. + +"He says you are too nice to bow down to false gods," added Jewel shyly. + +"If mine are false to you, yours are false to me," said the young man +kindly. "You can understand that, can't you, Jewel?" + +"Yes, I can." + +"And we should never quarrel over it, should we?" he went on. + +"No--o!" returned Jewel scornfully. "We'd get a pain." + +"But you can see," went on the young doctor seriously, "that the more we +cared for one another the more we should regret such a wide difference +of opinion." + +"I suppose so," agreed the child, "and so we'd--" + +"You are going back to Chicago after a while, and so you understand that +I can better afford to agree to differ with you than I could with some +one who was going to stay here--your cousin Eloise, for instance." + +The child looked at him in silence. She had never seen Dr. Ballard wear +this expression. + +"For this reason, Jewel, I want to ask you if you won't do me the favor +not to talk to your cousin about Christian Science, nor ask her to read +your books, nor to go to church with you." + +The child's countenance reflected his seriousness. + +"You can see, can't you, that if Miss Eloise should become much +interested in that fad it would spoil our pleasure in being together, +while it lasted?" + +The word fad was not in Jewel's vocabulary, but she grasped the doctor's +meaning, and understood that he was much in earnest. She felt very +responsible for the moment, and in doubt how to express herself. + +"I feel sort of mixed up, Dr. Ballard," she returned after a minute's +silent perplexity. "You don't mind cousin Eloise reading the Bible, do +you?" + +"No." + +"You're glad if she can be happy instead of sorry, aren't you?" + +"Yes." + +Jewel looked at him hopefully. "There won't be anything worse than +that," she said. + +"Yes, many things worse," he responded quickly. "You might do me that +little favor, Jewel. I understand you go to her with your lessons, as +you call it, and your questions." + +"Yes, she helps me; but she takes my books to her room. I don't see how +I can help it, Dr. Ballard." + +"Well," he heaved a quiet sigh, "perhaps the attack will be shorter if +it is sharp. We'll hope so." + +"I wouldn't do any harm to you for anything," said the child earnestly, +"but you wait a little while. When people come into Christian Science +it makes them twice as nice. If you see cousin Eloise get twice as nice +you'll be glad, won't you?" + +The young man gave an impatient half laugh. + +"I'm not grasping," he returned. "She does very well for me as she +is. Now," he turned again to the child, who rejoiced in the recovered +twinkle in his eyes, "you have my full permission to convert the error +fairy." + +"Hush, hush!" ejaculated Jewel, alarmed. "We mustn't hold that law over +her." + +Dr. Ballard laughed. + +"Convert her, I say. Let us see what she would be like if she were twice +as nice. She's a very charming woman now, your aunt Madge. If she were +twice as nice--who knows? The fairy might spread wings and float away!" + +They had entered the park and Jewel suddenly noted their surroundings. +"We're coming to the Ravine of Happiness," she said. + +"That's the way it's been looking to me ever since last evening," +responded her companion meditatively. + +The child paid no attention to his words. She was watching eagerly for +the bend in the road beside which the gorge lay steepest. + +"There!" she said at last, resting her hand on that of her companion. +Obediently the doctor stopped his horse. The park was still but for +the bird notes, the laughter and babble of the brook far below, and the +rustle of the fresh leaves, each one a transparency for a sunbeam. + +The two were silent for a minute, Jewel's radiant eyes seeking the +pensive ones of her companion. + +"Do you hear?" she asked softly at last. + +"What?" he returned. + +"It is cousin Eloise's Spring Song." + + + +The doctor's words and looks remained in Jewel's mind after she reached +home that day. She mused concerning him while she was taking off Anna +Belle's hat and jacket up in her own room. + +"I don't suppose you could understand much what he meant, dearie," she +said, her face very sober from stress of thought, "but I did. If I'd +been as big as mother I could have helped him; but I knew I was too +little, and when people don't understand, mother says it is so easy to +make mistakes in what you say to them." + +Anna Belle's silence gave assent, and her sweet expression was always +a solace to Jewel, who kissed the hard roses in her cheeks repeatedly +before she sat her in the big chair by the window and went down to +lunch. Anna Belle's forced abstemiousness had ceased to afflict her. +At the lunch table she gave a vivacious account of the morning's +diversions, and for once Mrs. Evringham listened to what she said, +a curious expression on her face. This lady had expected to endure +annoyance with this child on her grandfather's account; but for unkind +fate to cause Jewel to be a hindrance and a marplot in the case of Dr. +Ballard was adding insult to injury. + +The child, suddenly catching the expression of Mrs. Evringham's eyes as +they rested upon her, was startled, and ceased talking. + +"Aunt Madge does love me," she declared mentally. "God's children love +one another every minute, every minute." + +"So Mr. Reeves told you where you can go to church," said Eloise, +replying to Jewel's last bit of information. + +"Yes, and"--the little girl was going on eagerly to suggest that her +cousin accompany her, when suddenly Dr. Ballard's eyes seemed looking at +her and repeating their protest. + +She stopped, and ate for a time in silence. Mrs. Forbes paid little +attention to what was being said. She moved about perfunctorily, with an +air of preoccupation. She had a more serious trouble now than the care +and intrusion of the belongings of Lawrence and Harry Evringham, a worry +that for days and nights had not ceased to gnaw at her heart, first as a +suspicion and afterward as a certainty. + +When luncheon was over, Eloise in leaving the dining-room, put her arm +around Jewel's shoulders, and together they strolled through the hall +and out upon the piazza. + +Mrs. Evringham looked after them. "If only that child weren't a little +fanatic and Eloise in such an erratic, wayward state, ready to seize +upon anything novel, it would be all very well," she mused, "for Dr. +Ballard seems to find Jewel amusing, and it might be a point of common +interest. As it is, if ever I wished any one in Jericho, it's that +child." + +Jewel, happy in the proximity of her lovely cousin, satisfied herself by +a glance that aunt Madge was not following. + +Eloise looked about over the sunny, verdant landscape. "What a deceitful +world," she said. "It looks so serene and easy to live in. So it was +very lovely over at your ravine this morning?" + +"Oh!" Jewel looked up at her with eager eyes. "Let's go. You haven't +been there. It's only a little way. You don't need your hat, cousin +Eloise." + +Summer was in the air. The girl was amused at the child's enthusiastic +tone. "Very well," she answered. + +Jewel drew her on with an embracing arm, and they descended the steps +and walked down the path. + +Suddenly the child stopped. "Doesn't it seem unkind to go without Anna +Belle!" she exclaimed. + +"Oh, nonsense," returned Eloise, smiling. "You're not going way upstairs +to get her. We needn't tell her we went. She's been out driving all the +morning. I think it's my turn." + +The child looked happily up into her cousin's face. "I love to see you +laugh, cousin Eloise," she returned, and they strolled on. + +The park drives were deserted. The cousins reached the gorge without +meeting any one. Leaning upon the slender fence, they gazed down into +the green depths, and for a minute listened to the woodland melody. + +"Isn't it just like your Spring Song?" asked the child at last. + +"It is sweet and comforting and good," replied the girl slowly, a +far-off look in her eyes. + +Jewel lifted her shoulders. "Don't you want to get down there, cousin +Eloise?" she asked, her eyes sparkling. + +"Yes," replied the girl promptly. + +"Will it hurt your dress?" added Jewel, with a sudden memory of Mrs. +Forbes, as she looked over her cousin's immaculate black and white +costume. + +"I guess not," laughed the girl. "Are you afraid Mrs. Forbes will put me +to bed?" + +She bent her lithe figure and was under the wire in a twinkling. Jewel +crept gleefully after her, but was careful to hold her little skirts +out of harm's way as they climbed down the steep bank and at last rested +among the ferns by the brook. Its louder babble seemed to welcome them. +Nature had been busy at her miracle working since the child's last +visit. Without moving she could have gathered a handful of little +blossoms. Instead, she rolled over and kissed a near clump of violets. +"You darling, darling things!" she said. + +Eloise looked up through far boughs to the fleece-flecked sky. +"Everything worth living for is right here, Jewel," she said. "Let's +have a tent and not give any one our address." + +"I think we ought to let Dr. Ballard come, don't you?" + +"Now why did you pick him out?" returned Eloise plaintively. She was +resting her head against her clasped hands as she stretched herself +against the incline of her verdant couch. Her companion did not reply at +once, and Eloise lazily turned her head to where she could view the eyes +fixed upon her. + +"What are you thinking of, Jewel?" + +"I was just thinking that if my mother made you a thin green dress that +swept around you all long and narrow, you'd look like a flower, too." + +The girl smiled back at the sky. "That's very nice. You can think those +thoughts all you please." + +"That wasn't all, though, because I was thinking about Dr. Ballard. +He feels sorry. I couldn't tell you about it at lunch, because aunt +Madge--well, because--" + +"Yes," returned Eloise quietly. "It is better for us to be alone." + +Jewel's brow relaxed. "Yes," she said contentedly, "in the Ravine of +Happiness." + +"Look out, though," continued the girl in the same quiet tone and +looking back at the sky. "Look out what you say here. It is easy now +to feel that all is harmonious, and that discords do not exist. I think +even if grandfather appeared I could talk with him peacefully." + +"I have thought about it," returned the child, "and it seems hard to +know what to say; but I love you and Dr. Ballard both, so it will be +sure to come out right. He feels sorry if you are beginning to like to +study Christian Science." + +"Really, did he speak of that to you? I think he might have chosen a man +of his size." + +"Of course he spoke of it when he found out I wanted to ask you to take +me to our church." + +"Where is the church here?" Eloise abandoned her lazy tone. + +"They have a hall. Mr. Reeves wrote it down for me. Do you really care, +cousin Eloise? You've been so kind and helped me, but do you really +begin to care?" + +"Care? Who could help caring, if it is true? I've been reading some of +the tales of cures in your magazine. If those people tell the truth"-- + +"Why, cousin Eloise!" The child's shocked eyes recalled the girl's +self-centred thoughts. + +"I beg your pardon, dear. It was rude to say that. I'm not ill, Jewel. +I'm so well and strong that--I've sometimes wished I wasn't, but life +turned petty and disgusting to me. I resented everything. It is just as +wonderful and radiant a star of hope to read that there is a sure way +out of my tangle as if I had consumption and was promised a cure of +that. I don't yet exactly believe it, but I don't disbelieve it. All I +know is I want to read, read, read all the time. I was just thinking a +minute ago that if we had the books here it would be perfect. This is +the sort of place where it would be easiest to see that only the good +is the real, and that the unsubstantiality of everything evil can be +proved." + +Jewel gave her head a little shake. "Just think of poor Dr. Ballard +being afraid to have you believe that." + +"But who wouldn't be afraid to believe it, who wouldn't!" exclaimed the +girl vehemently. + +"Why, I've always known it, cousin Eloise," returned the child simply. + +"You dear baby. You haven't lived long. I don't want to climb into a +fool's paradise only to fall out with a dull thud." + +Jewel looked at her, grasping as well as she could her meaning. "I know +I'm only a little girl; but if you should go to church with me," she +said, "you'd see a lot of grown-up people who know it's true. Then we +could go on Wednesday evenings and hear them tell what Christian Science +has done for them." + +"Oh, I'm sure I shouldn't like that," responded Eloise quickly. "How can +they bear to tell!" + +"They don't think it's right not to. There are lots of other people +besides you that are sorry and need to learn the truth." + +The rebuke was so innocent and, withal, so direct, that honest Eloise +turned toward Jewel and made an impulsive grasp toward her, capturing +nothing but the edge of the child's dress, which she held firmly. + +"You're right, Jewel. I'm a selfish, thin-skinned creature," she +declared. + +The little girl shook her head. "You've got to stop thinking you are, +you know," she answered. "You have to know that the error Eloise isn't +you." + +"That's mortal mind, I suppose," returned Eloise, smiling at the sound +of the phrase. + +"I should think it was! Old thing! Always trying to cheat us!" said +Jewel. "All that you have to do is to remember every minute that God's +child must be manifested. He inherits every good and perfect thing, and +has dominion over every belief of everything else." + +Eloise stared at her in wonder. "Do you know what you've talking about, +you little thing, when you use all those long words?" + +"Yes. Don't you?" asked the child. "Oh, listen!" for a bird suddenly +poured a wild strain of melody from the treetop. + +"And just think," said Jewel presently, in a soft, awestruck tone, "that +some people wear birds sewed on their hats, just as if they were glad +something was dead!" + +"It _is_ weird," agreed Eloise. "I never liked it. Jewel, did Dr. +Ballard blame you because I am interested in Christian Science?" + +"He said he wished I wouldn't talk to you and go to church and +everything." + +The girl bit a blade of grass and eyed the child's serious face. + +"Well, what are you going to do about it?" + +"I asked God to show me. I wish Dr. Ballard would study with you." + +"That is impossible. He has spent years learning his science, and he +loves it and is proud of it; so what next?" + +"Very queer things happen sometimes," rejoined Jewel doubtfully. + +"But not so queer as that would be," returned Eloise. + +Jewel was pondering. This was very delicate ground, and she still felt +some awe of her cousin; however, there was only one thing to consider. + +"Do you love him better than anybody, cousin Eloise?" she asked. + +A flood of color warmed the girl's face, but she had to smile. + +"Would that make the difference?" she asked. "Mustn't we want the truth +anyway?" + +Jewel heaved a mighty sigh. She was thinking of Dr. Ballard's pensive +eyes. "I should _think_ so," she answered frankly; "because if you just +study the truth, and hold on tight, how can things be anything but +happy at last? I wish I was more grown up, cousin Eloise," she added +apologetically. + +"Oh no, no," answered the girl, with a little catch in her throat. "I've +had so much of grown-up people, Jewel! I'm so grown up myself! Just +a little while ago I was a schoolgirl, busy and happy all the time. I +never even went out anywhere except with father, and with Nat when he +was at home from college. You don't know Nat, but you'd like him." + +"Why! Is he a Christian Scientist?" + +For answer Eloise laughed low but heartily. "Nat a Christian Scientist!" +she mused aloud. "Not exactly, my little cousin!" + +"Then should I like him as well as Dr. Ballard?" asked Jewel +incredulously. + +"I don't know. Tastes differ." + +"Does he like horses?" asked the child. + +"He knows everything about a horse and a yacht except how to pay for +them, poor boy," returned Eloise. + +"Is he poor?" + +"Yes, he is poor and expensive. It is a bad combination; it is almost +as bad as being poor and extravagant. His