CHAPTER XXI
AN EFFORT FOR TRUTH
When Eloise spoke in the ravine of talking with her grandfather, it wasbecause for a few days she had been trying to make up her mind to aninterview with him. A fortnight ago she would have felt this to beimpossible; but subtle changes had been going on in herself, and, shethought, in him. If her mother would undertake the interview now andtake that stand with Mr. Evringham which Eloise felt that self-respectdemanded, the girl would gladly escape it; but there was no prospectof such a thing. Mrs. Evringham was only too glad to benefit by herfather-in-law's modified mood, to glide along the surface of thingsand wait--Eloise knew it, knew it every day, in moments when her cheeksflushed hot--for Dr. Ballard to throw the handkerchief.
The girl wished to talk with Mr. Evringham without her mother'sknowledge, and the prospect was a dreaded ordeal. She felt that they hadwon his contempt, and she feared the loss of her own self-control whenshe should come to touch upon the sore spots.
"What would you do, Jewel," she asked the next morning, after they hadread 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 inJewel's lap, and the child twisted out the in-turning morocco foot asshe 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 growaccustomed.
"Oh, Jewel, child," the girl said impatiently, "we'd be sorry to thinkmost of the people we know are thoughts of God."
"That's because you get the error man mixed up with the real one. Motherexplains that to me when we ride in cable cars and places where we seeerror people with sorry faces. There's a real man, a real thought ofGod, behind every one of them; and when you remember to think rightabout people every minute, you are doing them good. Did you say you'reafraid 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'tanybody to be afraid of, for God made him, and God has only lovingthoughts; and of course you must be loving all the time. It'll be justas _easy_ by the time you come to it, cousin Eloise!"
The girl often asked herself in these days why she should begin tofeel unreasonably hopeful and lighter hearted. Her mother no longercomplained of her moods. Mrs. Evringham laid the becoming change in herdaughter's expression to the girl's happiness in discovering that shedid reciprocate Dr. Ballard's evident sentiments.
"Eloise is so high minded," thought the mother complacently. "Shewould never be satisfied to marry for convenience, like so many;" andconsidering herself passingly astute, she let well enough alone, ceasedto bring the physician's name into every conversation, and bided hertime.
One morning Mr. Evringham, coming out of the house to go to town, metEloise on the piazza.
"You are down early," he said as he greeted her, and was passing on tothe 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 thegirlish ones.
"She's a stunning creature," he thought, as the sunlight bathed heryoung 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 youlet me go with you?"
Mr. Evringham, much astonished, raised his eyebrows and took off the hatwhich he had replaced.
"Such a request from youth and beauty is a command," he returned with aslight 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 medrive. My hand seems to have lost its cunning this spring. Shall we sayfour-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 isshe 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 thinkI'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 manI'm afraid of."
"Never say that again," returned the child vehemently. "You are notafraid. There's no one to be afraid of. Do you want me to handle it foryou?"
"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 theman, and all of us, and there's nothing but goodness and love in theuniverse. 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."
Jewel: A Chapter in Her Life Page 25