mother is a widow, and +they haven't much, but what there was she has insisted on spending on +him--that is, all she could spare from the doctor's bills." + +"She needs Science then, doesn't she?" + +"Jewel, that would be one thing that would keep me from wanting to be +a Scientist. What's the fun of being one unless everybody else is? My +mother, for instance." + +"Yes; but then you'd find out how to help her." + +Eloise glanced at the child curiously. She thought it would be +interesting to peep into Jewel's mind and see her estimate of Aunt +Madge. + +"My mother has a great deal to trouble her," she said loyally. + +"Yes, I know she thinks she has," returned the child. + +Again her response surprised her companion. + +"I'll take you as you are, Jewel," she said. "I'm glad you're not grown +up. You're fresher from the workshop." + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +AN EFFORT FOR TRUTH + +When Eloise spoke in the ravine of talking with her grandfather, it was +because for a few days she had been trying to make up her mind to an +interview with him. A fortnight ago she would have felt this to be +impossible; but subtle changes had been going on in herself, and, she +thought, in him. If her mother would undertake the interview now and +take that stand with Mr. Evringham which Eloise felt that self-respect +demanded, the girl would gladly escape it; but there was no prospect +of such a thing. Mrs. Evringham was only too glad to benefit by her +father-in-law's modified mood, to glide along the surface of things +and wait--Eloise knew it, knew it every day, in moments when her cheeks +flushed hot--for Dr. Ballard to throw the handkerchief. + +The girl wished to talk with Mr. Evringham without her mother's +knowledge, and the prospect was a dreaded ordeal. She felt that they had +won his contempt, and she feared the loss of her own self-control when +she should come to touch upon the sore spots. + +"What would you do, Jewel," she asked the next morning, after they had +read the lesson; "what would you do if you were afraid of somebody?" + +"I wouldn't be," returned the child quickly. + +"Well, I am. Now what am I going to do about it?" + +Anna Belle, who always gave unwinking attention to the lesson, was in +Jewel's lap, and the child twisted out the in-turning morocco foot as +she spoke. + +"Why, I'd know that one thought of God couldn't be afraid of another," +she replied in the conclusive tone to which Eloise could never grow +accustomed. + +"Oh, Jewel, child," the girl said impatiently, "we'd be sorry to think +most of the people we know are thoughts of God." + +"That's because you get the error man mixed up with the real one. Mother +explains that to me when we ride in cable cars and places where we see +error people with sorry faces. There's a real man, a real thought of +God, behind every one of them; and when you remember to think right +about people every minute, you are doing them good. Did you say you're +afraid of somebody?" + +"Yes, and that somebody is a man whom I must talk to." + +"Then begin right away to know every minute that the real man isn't +anybody to be afraid of, for God made him, and God has only loving +thoughts; and of course you must be loving all the time. It'll be just +as _easy_ by the time you come to it, cousin Eloise!" + +The girl often asked herself in these days why she should begin to +feel unreasonably hopeful and lighter hearted. Her mother no longer +complained of her moods. Mrs. Evringham laid the becoming change in her +daughter's expression to the girl's happiness in discovering that she +did reciprocate Dr. Ballard's evident sentiments. + +"Eloise is so high minded," thought the mother complacently. "She +would never be satisfied to marry for convenience, like so many;" and +considering herself passingly astute, she let well enough alone, ceased +to bring the physician's name into every conversation, and bided her +time. + +One morning Mr. Evringham, coming out of the house to go to town, met +Eloise on the piazza. + +"You are down early," he said as he greeted her, and was passing on to +the carriage. + +"Just one minute, grandfather!" she exclaimed, and how her heart beat. +He turned his erect form in some surprise, and his cold eyes met the +girlish ones. + +"She's a stunning creature," he thought, as the sunlight bathed her +young beauty; but his face was impenetrable, and Eloise nerved herself. + +"Were you thinking of going golfing this afternoon?" she asked. + +"Yes." + +"I thought you said something about it at dinner last evening. Would you +let me go with you?" + +Mr. Evringham, much astonished, raised his eyebrows and took off the hat +which he had replaced. + +"Such a request from youth and beauty is a command," he returned with a +slight bow. + +Tears sprang to the girl's eyes. "Don't make fun of me, grandfather!" +she exclaimed impulsively. + +"Not for worlds," he returned. "You will do the laughing when you see me +drive. My hand seems to have lost its cunning this spring. Shall we say +four-thirty? Very well. Good-morning." + +"Now what's all this?" mused Mr. Evringham as he drove to the station. +"Has another granddaughter fallen in love with me? Methinks not. What is +she after? Does she want to get away from Ballard? Methinks not, again. +She's going to ask me for something probably. Egad, if she does, I think +I'll turn her over to Jewel." + +Eloise's eyes were bright during the lesson that morning. + +"It's to-day, Jewel," she said, "that I'm going to talk with that man +I'm afraid of." + +"Never say that again," returned the child vehemently. "You are not +afraid. There's no one to be afraid of. Do you want me to handle it for +you?" + +"What do you mean, Jewel?" + +"To declare the truth for you." + +"Do you mean give me a treatment for it?" + +"Yes." + +"Oh. Do you know that seems very funny to me, Jewel?" + +"It seems funny to me that you are afraid, when God made you, and the +man, and all of us, and there's nothing but goodness and love in the +universe. Fear is the belief of evil. Do you want to believe evil?" + +"No, I hate to," returned Eloise promptly. + +"Then you go away, cousin Eloise, and I will handle the case for you." + + + +"Oh, are you going golfing?" said Mrs. Evringham that afternoon to her +daughter. "Do put on your white duck, dear." + +"Yes, I intend to. I'm going with grandfather." + +"You are?" in extremest surprise. "Oh, wear your dark skirt, dear; it's +plenty good enough. Do you mean to say he asked you, Eloise?" + +"No, I asked him." + +Mrs. Evringham stood in silent amaze, her brain working alertly. She +even watched her daughter don the immaculate white golf suit, and made +no further protest. + +What was in the girl's mind? When finally from her window she saw the +two enter the brougham, Mr. Evringham carrying his granddaughter's +clubs, she smiled a knowing smile and nodded her head. + +"I do believe I've wronged Eloise," she thought. "How foolish it was to +worry. I've been wondering how in the world I was going to get father to +give her a wedding, and how I was going to get her to accept it, and +now look! That child has thought of the same thing, and will manage it a +hundred times better than I could." + +Jewel stood on the steps and waved her hand as the brougham rolled away. +Eloise had seized and squeezed her surreptitiously in the hall before +they came out. + +"I do feel braced up, Jewel. Thank you," she whispered hurriedly. + +"Is the man over at the golf links?" asked the child, surprised to see +that Eloise and her grandfather were going out together. + +"He will be by the time I get there," returned the girl. + +As soon as the carriage door had closed and they had started, Eloise +spoke. "You must think it very strange that I asked this of you, +grandfather." + +There was a hint of violets clinging to the fresh white garments that +brushed Mr. Evringham's knee. + +"I would not question the gifts the gods provide;" he returned. + +She seemed able to rise above the fear of his sarcasms. "Not that +you would be surprised at anything mother or I might ask of you," she +continued bravely, "but I have suffered, I'm sure, as much as you have +during the last two months." + +"Indeed? I regret to hear that." + +If there was a sting in this reply, Eloise refused to recognize it. + +"In fact I have felt so much that it has made it impossible hitherto to +say anything, but Jewel has given me courage." + +Mr. Evringham smoothed his mustache. "She has plenty to spare," he +returned. + +"She says," went on Eloise, "that everything that isn't love is hate; +and hate, of course, in her category is unreal. It is because I want the +real things, because I long for real things, for truth, that I asked to +have this talk, grandfather, and I wanted to be quite alone with you, so +I thought of this way." + +"It's the mater she's running away from, then," reflected her companion. +He nodded courteously. "I am at your disposal," he returned. + +Subtly the broker's feeling toward Eloise had been changing since the +evening in which Jewel wrote to her parents. His hard and fast opinion +of her had been slightly shaken. The frankness of her remarks on +Christian Science in the presence of Dr. Ballard the other evening had +been a surprise to him. The cold, proud, noncommittal, ease-loving girl +who in his opinion had decided to marry the young doctor was either less +designing than he had believed, or else wonderfully certain of her own +power to hold him. He found himself regarding her with new interest. + +"I've been waiting for mother to talk with you," she went on, "and clear +up our position; but she does not, and so I must." The speaker's hands +were tightly clasped in her lap. "I wish I had Jewel's unconsciousness, +her certainty that all is Good, for I feel--I feel shame before you, +grandfather." + +It seemed to Mr. Evringham that Jewel's eyes were appealing to him. + +"She says," he returned with a rather grim smile, "Jewel avers that I am +kindness itself inside. Let us admit it for convenience now, and see if +you can't speak freely." + +"Thank you. You know what I am ashamed of: staying here so long; +imposing upon you; taking everything for granted when we have no right. +I want to understand our affairs; to know if we have anything, and what +it is; to have you help me, _you_; to have you tell me how we can +live independently, and help me to make mother agree to it. Oh, if you +would--if you _could_ be my friend, grandfather. I need you so!" + +Mr. Evringham received this impetuous outburst without change of +countenance. "How about Ballard?" he said. "I thought he was going to +settle all this." + +There was silence in the brougham. The flash of hurt in the girl's eyes +was quenched by quick tears. Her companion reddened under the look of +surprise she bent upon him, her lovely lips unsteady. + +"No offense," he added hastily. "Ballard's sentiments are evident +enough, and he is a fine fellow." + +Eloise controlled herself. "Will you take the trouble to explain our +affairs to me?" she asked. + +"Certainly," responded Mr. Evringham quickly. "I wish for your sake +there was more to explain, more possibilities in the case." + +"We have nothing?" exclaimed the girl acutely. + +"Your father took heavy chances and lost. His affairs are nearly +settled, and what there is left is small indeed." The speaker cast a +quick glance at the girl beside him. She had caught her lip between +her teeth. Jewel's soft voice sounded in his ears. "Cousin Eloise feels +sorry because she isn't your real relation." An inkling of what the girl +might suffer came to him. + +"Your mother and you have a claim upon me," he went on. "I should +certainly feel a responsibility of all my son's debts, and the one to +his wife and daughter in particular. I will try to make the situation +easier for you in some way." + +"Manage for us to go away, grandfather. Haven't you a little house +somewhere?" + +The beseeching in her tone surprised Mr. Evringham still more. What did +the girl mean? Didn't she intend to marry Ballard? He had believed her +to be planning to preside in the Mountain Avenue mansion. + +"Yes, it can be arranged, certainly," he answered vaguely; "but there's +no hurry, Eloise," he added, in the kindest tone he had ever used toward +her. "Some evening we will go over the affairs, and I will show you +where your mother stands financially, and we will try to make some plan +that shall be satisfactory." + +Eloise gave him a grateful look, as much in response to his manner as to +his words. "Thank you. The present condition is certainly--error," she +said. + +"Well, we'll try to find harmony," replied the other. "Jewel would say +it was easy. I should like to have you remain at my house at least as +long as she does, Eloise. I should probably have to tie her hair ribbons +again if you went." + +The two found themselves smiling at each other. The atmosphere was +lightened, and the brougham drew up at the clubhouse. + +Mr. Evringham handed out the girl, gave Zeke the order to return for +them, and they went up the steps. + +"I would drive back with him, grandfather, only that mother would +wonder, and ask questions," said Eloise. "Don't let me detain you in any +way. I'll just sit here on the piazza." + +"Not play? Nonsense!" returned Mr. Evringham brusquely. + +"Please don't feel obliged"--Eloise began humbly. + +"But I can't help being obliged if you'll play with me," interrupted her +companion. + +Some men observed the confidential attitude of the broker and the +beautiful girl. "What's doing over there?" asked one. "Is Evringham +beginning to take notice?" + +"Why, don't you know?" returned the other. "That's his granddaughter." + +"His daughter, do you mean? Didn't know he had one." + +"Not a bit of it. She's Lawrence's stepdaughter." + +The other shook his head. "That's too involved for me. She's a queen, +anyway." + +"Going to marry Ballard, they say." + +"That so? Then I won't go up and fall on Evringham's neck. My bank book +isn't in Ballard's class. She can play, too," as he observed Eloise +make a drive while she waited the reappearance of her companion from +the clubhouse. "Isn't that a bird!--and say, there's young Lochinvar +himself!" for here a light automobile whizzed briskly up to the +clubhouse. + +Dr. Ballard sprang out, for he had recognized the figure at the first +teeing ground. + +"You gave me the slip!" he cried as he approached. + +"Oh, I just went with a handsomer man," returned Eloise, smiling, as +they shook hands. + +"I didn't know I could come until the last minute, then I went to the +house for you and found I had missed you." + +Mr. Evringham and the caddy approached. "I cut you out for once, +Ballard," he said. "Well, we're off, Eloise. I saw you drive. I doubt if +he catches us." + + + +Jewel's eyes questioned Eloise that evening when she reached home, +and she received the smiling, significant nod her cousin gave her with +satisfaction. + +It was an apparently united family party that gathered about the +dinner table. Mr. Evringham and Eloise discussed their game, while Mrs. +Evringham fairly rustled with complacence. + +As Jewel clung to her grandfather's neck that evening in bidding him +good-night, she whispered:-- + +"How happy we all are!" + +"Are we, really? Well now, that's very gratifying, I'm sure. Good-night, +Jewel." + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +IN THE HARNESS ROOM + +"Mother, can I have three dollars?" asked Eloise the next morning. + +"Were you thinking of a new riding hat, dear? I do wish you had it to +wear this afternoon. Yours is shabby, certainly, but you can't get it +for that, child." + +"No; I was thinking of a copy of 'Science and Health.' I don't like to +take Jewel's any longer, and I'm convinced." + +"What of--sin?" asked Mrs. Evringham in dismay. + +"No, just the opposite--that there needn't be any. The book teaches the +truth. I know it." + +"Well, whether it does or doesn't, you haven't any three dollars to +spend for a book, Eloise," was the firm reply. "The _idea_, when I can +barely rake and scrape enough together to keep us presentable!" + +"Where do you get our money?" asked the girl. + +"Father gives me a check every fortnight. Of course you know that he has +charge of our affairs." + +Eloise's serene expression did not change. She looked at the little +black book in her hand. "This edition costs five dollars," she said. + +"Scandalous!" exclaimed Mrs. Evringham. "I can tell you this is no time +for us to be collecting _editions de luxe_. Wait till you're married." + +"I'm going to run in town for a while this morning, mother." + +"You are? Well don't get belated. You know that you are to ride with Dr. +Ballard at half past four. Dear me," her brow drawn, "you ought to have +that hat. Now I think that I _could_ get on without that jet bolero." + +Eloise laughed softly and drew her mother to her. "Have your jet bolero, +dear," she answered. "My hat isn't bad." + +Eloise went to her room, and closing the door, took from one of her +drawers a box. It contained her girlish treasures, the ornaments and +jewels her father had given her from time to time. She took out a small +diamond ring and pressed it to her lips. + +"Dear papa! I love it because you gave it to me, but I can get with it a +wonderful thing, a truth which, if we had known it, would have saved you +all those torturing hours, would have saved your dear life. I know how +gladly you would have me get it now, for you are learning it too; and it +will be your gift, dear, _dear_ papa, your gift just the same." + +Jewel had to study the lesson with only Anna Belle's assistance that +morning, but she received the third letter from her mother and father. +Their trip was proving a success from the standpoints of both business +and pleasure, but their chief longing was to get back to their little +girl. + +It was very like visiting with them to read it over, and Jewel did so +more than once. "I'll show it to cousin Eloise as soon as she comes +home," she reflected. Then she dressed Anna Belle to go out. + +Running downstairs the child sought and found Mrs. Forbes in the +kitchen. The housekeeper no longer questioned her going and coming, +although she still considered herself in the light of the child's only +disciplinarian, and was vigilant to watch for errors of omission and +commission, and quick to correct them. + +"Mrs. Forbes, may I have an old kitchen knife?" + +"Certainly not. You'll cut yourself." + +"I want it to dig up plants." + +Mrs. Forbes stared down at her. "Why, you mustn't do any such thing." + +"I mean wild flowers for a garden that Anna Belle and I are going to +make." + +"Oh. I'll see if I can't find you a trowel." + +There was one at hand, and as the housekeeper passed it to the child she +warned her:-- + +"Be careful you don't make a mistake, now, and get hold of anybody's +plants. What did your cousin Eloise go to New York for?" + +"I don't know." + +"Well I hope it's for her trousseau." + +Jewel smiled. "My mother makes those." + +"I don't believe she'll ever make one for you, then," returned Mrs. +Forbes, but not ill-naturedly. She laughed, glancing at Sarah, who stood +by. + +"But I think she will for Anna Belle," returned Jewel brightly, "when +she gets older." + +The housekeeper and maid both laughed. "Run along," said Mrs. Forbes, +"and don't you be late for lunch." + +"She's an awful sweet child," said Sarah half reproachfully. "Just the +spirit of sunshine." + +"Oh well, they'd turn her head here if it wasn't for me," answered the +other complacently. + +Jewel was not late to lunch, but eating it tete-a-tete with aunt Madge +was not to her taste. + +Mrs. Evringham utilized the opportunity to admonish her, and Mrs. Forbes +for once sympathized with the widow's sentiments. + +Aunt Madge took off her eyeglasses in a way she had when she wished to +be particularly impressive. + +"Jewel," she said, "I don't think any one has told you that it is +impolite to Dr. Ballard to say anything about Christian Science in his +presence." + +"Why is it?" asked the child. + +"Because he is a learned physician, and has, of course, a great respect +for his profession." + +"I have a great respect for him," returned the child, "and he knows I +wouldn't hurt his feelings." + +"The idea!" exclaimed Mrs. Evringham, looking down from a height upon +the flaxen head. "As if a little ignorant girl could hurt the feelings +of a man like Dr. Ballard!" + +Mrs. Forbes also stared at the child, and she winced. + +"I do love them, and they do love me," she thought. "I don't remember +ever speaking about it before the doctor unless somebody asked me," she +said aloud. + +"Your cousin Eloise may ask you," returned Mrs. Evringham. "Nobody else +would. She does it in a spirit of mischief, perhaps, but I shall speak +to her. She has a passing curiosity about your ideas because it is odd +and rather amusing to find a child who has such unnatural and precocious +fancies, and she tries to draw you out; but it will not last with her. +Neither will it with you, probably. You seem to be a sensible little +girl in many ways." Mrs. Evringham made the addition magnanimously. She +really was too much at peace with all the world just now to like to be +severe. + +Outwardly Jewel was silent. Inwardly she was declaring many things which +would have surprised her companions. + +"Does your cousin Eloise pretend to you that she is becoming seriously +interested in your faith?" pursued Mrs. Evringham. + +"She will tell you all about it," returned Jewel. + +Aunt Madge shrugged her shoulders and laughed a little. Her thoughts +reverted to her daughter's trip to the city. She had wondered +several times if it had any pleasant connection with her sudden good +understanding with Mr. Evringham. + +To Jewel's relief her thoughts remained preoccupied during the remainder +of the meal; and as soon as the child could leave, she flew to the +closet under the stairs, where Anna Belle often went into retreat during +the luncheon hour, and from thence back to the garden she was making by +the brookside. + +When she returned to the house her eyes lighted as she saw two horses +before the piazza, and Dr. Ballard standing beside one of them. + +"How are you, Jewel?" he asked, as she danced up to him smiling. +Stooping, he lifted her into the side saddle, from whence she beamed +upon him. + +"Oh, what fun you're going to have!" she cried. + +"I'd like to be sure of that," he answered, his gloved hand on the +pommel. + +"What do you mean?" incredulously. "You don't like that automobile +better, do you? They're so--so stubby. I must have a horse, a horse!" +She smoothed and patted her steed lovingly. + +"You ought to have--Jewel of the world," he said kindly. "My bad angel!" +he added, looking up quizzically into her eyes, and smiling at the +widening wonder that grew in them. + +"Your--what?" she asked, and then Eloise came out in her habit. + +"I'm going instead of you," cried the child gayly, "to pay you for +staying away all day." + +"Did you miss me?" asked the girl as she shook hands with her escort. + +"I tried not to. Anna Belle and I have something to show you in the +ravine." As she spoke, Jewel slid down into the doctor's arms, and stood +on the steps watching while he put Eloise up and mounted himself. + +The child's eyes dwelt upon the pair admiringly as they waved their +hands to her and rode away. Little she knew how their hearts were +beating. Mrs. Evringham, watching from an upper window, suspected it. +She felt that this afternoon would end all suspense. + +The child gave a wistful sigh as the horses disappeared, and jumping off +the piazza, she wandered around the house toward the stable. There had +been no rules laid down to her since the night of Essex Maid's attack, +and Zeke was always a congenial companion. + +As she neared the barn a young fellow left it, laughing. She knew who +he was,--one of the young men Zeke had known in Boston. He had several +times of late come to call on his old chum, for he was out of work. + +As he left the barn he saw the child and slouched off to one side, +avoiding her; but she scarcely noticed him, congratulating herself that +Zeke would be alone and ready, as usual, to crack jokes and stories. + +The coachman was not in sight as she entered, but she knew she would +find him in the harness room. Its door stood ajar, and as the +child approached she heard a strange sound, as of some one weeping +suppressedly. Sturdily resisting the sudden fear that swept to her +heart, she pushed open the door. + +There stood Mrs. Forbes, leaning against a wooden support, her forehead +resting against her clasped hands in a hopeless posture, as she sobbed +heavily. The air was filled with an odor which had for Jewel sickening +associations. The only terror, the only tragedy, of her short life was +wrapped about with this pungent smell. She seemed again to hear her +mother's sobs, to feel once more that sensation of all things coming to +ruin which descended upon her at the unprecedented sight and sound of +her strong mother's emotion. + +All at once she perceived Zeke sitting on a low chair, his arms hanging +across his knees and his head fallen. + +The child turned very pale. Her doll slid unnoticed to the floor, as she +pressed her little hands to her eyes. + +"Father, Mother, God," she murmured in gasps. "Thou art all power. We +are thy children. Error has no power over us. Help us to waken from this +lie." + +Running up to the housekeeper, she clasped her arms about her convulsed +form. "Dear Mrs. Forbes," she said, her soft voice trembling at first +but growing firm, "I know this claim, but it can be healed. It seems +very terrible, but it's nothing. We know it, we must know it." + +The woman lifted her head and looked down with swollen eyes upon the +child. She saw her go unhesitatingly across to Zeke and kneel beside +him. + +"Don't be discouraged, Zeke," she said lovingly. "I know how it seems, +but my father had it and he was healed. You will be healed." + +The coachman lifted his rumpled head and stared at her with bloodshot +eyes. + +"Great fuss 'bout nothing," he said sullenly. "Mother always fussing." + +Something in his look made the child shudder. Resisting the sudden +repugnance to one who had always shown her kindness, she impulsively +took his big hand in both her little ones. "Zeke, what is error saying +to you?" she demanded. "You can't look at me without love. I love you +because God does. He is lifting us out of this error belief." + +The young fellow returned the clasp of the soft hands and winked his +eyes like one who is waking. "Mother makes great fuss," he grumbled. +"Scott was here. We had two or three little friendly drinks. Ma had to +come in and blubber." + +"What friendly drinks? What do you mean?" demanded Jewel, looking all +about her. Her eyes fell upon a large black bottle. She dropped the +coachman's hand and picked it up. She smelled of it, her eyes dilated, +and she began to tremble again; and throwing the whiskey from her, she +buried her face for a moment against Zeke's shirt sleeve. + +"Is it in a bottle!" she exclaimed at last, in a hushed voice, drawing +back and regarding the coachman with such a white and horrified +countenance that it frightened the clouds from his brain. "Is that +terrible claim in a bottle, and do people drink it out?" she asked +slowly, and in an awestruck tone. + +"It's no harm," began Zeke. + +"No harm when your mother is crying, when your face is full of error, +and your eyes were hating? No harm when my mother cried, and all our +gladness was gone? Would you go and drink a claim like that out of a +bottle--of your own accord?" + +Zeke wriggled under the blue eyes and the unnatural rigidity of the +child's face. + +"No, Jewel, he wouldn't," groaned Mrs. Forbes suddenly. "Zeke's a good +boy, but he's inherited that. His father died of it. It's a disease, +child. I thought my boy would escape, but he hasn't! It's the end!" +cried the wretched woman. "What will Mr. Evringham say! To think how I +blamed Fanshaw! Zeke'll lose his place and go downhill, and I shall die +of shame and despair." Her sobs again shook her from head to foot. + +Jewel continued to look at Zeke. A new, eager expression stole over her +face. "_Is_ it the end?" she asked. "Don't you believe in God?" + +"I suppose so," answered the coachman sullenly. "I know I'm a man, too. +I can control myself." + +"No. Nobody can. Even Jesus said, 'Of myself I can do nothing.' Only God +can help you. If you can drink that nasty smelling stuff, and get all +red and rumply and sorry, then you need God the worst of anybody in +Bel-Air. You look better now. It's just like a dream, the way you lifted +up your face to me when I came in, and it _was_ a dream. I'll help you, +Zeke. I'll show you how to find help." The child suddenly leaned toward +the young fellow, and then retreated. "I can't stand your breath!" she +exclaimed, "and I like to get close to the people I love." + +This seemed to touch Zeke. He blushed hotly. "It's a darned shame, kid," +he returned sheepishly. + +"Mrs. Forbes, come here, please," said Jewel. The housekeeper had ceased +crying, and was watching the pair. She saw that her boy's senses were +clearer. She approached obediently, and when the child took her hand her +own closed tightly upon the little fingers. + +"Zeke, you're a big strong man and everybody likes you," said Jewel +earnestly. "Isn't it better to stay that way than to drink out of a +bottle, no matter _how_ much you like it?" + +"I don't like it so awfully," returned Zeke protestingly. "I like to be +sociable with the boys, that's all." + +"What a way to be sociable!" gasped the child. "Well, wouldn't you +rather be nice, so people will like to get close to you?" + +"Depends on the folks," returned the boy with a touch of his usual +manner. "You're all right, little kid." He put out his hand, but quickly +withdrew it. + +Jewel seized it. "Now give your other one to your mother. There now, +we're all together. If your mother thinks you have a disease, Zeke, then +she must know you haven't. If you want me to, I'll come out here every +day at a quiet time and give you a treatment, and we'll talk all about +Christian Science, and we'll know that there's nothing that can make us +sick or unhappy--or unkind! Think of your unkindness to your mother--and +to me if you go on, for I love you, Zeke. Now _may_ I help you?" + +The soft frank voice, the earnest little face, moved Zeke to cast a +glance at his mother's swollen eyes. They were bent upon Jewel. + +"Do you say your father was cured that way, child?" asked Mrs. Forbes. + +"Yes. Oh yes! and he's so happy!" + +"Zeke, let's all be thankful if there's _anything_," said the woman +tremulously, turning to him appealingly. + +"I'd just as soon have a visit from you every day, little kid," said the +young fellow. "You're a corker." + +"But you must want more than me," returned the child. "God and healing +and purity and goodness! If you're in earnest, what are you going to do +with that?" She touched the black bottle with the toe of her shoe. + +Zeke looked at the whiskey, then back into her eyes. They were full of +love and faith for him. + +He stooped and picked up the bottle, then striding to a window, he flung +it out toward the forest trees with all the force of his strong arm. + +"Damn the stuff!" he said. + +Mrs. Forbes felt herself tremble from head to foot. She bit her lip. + +Her son turned back. "Getting near train time," he added, not looking at +his companions. "Guess I'll go upstairs." + +When he had disappeared his mother stooped slowly and kissed Jewel. +"Forgive me," she said tremulously. + +"What for?" asked the child. + +"Everything." + +The housekeeper still stood in the harness room after Jewel had gone +away. She bowed her head on her folded hands. "Our Father who art in +heaven, forgive me," she prayed. "Forgive me for being a fool. Forgive +me for not recognizing Thine angel whom Thou hast sent. Amen." + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +MRS. EVRINGHAM'S CALLER + +Mrs. Evringham was busily chewing the cud of sweet fancies only, that +afternoon. Following the equestrians in their leafy woodland path, she +pictured them as talking of their future, and herself built many +castles in the air. "Ah," she thought sentimentally, leaning back in her +reclining chair, "how charming is youth--with plenty of money!" + +She was roused from these luxurious meditations by the appearance of +Sarah, bearing a card on a salver. + +"A man!" she exclaimed with annoyance. "I'm not dressed." + +Lifting the card, she read it with a start. + +"Mr. Nathan Wycliffe Bonnell." + +"Tell him I'll be down soon," was all she said; but her thoughts ran +swiftly as she hurriedly slipped into her gown. "How in the world comes +the boy out here? Just as well that Eloise is away. It would only be +painful to her, all the old associations." But old associations cropped +up more and more enticingly for Mrs. Evringham as she made her swift +toilet, and by the time she reached the drawing-room her eagerness lent +her cordiality a very genuine tone. + +"Nat, dear boy, how are you?" + +The young man who rose eagerly to meet her would have been noticeable +in any crowd. She gazed up into his smooth-shaven, frank face, with its +alert eyes and strong chin, and felt a yearning affection for all which +he represented to her. "What are you doing out here?" + +"Visiting you and Eloise," he answered, with the hearty relish which +always characterized his manner when circumstances were agreeable. +"Where is she?" + +"Riding. I don't know when they will come home, either. It's such a +charming day, isn't it? So good of you to hunt us up, Nat. We've been +out of the world so long. I can't tell you what a rush of memories comes +over me at sight of you, you nice, big boy. I do believe you've been +growing." She gave a glance of approval at the young man's stalwart +proportions. + +"Oh, don't humiliate me," he laughed, as she drew him to a divan, where +they seated themselves. + +"How could you get away at this hour?" + +"I'm changing my business, and get a week's vacation thereby. Great +luck, isn't it?" + +"I hope so. Are you going to do better?" + +"Much better. It's only a little matter of time now, Mrs. +Evringham--automobiles, steam yachts, and all the rest of it." + +"Ah, the optimism of youth!" she sighed, gazing at the dancing lights in +his eyes. "It's very beautiful, and usually entirely unfounded. You +look so radiant, my dear. Perhaps you have come out here to let us +congratulate you. Have you found that desirable girl? I certainly should +be the first to be told, for I always talked to you very plainly, didn't +I?" + +"Indeed you did, Mrs. Evringham. You always kept my ineligibility before +me strenuously." + +"A certain _sort_ of ineligibility, dear boy," returned the lady with +a flattering cadence. "Your capital did not happen to consist of money. +Tell me all, Nat. Who is she?" + +He shook his head. "She's still not impossible, but improbable," he +returned. + +"Oh, you are too difficult, my dear. Really, I thought at the time our +misfortunes fell upon us that it was going to be Miss Caton. She would +have been a great assistance to you, Nat. It isn't as if you could even +afford to be a bachelor. In these days so much is expected of them. How +is your mother?" Mrs. Evringham made the addition in that tone of +fixed sympathy which one employs when only a depressing answer can be +expected. + +"Very well, thank you." + +"You mean as well as usual, I suppose." + +"No, I mean well. Wonderful, isn't it?" + +"Really, Nat?" Mrs. Evringham straightened up in her interest. "Who did +it?" + +"She was healed by Christian Science." + +"You don't mean it!" + +"Indeed I do." + +Mrs. Evringham thanked her holy stars that Eloise was absent. + +"Well! I never for one moment classed your mother as a _malade +imaginaire_!" exclaimed the lady. + +Her companion raised his eyebrows. "I fancy no one did who knew her." + +"You believe it, then?" + +"I should be an idiot if I didn't." + +"Do you mean to say she is out of her wheeled chair?" + +"No chairs for her now. When she wishes to walk she walks." + +"Then she always could!" declared Mrs. Evringham. + +"I think you know better than that," returned the other calmly. + +"How long since?" asked Mrs. Evringham. + +"Three months." + +Silence. + +"Aren't you glad for her?" asked Bonnell with a slight smile of +curiosity into the disturbed face. "I ought to have told you at first +that osteopathy did it; then after your joy had subsided, break the +truth gently." + +"Of course I'm glad," returned the other stiffly, "but I'd rather Eloise +did not hear of it at once." + +"May I know why?" + +"Certainly. We have a very dear friend who is a physician. It looks very +much as if he might be something nearer than a friend. It is he with +whom Eloise is riding this afternoon. It is very distasteful, naturally, +to have these alleged cures discussed in our family. We have had some +annoyance in that line already. You can understand how doctors must +feel." + +"Yes, so long as they believe a cure to be only alleged; but where one +is convinced that previously hopeless conditions have been healed, and +it does happen once in a while, they are glad of it, I'm confident. We +haven't a finer, broader minded class of men in our country than our +physicians." + +"I think so," agreed Mrs. Evringham, drawing herself up with a fleeting +vision of the Ballard place on Mountain Avenue. + +"But they are not the wealthiest at the start," said Nat. "Is it +possible that you are allowing Eloise to ride unchaperoned with a young +physician?" + +Mrs. Evringham did not remark the threatening curves at the corners of +the speaker's lips. + +"Oh, this one is different," she returned seriously; "very fine +connections, and substantial in _every_ way." + +Her companion threw back his head and laughed frankly. + +"We have to smile at each other once in a while, don't we, Mrs. +Evringham?" he said, in the light, caressing manner which had for a few +years been one of her chief worries; "but all the same, you're fond of +me just as long as I don't forget my place, eh? You're glad to see me?" + +"You know I am." Mrs. Evringham pressed her hand against the laces over +her heart. "Such a bittersweet feeling comes over me at the very tones +of your voice. Oh, the happy past, Nat! Gone forever!" She touched a +dainty handkerchief to her eyes. "I suppose your mother is still in her +apartment?" + +"She has taken a place at View Point for the summer, and has set her +heart on a long visit from you." + +"How very kind of her," responded Mrs. Evringham with genuine gratitude. +"I don't know what father means to do in the hot weather or whether +he--or whether I should wish to go with him. Your mother and I always +enjoyed each other, when she was sufficiently free from suffering." + +"That time is always now," returned Nat, a fullness of gratitude in his +voice. + +His companion looked at him curiously. "I can't realize it." + +"Come and see," was his reply. + +"I will, I certainly will. I shall anticipate it with great pleasure." + +A very convenient place to prepare a part of Eloise's trousseau, Mrs. +Evringham was considering, and the girl safely engaged, Nat's presence +would have no terrors. "You think you are really getting into a good +business arrangement now?" she asked aloud. + +"Very. I wake up in the morning wondering at my own good fortune." + +"I am so glad, my dear boy," responded the other sympathetically. +"Perhaps, after all, you will be able to wait for a little more chin +than Miss Caton has. Of course she's a very _nice_ girl and all that." + +Bonnell smiled at the carpet. + +They talked on for half an hour of mutual friends over cups of tea, and +then he rose to go. + +"Eloise will be sorry!" said Mrs. Evringham effusively. "It's such a +long way out here and so difficult for you to get the time. It isn't as +if you could come easily." + +"Oh, I have several days here. I'm staying at the Reeves's. Do you know +them?" + +"No," returned the lady, trying to conceal that this was a blow. + +"It is Mr. Reeves with whom I am going into business, and we are doing +some preliminary work. I shall see Eloise soon. Remember me to her." + +"Yes, certainly," replied Mrs. Evringham. She kept a stiff upper lip +until she was alone, and then a troubled line grew in her forehead. + +"It will be all right, of course, if things are settled," she thought. +"I can scarcely wait for Eloise to come home." + + + +Jewel had come from the barn straight to her room, where she thought +upon her problem with the aids she loved. + +At last she went downstairs to a side door to watch for Zeke as he drove +from the barn on his way to the station to meet Mr. Evringham. As the +horse walked out of the barn she emerged and intercepted the coachman. + +Mrs. Forbes at a window saw Zeke stop. She wondered what Jewel was +saying to him, wondered with a humble gratitude novel to her dominating +nature. + +"Wait one minute, Zeke," said the child. "I've been wondering whether I +ought to say anything to grandpa." + +"If you do I'll lose my place," returned the young fellow; "and I've +never done wrong by the horses yet." + +"I know you haven't. God has taken care of you, hasn't he, Zeke? Do you +think it's right for me not to tell grandpa? I've decided that I'll do +whatever you say." + +It was the wisdom of the serpent and the harmlessness of the dove. Zeke, +nervously fingering the whip handle, looked down into the guileless face +and mentally vowed never to betray the trust he saw there. + +"Then don't tell him, Jewel," he returned rather thickly, for the +fullness in his throat. "You come out to the barn the way you said you +would, and we'll talk over things. I don't care if the boys do laugh. +I've sworn off. I believe you helped Essex Maid the other night. I +believe you can help me." + +Jewel's eyes were joyful. "If you know you _want_ help, Zeke, then +you'll get it. Mother says that's the first thing. Mortal mind is so +proud." + +"Mine ain't strutting much," returned Zeke as he drove on. + +Jewel amused herself about the grounds until the phaeton should return +with her grandfather. + +When she saw it coming she ran down to the gate and hopped and skipped +back beside it, Mr. Evringham watching her gyrations unsmilingly. + +As he dismounted at the piazza she clung to his hand going up the steps. +"Which are you going to do, grandpa, go riding or play golf?" + +"Which do you want me to do?" he asked. + +"When you ride it's more fun for me," she replied. + +He seated himself in one of the chairs and she leaned against its broad +arm. + +"It's rather more fun for me, too. I'm growing lazy. I think I'll ride." + +"Good!" + +"What have you been doing to-day, Jewel?" + +"Well,"--meditatively,--"cousin Eloise went to New York, so I had to get +my lesson alone. And I didn't braid my hair over." + +Mr. Evringham looked startled. "She'll do it, I dare say, before +dinner," he replied. + +"If she has time. She has gone riding with Dr. Ballard. They just +trotted away together. Oh, it was lovely!" + +Mr. Evringham, leaning his head back, looked off under his heavy brows +as he responded:-- + + "Across the hills and far away, + Beyond their utmost purple rim, + And deep into the dying day + The happy princess followed him, + +"and all that sort of business, I suppose." + +"I don't know what you mean," said Jewel doubtfully. + +"I should hope not. Well, what else have you done? Been treating any +rheumatism? I haven't had it since the sun shone." + +"You never asked me to," returned the child. + +Mr. Evringham smiled. "The sunshine is a pretty good treatment," he +observed. + +"Sometimes your belief comes into my thought," said Jewel, "and of +course I always turn on it and think the truth." + +"Much obliged, I'm sure. I'd like to turn on it myself at times." + +"You can study with cousin Eloise and me, if you'd like to," said Jewel +eagerly. + +"Oh, thank you, thank you," rejoined the broker hastily. "Don't disturb +yourself. There must be some sinners, you know, or the saints would have +to go out of business--nobody to practice on. Well, have you been to the +ravine?" + +"Oh yes! Anna Belle and I, and we had more _fun_! We made a garden." + +"Morning or afternoon?" + +"Morning." + +"Well I wish to know," said Mr. Evringham in a suddenly serious and +impressive tone, "I wish to know if you reached home in time for lunch." + +Jewel felt somewhat startled under the daze of his piercing eyes, but +her conscience was clear. "Yes, I was here in plenty of time. I wanted +to surely not be late, so I was here too soon." + +"That's what I was afraid of," returned Mr. Evringham gravely. "I +don't wish you to be unpunctual, but I object equally to your returning +unnecessarily early when you wish to stay." + +"But I couldn't help it, grandpa," Jewel began earnestly, when he +interrupted her. + +"So I've brought you this," he added, and took from his pocket an oblong +package, sealed at each end. + +The child laid her doll in the broker's lap,--he had become hardened to +this indignity,--and her fingers broke the seals and slipped the paper +from a morocco case. + +"Push the spring in the end," said Mr. Evringham. + +She obeyed. The lid flew up and disclosed a small silver chatelaine +watch. The pin was a cherub's head, its wings enameled in white, as +were the back and edges of the little timepiece whose hands were busily +pointing to blue figures. + +Jewel gasped. "For me?" + +Her grandfather smoothed his mustache. He had presented gifts to ladies +before, but never with such effect. + +"Grandpa, grandpa!" she exclaimed, touching the little watch in +wondering delight. "See what Divine Love has sent me!" + +Mr. Evringham raised his eyebrows and smiled, but he was soon assured +that Love's messenger was not forgotten. He was instantly enveloped in +a rapturous hug, and heroically endured the bitter of the watchcase +pressing into his jugular for the sweet of the rose-leaf kisses that +were assaulting his cheek like the quick reports of a tiny Gatling gun. + +"See if you can wind it," he said at last. + +Jewel lifted her treasure tenderly from its velvet bed, and he showed +her how to twist its stem, and then pinned it securely on the breast of +her light sailor suit, where she looked down upon it in rapt admiration. + +"Now then, Jewel, you have no excuse!" he said severely. + +She raised her happy eyes, while her hand pressed the satin surface of +her watch. "Grandpa, grandpa!" she said, sighing ecstatically, "you're +such a joker!" + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +THE RAVINE GARDEN + +Mrs. Evringham tried heroically to look impassive when her daughter +returned from the ride. There was barely time then to dress for dinner, +and no opportunity for confidences before the meal, nor afterward until +bedtime; but the look of peace and sweetness in Eloise's face could have +but one significance to the mother, who believed that peace lay only in +the direction upon which she had set her heart. + +Mr. Evringham took coffee with them after dinner in the drawing-room, +while Jewel caressed her watch, never tiring of looking at its clear +face and the little second hand which traveled so steadily its tiny +circuit. + +Mrs. Evringham looked often toward the door, expectant of the doctor's +entrance. The evening wore on and he did not come. Still Eloise's face +wore the placid, restful expression. A gentle ease with her grandfather +replaced her old manner. + +Her mother determined to try an experiment. + +"You could never guess who called to-day, Eloise," she said suddenly. + +Her daughter looked up from her coffee. "No. Who was it?" + +"Nat Bonnell." + +"Really!" The girl's tone indicated great surprise, and that only. "I +wish I might have seen him." + +The addition was made so calmly, almost perfunctorily, that Mrs. +Evringham smiled with exultation. + +She turned to her father-in-law. "Who would believe that Mr. Bonnell +was Eloise's brightest flame a year ago? 'How soon are we forgot!'" she +said lightly. + +When Jewel had kissed them all good-night and gone upstairs, and Mr. +Evringham had withdrawn to his library, Mrs. Evringham took her child's +hand and looked fondly into her eyes. + +"Well?" she asked. + +"Well," returned Eloise, "do tell me everything Nat said." + +"After you've told me everything Dr. Ballard said. I supposed you'd fly +to tell me, dear." + +The girl looked tenderly back into the eyes that were sharp with +inquiry. "Dear little mother," she returned, "it can't be." + +"What can't be?" + +"What you wish. Dr. Ballard." + +"Have you--refused him--!" Mrs. Evringham's face whitened, and +unconsciously she stepped back. + +"It didn't have to come to that. Dr. Ballard is so fine--such a wise man +in so many ways. I do admire him so much." + +"What did you say to him? I will know!" exclaimed Mrs. Evringham +passionately. + +Eloise was mute, and her eyes besought her mother. + +"Speak, I say! Was it Christian Science? Did you dare, Eloise Evringham, +did you _dare_ spoil your life--my life--our future, by scaring Dr. +Ballard with that bugbear?" The angry woman was breathing fast. + +"Mother dear, don't give us something so painful to remember. Don't, I +beg of you. Dr. Ballard does not reproach me. He thinks I shall change, +and he wishes to give me time to see if I do. Think of him, if you will +not think of me. He would be so shocked to have you take it this way. +If you could have seen how kind he was, how patient. Dear mother, don't +cry. It isn't anything I can help, unless I should deliberately turn +dishonest." + +But Mrs. Evringham did cry, and heartily. She hurried away to her own +room as quickly as possible, and locked the door against Eloise, who lay +awake for hours with a strange mingling of regret and joy at her heart, +and a constant declaring of the truth. + +At midnight the girl heard the door unlock and saw her mother emerge. + +"Darling mamma!" she exclaimed, springing out of bed. + +"Oh, Eloise," moaned the poor woman, dissolving again upon her child's +shoulder. "I never went to bed without your kiss, and I can't bear it. +How can you be so cru--cru--cruel!" + +"Darling, everything is going to come right," returned Eloise, holding +her close. "Nothing good would come of doing wrong. I never loved you so +much as now. I never saw duty so plainly. Dearest, in one way I suffer +for you, but still I was never so happy. I have grasped the end of the +clue that will surely lead us safely through the labyrinth, no matter +what life brings. You will see, mamma dear, after a while you will see. +Don't go back. Come into my bed." + +Disconsolately Mrs. Evringham obeyed, and in a few minutes, worn out +with emotion, she had sobbed herself to sleep in her child's arms; and +although for many days afterward she wore a languid air, and declared +that there was nothing to live for, she yielded herself to Eloise's +courageous and quietly joyful atmosphere, with silent wonder at her +child's altered outlook. + +On the morning following the painful interview with her mother, Eloise +presented herself in Jewel's room at the usual hour. + +Smiling, she approached the child and exhibited three fresh new books. +India paper editions of the Bible and "Science and Health," and the +little brown pamphlet were in her hands. + +"Yours?" exclaimed the child. + +Eloise nodded. + +"Good, good!" Jewel hopped up and down, and forthwith brought Anna Belle +to have her share in the rejoicing. + +"You were afraid you couldn't get them. Now see!" cried the child +triumphantly. "As if Divine Love couldn't send you those books!" + +"He showed me a way," returned the girl. "See where I've written my +name. I want you to put 'Jewel' right under it in each one." + +"Oh, in those lovely books?" said the child doubtfully. "I don't write +very well." + +"Yes, I want it, dear, when we go downstairs and can get some ink. Did +anybody fix your hair yesterday?" + +"I just brushed it down real smooth on the outside," returned the child. + +"It looks so," said Eloise, laughing. "Let's fix it before we have the +lesson. By the way, what time is it, Jewel?" + +The little girl smiled back at her cousin's reflection in the glass, and +took the open morocco case from the bureau. "Anna Belle and I put him +to bed last night," she said, looking fondly at the silver cherub on +its velvet couch. "We've named him Little Faithful. He'll come to the +lesson, too. I know he's going to be a lovely Scientist." + +"I'm sure I hope he will, and neither be fast nor lazy," returned +Eloise, as she unbraided the short pigtails. + +"I tell you it wasn't so nice getting the lesson alone yesterday," said +Jewel. "You were away all day! Did you have a nice ride?" + +"Yes," Eloise responded slowly. "The day was very nice--and so is Dr. +Ballard." + +"Did he enjoy it?" asked the child hopefully. The doctor had been a good +deal on her mind. + +"Some of the time," responded Eloise soberly. + +"Why not all the time? Did error creep in?" + +The older girl brushed away in silence for a minute. + +"I didn't mean to talk about grown-up things," said the child, somewhat +abashed. "Mother says I must be careful not to." + +"It is all right, Jewel. The new ideas I have been learning have made +me see some things so clearly. One is to perceive what it is that really +draws people together in a bond that cannot be broken. There is only one +thing that can do it and will do it, and that is loving the same truth. +Two people can have a very good time together for a while, and like each +other very much, but the time comes when their thoughts fly apart unless +that one bond of union is there--unless they love the same spiritual +truth." + +The speaker caught, in the glass, the child's eyes fixed attentively +upon her. + +"Wouldn't Dr. Ballard look at our book?" asked Jewel softly. + +"No, dear." + +The child reflected a minute, and her eyes filled. "I just love him," +she said. + +Her cousin stooped and kissed her cheek. "You well may," she returned +quietly. "He deserves it." + +They studied the lesson and then went downstairs, where Jewel in her +very best hand slowly transcribed her name in the new books; then she +told Eloise that she was going out to the barn. + +"I'm going to visit with Zeke," she said. "He has a claim of error, and +he is willing Science should help him." + +"Is he ill?" + +Jewel looked off. "It isn't that kind of error." + +"There are plenty worse," rejoined Eloise. She looked doubtfully at the +little girl. "Wouldn't you better tell me, dear? Is it right for you to +go?" + +"Yes, it's right. His mother knows it, and she's so kind to me. What do +you think! At breakfast she asked me if I wouldn't like to bring Anna +Belle down. She says I can bring her to the table whenever I want to. +Isn't it nice? The dear little creature has been so patient, never +having a thing to eat!" + +Eloise could not help laughing, the manner in which Jewel finished +was so suddenly quaint; but she shook her head in silent wonder as she +watched the short skirted figure setting forth for the barn. + +"Oh cousin Eloise." Jewel turned around. "Will you come to the ravine +after lunch, and see what Anna Belle and I have done?" + +"Yes." + +Jewel walked on a little further and turned again. "You won't wear your +watch, will you?" she called. + +"No, I'll surely forget it," returned the girl, smiling. + +The small figure went on, well content. + +"Oh, if I could only be invisible in that barn!" soliloquized Eloise. +"How I would like to hear what she will say. How wonderful it is that +that little child has more chance of success, whatever trouble Zeke has +been getting into, than any full-grown, experienced sage, philosopher, +or reformer, who is a worker in mortal mind." + +Anna Belle came to luncheon that day. Mrs. Forbes actually put a cushion +in one of the chairs to lift the honored guest to such a height that +her rosy smile was visible above the tablecloth. Not content with this +hospitality, the housekeeper brought a bread-and-butter plate, upon +which she placed such small proportions of food as might be calculated +to tempt a dainty appetite. Jewel felt almost embarrassed by the +eminence to which her child was suddenly raised. + +"Oh, thank you, Mrs. Forbes," she said; "you needn't take so much +trouble. Anna Belle's just used to having a part of mine." + +But nothing now was too good for Anna Belle. "She shall have a +cup-custard to-morrow," returned the housekeeper. + +Mrs. Evringham looked on with lack-lustre eyes. As well make much of +Anna Belle as any other idol. Everything was stuffed with sawdust! + +How the sunbeams glanced in the woods that day as Jewel, one hand +clasping her doll and the other in Eloise's, skipped along the road to +the ravine! + +When they had stooped under the wire and gone down the bank, how the +brook sang, and how the violets bloomed in Jewel's garden! + +"It's very pretty," said Eloise, regarding the paths and flower beds +which Jewel exhibited with pride. "It's very pretty, but it lacks one +thing." + +"What?" asked the child eagerly. + +"A pond." + +"But it is by the side of a rushing river," returned Jewel. + +"Yes, but all the more easy to have a pond." + +"How?" + +"We'll set a shallow pan, and sink it in the ground, and plant ferns +about it to hang over. Anna Belle can have some little china dolls to go +in wading in it." + +"Oh yes, yes!" cried Jewel delighted. "Hear that, dearie? Hear what Love +is planning for you?" + +Anna Belle's nose was buried in the grass and her hat was awry. If she +had a fault, it was a tendency to being overdressed. At present her +plumed hat and large fluffy boa gave her an aspect unsympathetic with +the surroundings. Jewel pulled her upright and placed her on the mossy +divan. + +"If I'd only brought the trowel I could get the hole ready," Jewel was +saying, when a whistle, soft and clear as a flute, sounded above the +brook's gurgle. + +She lifted a finger in caution. "Oh," she whispered, looking up into her +cousin's face, "the loveliest bird! Hush." + +Clear, sweet, flexible, somewhere among those high branches sounded +again the same elaborate phrase. + +Jewel was surprised to see her cousin's pleased, listening expression +alter to eager wonder, then the girl flushed rosy red and started up. +"Siegfried!" she murmured. + +Again came the bird motif sifting down through the rustling leaves. + +"Nat!" called Eloise gladly. + +"Any nymphs down there?" questioned a man's voice. + +"Oh yes!" + +"May Pan come down?" + +"Yes indeed." + +Jewel, watching and wondering, saw a young man in light clothes swing +himself down from tree to tree, and at last saw both his hands close on +both her cousin's. + +The two talked and laughed in unison for a minute, then Eloise freed +herself and turned to the serious-faced child. "You remember my speaking +of Nat the other day?" she asked. "This is he. Mr. Bonnell, this is my +cousin Jewel Evringham. She is landscape gardening just now, and may not +feel like giving you her hand." + +"I can wash it," said Jewel, dipping the earthy member in the brook, +wiping it on the grass, and placing it in the large one that was offered +her. + +"How did you ever find us? I thought you'd gone back to New York. I had +no idea of seeing you," said Eloise in a breath. + +"Didn't your mother tell you? I have a week off." + +The girl's bright face sobered. "Poor mother! She had a--a shock after +you were here yesterday. I suppose it put everything out of her head. +Was it she who sent you to find us?" + +"No; a massive lady met me at the door and informed me that your mother +wished to be excused from every one to-day, but that you had fallen down +a crack in the earth which could be reached up this road." The speaker +looked about. "As there doesn't seem any place to stand here, hadn't we +better sit down before we fall in the brook? I might rescue you, but the +current is swift." + +Eloise at once sank upon the green incline, and he followed her example. +Jewel watched him with consideration, and he became aware of her gaze. + +"What are you making, little girl?" he asked, with his sunshiny smile. + +"A garden; and I could dig the pond if I had brought the trowel." + +"Perhaps my knife will do." He took it out and opened the largest blade. +"What do you think of that?" + +"Do you suppose I should break it?" asked the child doubtfully. + +"You're welcome to try," he replied. + +She leaned forward and accepted it from his outstretched hand. + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +MUTUAL SURPRISES + +"I thought I knew Bel-Air Park," said Bonnell looking about him. "I +never suspected this." + +"Jewel is the Columbus of this spot. She has named it the Ravine of +Happiness." + +Nat looked at his speaker. "That's rather ambiguous. Does she mean where +happiness is buried or where it is found?" + +Eloise smiled. "Jewel never buries any happiness. Well, how is +everybody, Nat? Your mother, first of all." + +"Didn't Mrs. Evringham tell you?" + +The girl's face clouded with apprehension at his surprised tone. +"No. You will think it very strange, but poor mamma was under such +excitement, you must pardon her. Everything went out of her head. Don't +tell me that dear Mrs. Bonnell"--she lowered her voice--"that you have +lost her!" + +He shook his head. "No, I've gained her. She's well." + +"Well!" repeated the girl amazed. "Why, what do you mean? How glorious! +How long since?" + +"About three months." + +"I am so glad! Tell me more good news. Tell me about your own frivoling, +and then I shall hear about the other people." + +The young man shook his head. "I observed Lent this year scrupulously, +and I haven't changed my tactics since Easter. I've been keeping my nose +to the grindstone. Began to see things a little differently, Eloise. I +decided it was mother's innings--decided to drop the butterfly and do +the bee act." + +"Is it possible!" The girl laughed. "Will wonders never cease! What was +the matter? Did the heiresses cut you?" + +"I cut the whole thing, and I have my reward. I suppose your mother +didn't tell you that, either. I'm going into business with Mr. Reeves. +Do you know him? Jewel does." He smiled toward the child, who lifted an +interested face. + +"Yes, I do," she said. "You remember about him, cousin Eloise." + +"Certainly." The girl looked at her friend questioningly. + +"I'm spending this week at his house." + +"And you know about Jewel? He has told you?" + +"Certainly. The one person of his acquaintance who hasn't to unlearn +anything." + +"You mean he talked to you of Christian Science?" + +Bonnell's hands were clasping his knees. His hat lay on the bank beside +him and the thick hair tossed away from his brow. He nodded slowly, +wondering at the sudden attentive interest of her look. + +"Yes," he replied. "We talked on the tabooed subject." + +"Tabooed with whom? You?" she asked disappointedly. + +"No, with you I understand." + +Color flew into Eloise's face. "Who told you that? Mother of course." + +Bonnell nodded, giving a fleeting glance toward the child, who was again +busy at her excavation. + +"Are congratulations in order, Eloise?" he asked quietly. + +"Yes, congratulations." Her eyes grew full of light. "For I have come to +see the truth. That child has shown me." + +The young man's lips remained apart for a second in his surprise at this +declaration, after Mrs. Evringham's detailed representations. + +"Then I may tell you how my mother was healed," he said at last. + +"Oh, was it really so?" + +"Yes." + +"And you, Nat?" Unconsciously Eloise leaned her whole body toward him, +supporting her hand on the ground. "You know about it yourself? You +understand?" + +"Yes." + +"And you believe in it?" + +"With all my heart." + +Her face shone. "Oh, Jewel, do you hear? Mr. Bonnell is a Scientist." +The girl's breathing was hastened. Her eyes were like stars. + +The child sank back from her work and regarded the visitor, smiling. She +was glad, but she was not astonished. In her world a great many young +men had found the key to life, but to Eloise it was something wonderful. +She looked at her old friend as if she had never seen him before. She +reviewed all she knew of his gay life with its background of suffering. + +"Do you study the lessons?" she asked incredulously. "_You_?" + +"Every day. I am surprised beyond measure to find you interested, for +your mother told me--And the doctor--?" + +"Is a very fine man," returned Eloise gravely, as he paused. + +Bonnell's mental questions were answered by her manner. He put his hand +in the pocket of his sack coat and drew out a small, thin, black book. + +Eloise took it. "'Unity of Good,'" she read on its cover. "I haven't +seen this one," she said eagerly. + +"You will," he replied. + +She looked up. "Do you know, I thought just now you were going to take +out your pipe?" she said naively. "That's where you used to keep it." + +"My pipe doesn't like me any more," he rejoined quietly. + +"Are you happy, Nat?" she asked, scrutinizing his face with childlike, +searching eyes. + +"I was never a very solemn codger, was I?" he returned. + +"But are you happier? Does the world look different? Of course it does, +with your mother well." + +"Oh yes," he answered in a changed tone, tossing his head back, and +making a gesture as of throwing away something. "There was nothing in it +before, nothing in it." + +"Yes, yes, I know," she returned comprehendingly. + +Jewel had watched them, and now, as they paused, her voice broke the +silence in which the two friends looked into each other's faces. + +"Cousin Eloise is going to church with me on Sunday," she announced. + +"Oh, certainly." Bonnell smiled. "Wednesday evening meetings and all +now, Eloise. Haven't you attended yet?" + +"No, I've only just learned. I've only just seen. I'm only beginning to +see, Nat. Your mother was healed. Oh, it is _true_, isn't it! It's so +wonderful to find that you, _you_, know more about it than I do, when I +supposed you would scorn it. I can't help expecting to wake up." + +"That is just what you will do," returned Bonnell. "You will waken--to a +thousand things. So your mother objects." + +"Poor little mother," returned Eloise, looking down with sudden sadness. + +"My mother wants you and yours to make us a long visit at View Point +this summer." + +The girl's lovely eyes raised hopefully. "The best thing that could +happen," she exclaimed. + +"I think so," responded her companion. + +When Mr. Evringham returned from golf that afternoon, only his +daughter-in-law was in sight. She inclined her head toward him with the +air of a Lady Macbeth. + +"Have you seen anything of the girls?" she asked as he approached her. + +"Nothing. Where are they?" + +She slowly shrugged her shoulders. "I'm the last one to ask. They +wouldn't think of telling me," she returned. + +"What's up now?" thought Mr. Evringham. "You don't look well, Madge," he +said aloud. + +Once she would have welcomed the evidence of solicitude. Now nothing +mattered. + +"I don't feel well," she replied, "and I can't even call the physician I +prefer." + +Mr. Evringham stared down at her for a silent minute, and light broke +upon him. + +"Is it all off with Ballard?" he asked bluntly. + +"Yes; and that's what you have done, father, by allowing that child +Jewel to come here." + +Mr. Evringham bit his lip. This amused him. + +"Eloise has mounted the new hobby, and is riding for dear life away from +common sense, away from everything that promised such happiness." + +"Do you mean Christian Science?" + +"Of course I do." + +"It's a strange thing, Madge. Do you know, it captures people with good +heads." Mr. Evringham seated himself near his daughter's chair. "I +came out on the train with my friend Reeves. He was talking about young +Bonnell, of whom you spoke last night. Said his mother was cured when +the doctors couldn't do anything. You know her, eh?" + +"As well as if she were my own flesh and blood." + +"Is it a fact, what they say?" + +"She was considered incurable. I know nothing about the rest of it. +Nat was telling me yesterday. Now he is probably infatuated also, and, +sooner or later, Eloise is sure to meet him." + +"H'm, h'm. An old flame, you said," remarked Mr. Evringham. "Indeed! +In--deed! I trust for your sake, Madge, that his is not objectionable to +you." + +"He is," snapped Mrs. Evringham. "A poor fellow, with his way to make +in the world. He's been out of college a couple of years and hasn't done +anything worth speaking of yet." + +"Reeves is going to take him into the business," returned Mr. Evringham. +"I don't know why or wherefore, but the mere fact is decidedly +promising." + +"Oh, who can tell if that will last!" returned the other with scornful +pessimism. "Nat has let too many cotillions to do anything else well. I +can only pray that he will get away without seeing Eloise. Mrs. Bonnell +has invited us to make her a visit this summer. I certainly shall not go +one step!" + +A sudden sound of laughter was heard on the quiet air. Mrs. Evringham +leaned forward. "There are the children now," she said, as +figures turned in at the gateway; "and who is that? It is"--with +desperation,--"he's here! Nat Bonnell is with them!" + +She sat upright with disapproval, clasping the arm of her chair, while +her father-in-law looked curiously at the approaching group. His gaze +fixed on the young man with the well-set head who, swinging his hat in +his hand, was talking fast to Eloise of something that amused them both. +Jewel apparently interrupted him and he stooped with a quick motion, +and in a second she was sitting on his shoulder, shrieking in gleeful +surprise. + +Thus they approached the piazza and came close before noting that it was +occupied. + +"Grandpa, see me!" cried Jewel delightedly. + +Bonnell met the unsmiling gaze of his host as Mr. Evringham rose, and +then caught sight of Mrs. Evringham stonily gazing from her chair. + +"Ah, how do you do?" he called laughingly. + +"Jove, he is a good looking chap!" thought the host, and Bonnell set +Jewel down at his feet with such velocity that Anna Belle was cast +heavily to earth. + +"A thousand pardons!" exclaimed Nat, catching up the doll by the skirt +and restoring her. + +Jewel gave him a bright look. "_She_ knows there is no sensation in +matter," she said scornfully. + +Poor Anna Belle! The topography of the ravine was full of hazards for +her, and her seasons there were always so adventurous and full of sudden +and unlooked-for bumps that her philosophy was well tested, and she +might reasonably have complained of this gratuitous blow; but she smiled +on, as Jewel hugged her. Her mental poise was marvelous, whatever might +be said of the physical. + +Eloise introduced her friend and went to her mother's side, while +Bonnell shook hands with Mr. Evringham and exchanged some words +concerning Mr. Reeves and business matters. + +"Wide awake," was the older man's mental comment. "Doesn't seem at all +the sort of person to be fooled about that healing business. Good eye. +Good manner. Perhaps this was Ballard's handicap all the time. I guess +you're in for it, Madge." + +Nat moved to greet Mrs. Evringham, who gave him no welcoming smile. She +leaned back listlessly, not caring what effect she produced. He seemed +to her a part of the combination entered into by the Fates to thwart and +annoy. + +Bonnell knew her nearly as well as Eloise did. "I'm sorry you're under +the weather," he said sympathetically, when he had discovered that, in +his own phrase, there was "nothing doing." "I received a letter from my +mother to-day, in which she impressed upon me that she expected you both +by the middle of June." + +"My plans have changed since yesterday, Nat," returned Mrs. Evringham +dismally. "Yes. We shall not be able to go to your mother's, as I had +hoped. Some time during the season I shall try to look in on her of +course. You tell her so, Nat, when you write." + +"Nonsense, nonsense, Mrs. Evringham. You don't in the least mean it," he +returned cheerfully, with the smile and manner which she could not and +would not endure. + +"I do mean it, Nat. I tell you my plans are changed. Eloise and I may go +to Europe." + +Naturally she had never thought of Europe until that moment, but that +laughing, caressing light in Nat Bonnell's eyes was insufferable. + +"Ah, in that case, of course," he returned, "we couldn't say a word," +and then he moved to go. + +Mr. Evringham urged the visitor to stay to dinner, but he declined and +once more shook hands. + +"Good-by, Jewel," he said to the child. "Sunday, you know." + +"Yes indeed, I know," she returned, an irresistible tendency to hop +moving her feet. On nearer acquaintance she had found Mr. Bonnell +exhilarating. + +"Good-by, Nat," said Eloise. + +He looked into the face on which rested a cloud. "I think you might be a +degree more attentive," he suggested. + +"How?" + +"Oh--take me to the gate, for instance." + +Eloise smiled and went with him. He turned with a slight bow that +included the group, and they strolled down the path. + +"It's all up, Madge," remarked Mr. Evringham, half smiling. "No use +wriggling, no use staying away from the mother. Might as well yield +gracefully. I think Ballard might have been told, that's all." + +"There was nothing to tell, father! How can you be so unkind? That's +just Nat's manner. He is used to everybody liking him, and always having +his own way; but Eloise never--she _never_"--the speaker saw that if she +continued, in a moment more she would be weeping, and she certainly was +not going to weep in this company. So she contented herself by +glaring toward the gate, where could be seen two figures in earnest +conversation. + +"I had counted so much on Mrs. Bonnell's influence," Eloise was saying. +"What does mother mean? She knows my mind is made up as to Christian +Science. What is she afraid of?" + +Bonnell caught his thumbs in his coat pockets and lifted himself +slightly on his toes. "She is afraid of me." + +"Of you?" The girl lifted surprised eyes to his and let them fall again, +her grave face coloring. + +"She has always been more or less afraid of me. I'm ineligible, you +know." + +"Yes, you are, awfully, Nat," returned Eloise earnestly. "That's what +makes you so nice. Didn't we always have a good time together?" + +"Yes, on those rare occasions when we had a chance, but Mrs. Evringham +always suspected me. She never felt certain that I wasn't waiting for +your skirts to be lengthened and your hair to go up in order to steal +you." + +Eloise tried to look at him, but found it more comfortable to examine +the inexpressive gravel path. "But now you have something to think of +besides girls," she said gently. + +"Yes. Do you know, Eloise, if I had been promised the granting of one +wish as I took the cars for Bel-Air, it would have been that I might +find you convinced of the truth of Christian Science." + +She looked at him now brightly, gladly. "It is such a help to me to know +that you are in it," she returned. Their hands simultaneously went forth +and clasped. "What shall we do about mother?" + +He smiled. "That will all come right," he returned confidently. + +"There are classes, Nat," she said. "Have you been through one?" + +"Not yet. Perhaps we could enter together." + +"Do you think so?" she returned eagerly. + +He was looking down at her still--calm, strong. + +She started. "I mustn't be late to dinner. Good-by. Sunday, Nat." + +"Not to-morrow? I want some golf." + +"Yes, go. It's a fine links. I'm sorry, but I'd better not go there for +the present. Good-by." + +She was gone, so he strolled on and out through the park, and as he +went he put two and two together, and suspected the cause of the girl's +objection to golf. + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +ON WEDNESDAY EVENING + +"This is my silk dress, grandpa," said Jewel, coming out on the piazza +Sunday morning. + +Mr. Evringham was sitting there reading the paper. He looked up to +behold his granddaughter standing expectantly. + +She had on the cherished frock. Her plump black legs ended in new shoes, +the brim of her large hat was wreathed with daisies, snowy ribbons +finished her well-brushed braids, while, happiest touch of all, Little +Faithful was ticking away on her breast. + +"Well, who is this bonnie lassie?" asked Mr. Evringham, viewing her. + +"It's my best one," said Jewel, smilingly, coming close to him. + +"I should hope so. If you were anything grander I should have to put on +smoked glasses to look at you. Church, eh?" He took the brown pamphlet +she carried and examined it. + +"Yes. I wish you were coming." + +"Oh, I have an important engagement at the golf club this morning." + +"Have you? Well, grandpa, I was thinking you can't play golf or ride at +night, and wouldn't you take me Wednesday evening?" + +"Where to?" + +"Church." + +"Heavens, child! Wednesday evening prayer meeting?" asked the broker in +perturbation. + +"No. It's just lovely reading and singing and interesting stories," +replied Jewel, endeavoring to paint the picture as attractively as +possible. + +"H'm. H'm. Do you suppose Mr. Reeves goes?" + +"Why, of course," replied the child. "Scientists never stay away." + +"Then should I be considered a Scientist if I went? I still have some +regard for my reputation." + +"A great many visitors go," replied the child earnestly. Then she added, +with unmistakably sincere naivete, "I don't mind leaving you in the +daytime, because we're used to it; but I was thinking it would make +me homesick, grandpa, to go away in the evening and leave you in the +library." + +Mr. Evringham took her little hand in his. "Have you thought, Jewel," he +asked, "how it will be when you leave me altogether?" + +"I shall have mother and father then," returned the child. + +"Yes; but whom shall I have?" + +The question came curtly, and Jewel looked into the deep-set eyes in +surprise. "Shall you miss me, grandpa?" she asked wonderingly. + +"Whom shall I have, I say?" he repeated. + +The child thought a minute. "Just who you had before," she answered, +slipping her arm around his neck. "There's Essex Maid, you know." + +The broker gave a short laugh. "Yes. It's lucky, isn't it?" he returned, +rather bitterly. + +"Do you like to have me with you, grandpa?" pursued the child, pleased. + +"Yes; confound it, Jewel, yes." + +"Then Divine Love will fix it somehow, for I love to be with you, too." + +"You do, eh? Then I'll tell you that I received a letter from your +father yesterday. It was a very pleasant letter, but it said they felt +obliged, if they could, to stay over a little longer--two or three weeks +longer." + +The child's face grew thoughtful. + +"He said they had just received your letter, and were very pleased and +thankful to know that you were happy. He said it would be a business +advantage to them to stay, but that they could come home at the +appointed time if you wished it. I am to cable them to-morrow, if you +do." Silence for a minute while Jewel thought. "Do you think you can be +happy with me a little longer than you expected?" + +"I do want to see mother and father very much," returned the child, "but +I'm just as happy as anything," she added heartily, after a pause. + +Mr. Evringham had listened with surprising anxiety for the verdict. +"Very well, very well," he returned, with extra brusqueness, picking up +his newspaper. "I guess there won't be anything to prevent my going +to that meeting with you Wednesday evening, Jewel. Just once, you +understand, once only." + +At this moment the brougham drove around to the steps, and Eloise came +out upon the piazza. She was a vision of dainty purity in her white +gown, white hat, and gloves. + +Mr. Evringham rose, lifted his hat, and going down the steps opened +the door of the carriage. "A man need not be ashamed to have these two +ladies represent him at church," he said, looking into Eloise's calm +eyes. + +She smiled back at him. There was no suspicion now of sarcasm or stings. +The air she breathed was wholesome and inviting. The lump had been +leavened. + +Arrived at the hall where the services were held, the girls were ushered +into good seats before the room rapidly filled. + +They saw Mr. Reeves and his family and Mr. Bonnell come in on the other +side, and the latter did not rest until he had found them and sent over +a bright, quick nod. + +The platform was beautiful by a tall vase of roses at the side of the +white reading-desk, and Eloise listened eagerly to the voices of the +man and woman who alternately read the morning lesson. The peace, +simplicity, and quiet of the service enthralled her. She looked over the +crowd of listening, reverent faces with wistful wonder. Nat was among +them, _Nat_! Sometimes she glanced across at his attentive face. Nat at +church, in the morning; thoroughly interested! She pinched her arm to +make quite certain. + +Once when they rose to sing, it was the hymn she had heard. The voices +swelled:-- + + "O'er waiting harpstrings of the mind + There sweeps a strain, + Low, sad, and sweet, whose measures bind + The power of pain." + +The girl in the white dress did not sing. She swallowed often. The voice +of the child at her side soared easily. + + "And o'er earth's troubled, angry sea, + I see Christ walk; + And come to me, and tenderly, + Divinely, talk." + +What a haven of promise and peace seemed this sunny, simple place of +purity. + + "From tired joy and grief afar, + And nearer Thee, + Father, where Thine own children are + I love to be." + +Jewel, looking up at her companion, was surprised to see her lashes wet +and her lower lip caught between her teeth. + +"What's the matter, cousin Eloise?" she whispered softly as they sat +down. + +The girl tried to smile. Words were not at her command. "Gladness," she +returned briefly; which reply caused Jewel to meditate for some time. + +They had a talk with Nat and were presented to the Reeves family after +church, and Eloise felt herself in an atmosphere of love. + +Jewel left the group for a private word to Zeke before her cousin +should come to enter the brougham. 'Zekiel sat bolt upright in the most +approved style, and did not turn his face, even when the child addressed +him. + +"I've been wondering this morning," she said, "how we can manage for you +to come to church, 'Zekiel." + +"Oh, I have it six times a week," returned the coachman. + +"But it's so lovely just to listen to them read and not have to hunt up +the places or anything." + +"I'm satisfied with my minister," returned Zeke, almost smiling. + +Eloise and Mr. Bonnell came out to the carriage, so there was no further +time for talk. + +The subject remained in Jewel's mind, however. On Wednesday morning, +just before Mr. Evringham went to the station, the child seized him in +the hall. + +"Grandpa, don't you think it would be nice to go in the trolley car to +church to-night?" + +"To--where?" asked the broker, frowning. + +"This is the night we're going to church, you know." + +"The dev--Ah, to be sure. So we are. Well--a--what did you say? Trolley +car? Why?" + +"Well, we could all go then, you know," returned Jewel. "Cousin Eloise +wants to go, but," the child's honesty compelled her, "she wouldn't have +to go with us because it is Mr. Bonnell's last night in Bel-Air, and +I heard him ask if he might come for her; but I do so want Zeke to go, +grandpa!" + +"Well, for the love of"--began the broker slowly. + +"Yes, Zeke is getting to understand a good deal about Christian Science. +He has some claims of error that his mother knows about, and they make +her sorry, and I've been helping him and reading to him out of my books, +and I do want him to go to the testimonial meeting so much." + +The child looked wistfully up into the dark eyes that rested upon her. +Mr. Evringham had remarked his housekeeper's change of spirit toward the +little girl, had wondered at the increasing and even reckless indulgence +of Anna Belle, who from being an exile in the stair closet had now +arrived at a degree of consideration and pampering which threatened to +turn her head. + +"Jewel," he said impressively, "I wish you to understand one thing +distinctly. You are not now or at any future time to try to make a +Christian Scientist of Essex Maid." + +From wondering sobriety Jewel's lips broke into a gleeful smile. "I +don't have to," she cried triumphantly. "She is one! Anyway, she has +demonstrated everything a horse ought to!" + +Mr. Evringham flung his hands over his head despairingly. "Great +heavens!" he exclaimed tragically, rushing out to the brougham, Jewel at +his heels in peals of laughter. + +But they went to church in the trolley car. Eloise reached the same +place with Mr. Bonnell, but whether she walked or drove or rode nobody +ever knew, and it didn't matter much, for a full moon illumined the +night. + +Early in the evening a young man entered the hall quietly and took a +back seat. It was Zeke. + +Mr. Reeves saw Jewel and her grandfather come in, and softly he smote +his knee. "She's done it!" he ejaculated mentally. He noted the broker's +haughty carriage, the half challenging glances he threw to right and +left as he proceeded up the aisle to the position of Jewel's choice. + +Mr. Reeves composed his countenance with some difficulty, and catching +the wandering eye, gave his friend a grave bow. + +Testimonial meetings differ in point of continued interest. This proved +to be a good one. The most interesting narrative of the evening was Nat +Bonnell's. His self possession, fine presence, and good voice made more +effective the marvelous story of his mother's resurrection to strength. +He told it with dignity and directness, and Mr. Evringham was impressed. + +"What's my rheumatism to that, eh, Jewel?" he whispered, as Nat sat +down. + +"Just nothing, grandpa," replied the child. + +"You think the Creator'd consider me worth attending to, eh?" + +"God doesn't know you have the rheumatism," exclaimed Jewel with soft +scorn. + +"Doesn't? Well! I've always supposed He thought I needed reminding on +account of a number of things, and so touched me up with that. I didn't +blame Him much. + +"If He knew it, it would be real, and then it couldn't be changed," +returned Jewel earnestly in the ear he bent to her. + +The broker sat up and looked down on her large hat and short legs. +"Whew, but I'm a back number!" he mused. + +The next testimonial made Jewel's eyes brighten. It was given by a man +who told a story of hopeless intemperance and his family's want. The +unaffected humility and gratitude that sounded in his voice as he +described the changed conditions which followed his cure caused the +roses to deepen in Jewel's cheeks. She wondered where Zeke was sitting. + +Altogether she was happy over the meeting, and her grandfather's +attitude was as kindly as could have been expected. + +Eloise came into her mother's room that night, beaming. + +"I wish you had come with us," she said. "It was wonderful." + +Mrs. Evringham turned to her with a lofty air. "I have too much loyalty +to friendship to be seen in such a place," she returned. + +"Nat said he wouldn't ask you to come down to bid him good-by, because +he expects to come out to spend Sundays for a while." + +Mrs. Evringham looked at her daughter. All the girl's face had lacked of +vivacity and happy expression it wore now, making her radiant. + +"You could never guess the news I have for you, mother." + +Mrs. Evringham's lips tightened. "Eloise, if you will not marry the fine +man who had my entire approval, it will be outrageous for you to marry +an ineligible, a young fellow whose goods are all in the show window, +who has not proved himself in any way. I refuse to hear your news," she +returned impetuously. + +The girl laughed. "Do you mean Nat, dear?" she asked, her rosy face +coming close. "I'm afraid he's going to spoil himself by becoming +eligible. He has been telling me a lot about the business to-night." + +"Ho! Nat Bonnell could always talk." + +Eloise's arms closed around her. "There's only one source of supply, +mother. Nat has found Him. I am finding Him. We shall not want. What do +you think I have here for you? Grandfather gave it to me." Eloise put +into her mother's hands a draft for a thousand dollars. + +Mr. Evringham appeared to lose sight of the dagger she had been seeing +before her for days. "What is this?" she ejaculated. "A present from +father?" + +"Not at all. Some unknown man owed it to papa, and his conscience made +him pay the debt. It came in grandfather's evening mail, and he has only +just opened it." + +Mrs. Evringham examined the paper eagerly. + +"How wonderful!" she exclaimed. + +"How natural," returned Eloise. "That is the wonderful part of it." + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +A REALIZED HOPE + +One afternoon Mr. Evringham did not return from the city at the usual +time. Jewel, watching for him, was surprised after a while to see him +walking up from the gate. + +"Why, what's happened?" she asked. "Zeke went for you." + +"Yes; but he found he had to leave Dick to be shod." + +"Then are you going to saddle Essex Maid yourself? Oh, can I see you do +it, grandpa?" She hopped with anticipation. + +"I don't know that I'll ride just now. It's an excellent day for +walking. It seems rather strange to me, Jewel, that you've never shown +me the Ravine of Happiness. You talk a good deal about it." + +"Oh, would you like to come?" cried the child, flushing. "Good! I have +the pond all fixed in Anna Belle's garden, and the ferns droop over it +just like a fairy story." + +"Have you put up a sign for the fairies to keep out?" + +"No--o," returned Jewel, drawing in her chin and smiling. + +"Oh well, you may be sure they're at it, then, every moonlight night. +They haven't a particle of respect, you know, for anything. If I were in +Anna Belle's place, I should put up a sign, 'Private Grounds.'" + +"Oh, she's so unselfish she wouldn't. If they only won't break the +flowers she won't care," returned the child, entering into the fancy +with zest. + +Mr. Evringham took the doll from her arms, and carrying it up the steps +deposited it in the piazza chair. + +"Isn't she going?" asked Jewel soberly. + +"No, not this time. She doesn't care, she's been there so much. Just see +how cheerful and comfortable she looks!" + +There was, indeed, a smile of almost cloying sweetness on Anna Belle's +countenance, and she seemed to be seeing pleasing visions. + +"I never saw such a good child!" said Jewel with an admiring sigh; then +she put her hand in her grandfather's and they strolled out into the +park and up the shady road. Just before reaching the bend around which +lay the gorge, Mr. Evringham surprised his companion by breaking in upon +her lively chatter with a tune which he whistled loudly. + +It was such an unusual ebullition that Jewel looked up at him. "Why, +grandpa, I never heard you whistle before," she said. + +"You didn't? That's because you never before saw me out on a lark. I +tell you, I'm a gay one when I get started," and forthwith there burst +again from his lips a gay refrain, that sounded shrilly up the leafy +path. They rounded the bend in the road, and the broker looked down into +the eyes that were bent upon him in admiration. + +"You whistle almost as well as Mr. Bonnell," said the child. + +"Give me time and I dare say I shall beat him out," was the swaggering +response. "Ah, here's your ravine, is it?" + +"Yes, that's"--began Jewel, and went no further. + +A couple of rods from where she suddenly came to a standstill was an +object which for a moment rooted her to the spot. A small horse, black +as jet, with a white star in his forehead and a flowing, wavy mane and +tail, stood by the roadside. His coat, gleaming like satin, set off the +pure white leather of his trappings. On his back was fastened a side +saddle, and he was tethered to the rail of the light fence. + +Mr. Evringham appeared not to see him. He was looking down the rocks and +grass of the steep incline. + +"Is there any sort of a path?" he asked, "or do you descend it as you +would a cellar door? I think you might have told me, so I could change +these light trousers." + +"Grandpa!" exclaimed Jewel in a hushed tone, pointing before her. "See +that horse--just like the coal black steed the princess rides in a fairy +story." + +"Why, that's so. He is a beauty. Where do you suppose the princess is?" + +"She's probably gone down the ravine," returned the child, her feet +drawn forward as if by a magnet. "Let's not go down yet." + +The broker allowed himself to be led close to the pony, who turned his +full bright eyes upon the pair curiously. + +"Do you think I might touch him, grandpa?" asked the child, still in the +hushed voice. + +"If he's a fairy horse he might vanish," returned Mr. Evringham. "Let's +see how he stands it." So saying he gave the shining flank some sturdy +love pats. "Oh, he's all right. He's good substantial flesh and blood." + +"But the lady," said Jewel, looking about, the pupils of her eyes +dilated with excitement. + +"Oh, I don't think a very big lady has been riding in that saddle. You +can do as you'd be done by, I fancy." + +Upon this Jewel stroked the pony over and over lovingly, and he nosed +about her in a friendly way. + +"Grandpa, see him, see him! And oh grandpa, see his beautiful star, +white as a snowflake!" + +"Well, upon my word, if this isn't lucky," remarked Mr. Evringham. "Here +is some sugar in my pocket, now." He passed some lumps to the child. + +"Would it be right?" she asked, glancing down the ravine. "Had I better +wait till the girl comes up?" + +"She won't mind, I'll wager," returned Mr. Evringham; so the child, +thus encouraged, fed the coal black steed, who, for all his poetical +appearance, had evidently a strongly developed sweet tooth. + +"Hello, what's this!" exclaimed the broker, stepping to the fence and +taking up something black and folded. When he shook it out, it proved to +be a child's riding skirt. + +"She's left it there," said Jewel eagerly. "We ought not to touch it. +It's very hard on clothes going down the ravine, and she's left it +there. Don't you think, grandpa, you _ought_ to put it back?" for to her +great surprise her punctilious and particular relative was shaking the +fine skirt about recklessly and examining it. + +"Here's a name," he said, bringing his prize to Jewel and showing her an +oblong bit of white cloth, much as tailors use inside dresses. "What do +you make of it?" + +The child, disturbed by such daring, and dreading to see the owner of +these splendid possessions scramble up the bank, looked reluctantly. + +The name was a long one, but so familiar that she recognized it at once. +"Evringham." + +She lifted her eyes to her grandfather. "It's the same as ours." + +"There isn't another Evringham in Bel-Air," returned the broker. "The +fairies dropped this for you, I guess, Jewel. It certainly won't fit me. +Let's try it on." + +He slipped it over the head of the dazed child and hooked it around her +waist. + +"'It fitted her exactly,'" murmured Jewel. "They always say so in fairy +stories. + +"Look here," said her grandfather. He put his hand into the stirrup and +drew out a folded bit of paper. He handed it to the child, who began to +wonder if she was dreaming. + +DEAR JEWEL (she read),--I believe you expected Divine Love to send you a +horse. I have come to belong to you, and my name is STAR. + +It was astonishing what a large, round penmanship the pony possessed. +There was no possibility of mistaking a word. + +Jewel read the note over twice as she stood there, the long, scant +skirt, making her look tall. Mr. Evringham stood watching her. His part +in the comedy was played. He waited. + +She looked up at him with eyes that seemed trying to comprehend a fact +too large. + +"Grandpa, have you given me this horse?" she asked solemnly, and he +could see her hands beginning to tremble. + +"Oh, am _I_ to get some credit for this?" returned the broker, smiling +and twisting his mustache. "I didn't expect that." + +He knew her lack of motion would not last long, and was bracing himself +for the attack when, to his surprise, she pulled up the impeding skirt +and made a rush, not for him, but for the pony. Hiding her face on the +creature's satin shoulder, she flung her arm around his throat, and +seizing his rippling mane, sobbed as if her heart would break. + +Mr. Evringham had not spent weeks in selecting and testing a horse for +his granddaughter without choosing one whose nervous system would be +proof against sudden assaults of affection; but this onslaught was so +energetic that the pony tossed his head and backed to the end of his +tether. + +His new mistress stumbled after him, her face still hidden. She was +trying heroically to stifle the sobs that were shaking her from head to +foot. + +"Jewel, Jewel, child!" ejaculated her grandfather, much dismayed. "Come, +come, what's this?" + +He drew her with a strong hand, and she deserted the pony, much to the +latter's relief, and clasping Mr. Evringham as high up as she could +reach, began bedewing his vest buttons with her tears. + +"Oh, gra--grandpa, I c--can't have him!" she sobbed. "There isn't any +roo--room for him in our--our fla--fla--flat!" + +"Well, did you expect to keep him in the flat?" inquired Mr. Evringham, +stooping tenderly, his own eyes shining suspiciously, as he put his arms +around the little shaking form. + +"N--no; but we--we haven't any bar--barn." + +The broker smiled above the voluminous, quivering bows. + +"Well, hasn't some good livery man in your neighborhood a stable?" + +"Ye--yes." Jewel made greater efforts to stop crying. "But I--I talked +with mo--mother once about cou--could I ha--have a horse sometime before +I grew up, and she said she might buy the horse, but it would cost so +much--much money every week to board it, it would be error." + +Mr. Evringham patted the heaving shoulder. + +"Ah, but you don't know yet all about your horse. In some respects I've +never seen a pony like him." + +"I--I never have," returned the child. + +"Oh, but you'll be surprised at _this_. This pony has a bank account." + +Jewel slowly grew quiet. + +"Nobody has to pay for _his_ board and clothes. He is very independent. +He would have it that way." + +"Grandpa!" came in muffled tones from the broker's vest. + +"So don't you think you'd better cheer up and look at him once more, and +tell him you won't cry on his shoulder very often?" + +In a minute Jewel looked up, revealing her swollen eyes. "I'm ashamed," +she said softly, "but he was--so--be--_autiful_--I forgot to remember." + +"Well, I guess you did forget to remember," returned Mr. Evringham, +shaking his head and leading the child to her pony's side. + +He lifted her into the saddle and arranged her skirt, brushing away the +dust. + +"Grandpa!" she exclaimed softly, with a long, quivering sigh, "I'm so +_happy_!" + +"Have you ever ridden, Jewel?" + +"Oh, yes, a thousand times," she answered quickly; "but not on a real +horse," she added as an afterthought. + +"H'm. That might make a difference." Mr. Evringham loosed the pony +and put the white bridle in the child's hands; then he led the pretty +creature down the woodland road. + +"I'm _so_ happy," repeated Jewel. "What will mother and father say!" + +"You'll be a regular circus rider by the time they come home." + +As the broker spoke these words Zeke appeared around the bend in the +road, riding Essex Maid. His face was alight with interest in the sight +that met him. + +Jewel called to him radiantly. "Oh, Zeke, what do you think?" + +"I think it's great," he responded. "Hello, little kid," he said, as he +came nearer and perceived the signs in the child's face. "Pony do any +harm, Mr. Evringham?" he asked with respectful concern. + +"No; Jewel cried a little, but it was only because I told her she could +not sleep nights in Star's manger." + +The child gave one look of astonishment at the speaker's grave +countenance, and then shouted with a laugh as spontaneous as though no +tear had ever fallen from her shining eyes. + +"See Essex Maid look at my pony, grandpa!" she said joyously. "She looks +so proud and stuck _up_." + +"Look away, my lady," said the broker. "You'll see a great deal more of +this young spring before you see less." + +Zeke dismounted. + +"Now then," Mr. Evringham looked up at the child. "I'm going to let go +your bridle." + +"I want you to," she answered gayly. + +Mr. Evringham mounted his horse. "We'll take a sedate walk through the +woods," he said. "Zeke, you might lead her a little way." + +"No, no, _please_," begged the child. "I know how to ride. I _do_." + +"Well, let her go then," smiled the broker, and Essex Maid trotted +slowly, noting with haughty bright eyes the little black companion, +who might have stepped out of a picture book, but whose easy canter was +tossing Jewel at every step. + +"I haven't--any--whip!" The words were bounced out of the child's lips, +and Mr. Evringham's laugh resounded along the avenue. + +"I believe she'd use it," he said to Zeke, who was running along beside +the black pony. + +"I guess she would, sir," grinned the young fellow responsively. + +It was not many days before Jewel had learned to stay in the saddle. She +had an efficient teacher who worked with her _con amore_, and the sight +of the erect, gray-haired man on his famous mare, always accompanied +by the rosy little girl on a black pony, came to be a familiar sight in +Bel-Air, and one which people always turned to follow with their eyes. + +Eloise had her talk with Mr. Evringham one evening when Jewel was +excluded from the library, and she emerged from the interview with a +more contented heart than she had known for a year. + +She endeavored to convey the situation to her mother in detail, but when +that lady had learned that there were no happy surprises, she declined +to listen. + +"Tastes differ, Eloise," she said. "I am one who believes that where +ignorance is bliss 'tis folly to be wise." Mrs. Evringham had regained a +quite light-hearted appearance in the interest of expending a portion of +her windfall on her own and Eloise's summer wardrobe. + +"Well, you shan't be bothered then," returned her daughter. "You have me +to take care of our money matters." + +"I prefer to let father do it," returned Mrs. Evringham decidedly. "He +is a changed being of late, and we are as well situated as we could hope +to be. I don't feel quite satisfied with the lining of the brougham, but +some day I mean to speak of it." + +Eloise threw up both hands, but she laughed. She and her grandfather had +an excellent understanding, and she knew that the mills of the gods were +about to grind. + +One evening the broker called his daughter-in-law into the library. + +"I hope it isn't on business," she remarked flippantly as she entered. +"I tell you right at the start, father, I can't understand it." Her eyes +wandered about the room curiously. It was strange to her. She took up a +woman's picture from the desk. "Who is this?" she asked. + +"How do you like the face?" he returned. + +The dark eyes and sweet mouth looked back at her. She frowned slightly. +She did not like the situation in which she had found the photograph. It +was far too intimate for a stranger, and made her a little nervous. + +"If he is going to marry again, then good-by indeed!" she thought. + +"I think it is rather sentimental," she returned, with an air of +engaging candor, "don't you? Just my first impression, you know; but +it's a face I shouldn't trust. Who is it?" + +"It is Jewel's mother," returned the broker quietly, "my daughter Julia. +Jewel brought it down last night, also a lot of little letters her +mother had put in the pockets of the child's dresses when she packed +them." + +"Ah!" exclaimed Mrs. Evringham triumphantly. "Didn't I say she was +sentimental? About that sort of thing my perceptions are always so +keen." + +"H'm. I read the letters, and I judged from them that one can trust her. +Will you be seated?" He placed a chair. "I should like to ask your plans +for the summer." + +Mrs. Evringham looked up quickly, startled. "Oh, I haven't any. Have +you?" + +"Yes. I always seek some cool spot. You have an invitation to View +Point, I understand. You could scarcely do better." + +"I have reasons, father," impressively, "reasons for declining that." + +"Then where are you going?" + +"I would just as lief stay here and take care of your house as not," +declared the lady magnanimously. + +"Ha! Without any servants?" + +"Why, what do you mean?" + +"They are going away for a vacation. I am intending to have the house +wired, and Mrs. Forbes and Zeke will hold sway in the barn. She doesn't +wish to leave him." + +Mrs. Evringham was silenced and dismayed. She felt herself being firmly +and inexorably pushed out of this well-lined nest. + +Her eyes fell before the impenetrable ones regarding her. + +"How did Jewel ever win him?" she thought. The picturesque pony, with +his arched neck and expensive trappings, had outraged her feelings for +days. + +"About the View Point plan," continued Mr. Evringham deliberately. +"I think there are influences waiting for you there that will be of +benefit. There is a new philosophy percolating in these days through our +worldly rubbish which you and I would be the better for grasping. Your +chances are better than mine, for you are young still. Your daughter is +expanding like a flower already, in the first rays of her understanding +of it. This young man whom you fancy you can avoid is a help to her. Mr. +Reeves was talking to me about him last night. He says that so far as +his business is concerned, young Bonnell is proving the square peg in +the square hole. I don't know what Eloise's sentiments are toward him, +but I do know that she shall be independent of any one's financial help +but mine." + +Mrs. Evringham lifted her eyes hopefully. + +"I shall eke out the little income which is left to you with sufficient +for you to live--not as you have done--but comfortably." + +The eager light faded from his listener's eyes. + +"Eloise and I have arranged that," he continued, "and she is satisfied. +Take my advice, Madge. Go to View Point." + +"I suppose Eloise doesn't need horses so long as Jewel has them," said +Mrs. Evringham rising. + +Her host followed her example. "She thinks not," he returned concisely; +then he opened the library door, and his daughter-in-law swept from his +presence with all the dignity she could muster. + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +AT TWILIGHT + +It was Sunday, and Mr. Bonnell was dining at Bel-Air Park. Had Jewel +thought of it, she might have contrasted the expression of Mrs. Forbes's +face as she waited at table this evening with the look it wore on the +day she first arrived; might have noted the cheerful flow of talk which +enlivened the board, in distinction from the stiff silence or bitter +repartee which once chilled her. As she responded to the smiles hovering +now about Eloise's lovely lips, she might have remembered the once +sombre sadness of those eyes. Even Mrs. Evringham had buried +the Macbethian dagger, and wore the meek and patient air of one +misunderstood; but nothing would have amazed the child so much as to be +told that she had had anything to do with this metamorphosis. + +Anna Belle,--deserted often now, perforce, on account of the pony, +whose life was a strenuous one, owing to the variety of Jewel's +attentions,--Anna Belle was petted with extra fondness when her turn +came; and she sat at table now in a pleasing trance, her smile an +impartial benediction upon all. + +It had been a glorious June day, the park was at its best. After dinner +the family strolled out toward the piazza. + +Mrs. Forbes had attended her own Baptist church that morning, and the +familiar Sunday-school tune that the children sang floated through her +mind as she looked after the group. + + "When He cometh, when He cometh, + To make up His jewels, + All His pure ones, all His bright ones, + His loved and His own. + + "Little children, little children, + Who love their Redeemer, + Are the jewels, precious jewels, + His loved and His own." + +"What is Mr. Evringham going to do without that child?" she thought. + +The broker was invaded with the same problem as Jewel lingered with +him on the piazza, while the others walked on toward a seat beneath a +spreading maple. + +He ensconced himself in his favorite chair. The thrushes were singing +vespers. The pure air was faintly and deliciously scented. + +"Grandpa, is it too late to bring Star out for a nibble?" asked the +little girl wistfully. + +"No, I guess not," returned the broker as he opened his cigar case. +"Star may have a short life, but he's certainly experiencing a merry +one. There's no moss gathering on that pony." + +Jewel had not waited for more than the permission. She was fleeing +toward the barn. + +Mr. Evringham lighted his cigar, and then his eye fell upon the doll, +too hastily set down, and fallen at a distressing angle. Her eyes were +closed as if her sensibilities had been shocked overmuch. + +"Anna Belle, Anna Belle, has it come to this!" he murmured, picking +up the neglected one, who, with her usual elasticity and exuberance +of spirit, at once opened her eyes and beamed optimistically on her +rescuer. He set her, facing him, on his knee. "Such is youth!" he +sighed. "When she throws you down, I feel that I'm not going to be +so recuperative as you, Anna Belle. I have a plan, however, a plan of +self-defense; but if it weren't for your discretion, I shouldn't tell it +to you, for I'm an old bird, young lady, and can't be caught with chaff. +There are many worthy persons who may rise to lofty heights in eternity, +who nevertheless, meanwhile are not desirable to sit opposite a man at +his breakfast table. A visit, Anna Belle, a short visit from my daughter +Julia is all I shall ask for at first, and I shall test her, test her, +my dear. I'll look at her through a magnifying glass. Of course, if +they'd give me Jewel, it would be all I'd ask for; but they won't. That +is self-evident." + +Here the child came around the corner of the house, leading her pet by a +halter, but with her hand in his mane as she pressed close to his side, +caressing and talking to him. In fact it was the harassing problem of +the pony's life to manage to avoid stepping on her. Zeke lounged in the +background on account equally of his orders and his inclination. + +Star began cropping the grass, and Mr. Evringham continued his +disquisition to the bright-eyed young person on his knee:-- + +"My son Harry is turning out a pretty good sort, I fancy. I'm not +particularly shy of giving him a trial, provided he'll do the same by +me; but I suppose he will have to go West at first, anyway. Julia is a +different thing. I can't whistle her on and off with the same frankness; +and I must be careful, Anna Belle. Do you understand? Careful! And I'm +going to be, by Jove, in spite of the way it makes me cringe to think +of this big house, empty as a drum. It wasn't empty before, that's the +mischief of it. What has happened to me? I thought things were well +enough in those days. Nobody whom I knew was particularly happy. Why +should I be?" + +The thrushes stopped, for Jewel's childish voice floated out on the +evening air. + +Mr. Evringham knew what had happened. He knew that Zeke had asked her to +sing. They two were sitting on the ground, while the pony cropped away +at the sweet grass. + + "From tired joy and grief afar, + And nearer Thee, + Father, where Thine own children are + I love to be!" + +The broker listened for a minute. + +"I'll take Jewel and her mother to the seashore somewhere; for I must +leave the house, if only to let Madge down easily, and too, I wish to +study Julia outside her atmosphere. Poor Madge, she's a light weight, +but I think there are better times coming for her. At View Point she'll +find friends." + +Time passed, and at last Mr. Evringham called, "That will do, Jewel." + +"Do you want Star to go in?" she returned. + +The broker nodded, and the child sprang up and began patting and +smoothing the little horse with energetic affection. + +"It's your bedtime, Star," she said, "but morning's coming." She kissed +his sleek shoulder. "We'll have such a good time in the morning. I don't +bounce a bit now, do I, Zeke?" she asked, turning to him. + +"Well, I guess not," returned Zeke scornfully. "You ain't the kind that +gets bounced after a fellow knows you," he added, smiling. He took the +pony's halter. "Good-night, Jewel." + +"Good-night, Zeke." She ran across the lawn and up the piazza steps. +"How kind of you, grandpa, to amuse Anna Belle!" she exclaimed +gratefully, observing the doll on his knee. At the same time she most +abruptly whisked that patient person into a neighboring chair and +usurped her place. Cuddling down in her grandfather's arms, she nestled +her head against his shoulder and sighed happily. + +The light began to fade, the last smoke from the broker's cigar curled +out into the summer air. He tossed it away and pressed the child more +closely to him. + +"Sing once again the song you sang for Zeke." he said. + +And she began softly in her true, clear voice:-- + + "From tired joy and grief afar, + And nearer Thee, + Father, where Thine own children are + I love to be!" + +"Amen," breathed Mr. Evringham. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Jewel, by Clara Louise Burnham + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JEWEL *** + +***** This file should be named 2778-8.txt or 2778-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/7/7/2778/ + +Produced by Dagny; Emma Dudding; John Bickers; David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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