Bright Arrows

by Grace Livingston Hill

  So the two young people talked on, pleasantly, politely, and Eden did not hasten matters herself, for she was quite content to be talking, with Janet coming and going, knowing very well that Niles Nevin would not likely revert to the subject of marriage while Janet was present. Niles was very formal, and it was scarcely good form to press a girl to marry him in the presence of servants. So the conversation was pleasant and she had plenty of time to study her guest. She knew now definitely that Niles and she would never be congenial. She would not be able to forget that look in his eyes when he had told her she was narrow-minded and fanatical.

  It was late when they at last adjourned to the living room and found comfortable chairs around the fire, which the servants had burning cheerfully.

  Two chairs were placed invitingly near the fire, and a little coffee table between the chairs bore a fresh box of delicious-looking confectionery. No more inviting setting for a talk could have been found.

  Eden came quietly to her chair, trying to be sweet and bright but not feeling too cheerful about it. She dreaded the next two hours more than she would have liked to acknowledge, even to herself. She was desperately tired of the subject of marriage, especially as relating to Niles Nevin, and yet she could not seem to think of talkable topics enough to tide over this time until the visitor would leave.

  Afterward she wondered if the doorbell hadn't rung in answer to her unspoken cry for help. It was Mr. Worden with a paper for her to look over and sign.

  She introduced Niles Nevin to him then listened to his careful explanations and sat reading the paper as he directed, while he chatted with this very nice-looking young man from New York, wondering just what his appearance meant in the picture of Eden's life. Mr. Worden had shrewd eyes and a logical mind, and he knew just what questions to ask to help him find out what he wanted to know. On the whole he was pleased with the young man, and he thought to himself that here at least was no menace to Eden. Though he might turn out to be a menace to the plans Mr. Worden had been dreaming out for Lance Lorrimer and Eden. But then his wife was always getting pretty romances for her friends, and she was particularly fond of Eden. She would be, of course. Well, time would tell.

  Eden signed the paper and chatted a moment with Mr. Worden before he left. As she came back from seeing him to the door, Niles met her just inside the living room and took both her hands in his.

  "I've been thinking, Eden," he said in quite a brotherly tone, gentle and advisory, "that we have gone about this matter all wrong. And it was all my fault. We began by statements of facts and by discussion, and instead it should be a matter of action." Eden gave a quick, worried glance up, but before she could realize what was coming, Niles drew her up close to his chest, one arm around her shoulders possessively. He held her very close, his nice handsome face boldly and firmly on her own, and then his warm lips were on Eden's in a kiss that was most thorough, and he thought convincing.

  "There, isn't that better?" he asked, looking down at her adoringly.

  Eden struggled for an instant frantically, and then finding that she could not get free by struggling, she said: "No! No! Stop, Niles! Please, don't do that!" She struggled again, dragging her hands from his clasp by main force, drawing back and turning her face away from another caress, which was obviously on its way. "Let me go! You have no right! Stop! I thought at least you were a gentleman!"

  "What is there about a kiss that you could call it ungentlemanly?" he asked and then drew her close again with another quick, purposeful caress. At least she should understand once and for all what his feeling for her was, and he did his best to rouse her own sensibilities. She must be human. She would have to remember that kiss. It must be imprinted deep in her soul!

  But Eden suddenly struggled free from his embrace and backed to the hall door.

  "That will be all," she said haughtily, and her eyes were flashing bright with tears.

  He stood back a step and looked at her, with a self-confident smile on his lips.

  "You know you liked that, Eden; now be honest and say yes."

  "No!" said Eden. "I did not like it, and I don't want you ever to touch me again. I don't even want to be friends with you now anymore. You know you had no right."

  The young man stood bewildered and looked at her. What strange kind of girl was this that didn't adore to be kissed?

  At last he grew dignified, apologetic, quite grave.

  "Really, Eden, I see I have been greatly misunderstood. I sincerely beg your pardon. I was merely trying to show you how you had stirred my heart. I thought if you knew, you would be human enough to respond. But I see I was mistaken. I do hope you will forgive me, and perhaps sometime when you know me better you will be kinder to me. I'm sorry I have hurt you. Suppose we just sit down by the fire and have a nice little talk and forget all about this. In a short time now I shall have to go, and I'd rather remember a pleasant talk instead of a disagreement. Are you willing?"

  Eden gave him a steady look and then assented, sitting quietly down in her chair and looking to him to do the same.

  "Would you like another cup of coffee? I see Janet has brought it in for us," she said with dignity.

  "Why, yes, I certainly would," he said affably and sat down opposite to her, accepting the cup she poured. They looked like two well-bred young people having a pleasant chat. It was a great relief to Eden.

  And very soon the time came for the young man to leave.

  He gave her a quick look as he rose to say good-bye.

  "I'm indeed sorry I spoiled the afternoon for you," he said. "I do hope sometime you will let me come back and redeem my character. I want, at least, to be a gentleman to you."

  Eden gave him a pleasant, sad little smile and tried to be gentle and forgiving, but he saw plainly that she was not pleased with him, and her reaction humbled him. He had come to win her for his own, hoping to mold her over to suit his family, and he found quite definitely that instead he seemed to have lost her.

  At the end he asked: "Have you really forgiven me?" And she answered "Why, of course. Just forget it all and have a good time."

  But he answered with a quavering smile, quite humbly, "I can see I was never good enough for you!" With one more lingering wistful look he left her, just in time to catch his train.

  As she turned to go back into the house, Janet met her at the door, grimly rejoiceful.

  "So, thet's over an' gane, is't? Well, thanks be! He's nae yer koind. Noo, gang awa' an' rest ye whiles ye have a chancet."

  Then Eden sat down in her room and looked her life in its face, wondering if she had done altogether right. Would her mother have felt she ought to have waited, perhaps, and not sent this pleasant young man away so summarily? Would Daddy have approved her action? He had not known this man. But he was, of course, in a class with the people her father knew and liked. Still, was he what Daddy would have chosen for her, to go the rest of the way with her? Did God approve what she had done? Had she really put herself in God's hands to show her what would be best for her, or had she just acted on impulse? And did she approve of what she had done herself?

  She went back over the afternoon and her own reactions to what her would-be lover had said, and she found herself turning away unpleasantly from some of the memories. Not even those wild, passionate kisses of Niles's had roused any feeling of love for him in her heart. No, she could not have been wrong. She could never have married him, been tied to her reverence for his wonderful family all her life. They might be very wonderful intellectually, financially, socially, but her family was a royal family, known in heaven.

  And so that night she lay down to sleep with a heart at peace and feeling that she was really glad she was at home in her own bed, with her own dear people about her, even though they were but servants. She was glad she was not on her way to New York to begin a new life of journeying wherever an unknown family dictated.

  Chapter 18

  Lance Lorrimer was on his way home on the midnight train. He had been on a busines
s trip to New England for the bank and had been working over the notes he had taken while away. He had them in pretty good shape now, and he was numbering his pages and tying up his files so that there would be no confusion when he came to report at the bank in the morning. Suddenly he became aware of what the man in the seat in front of him was saying. It is wonderful how a familiar name can catch one's ear in a place where it is unexpected. And the name that was mentioned had been much in his thoughts during the last few days.

  "That Thurston dolly has been getting herself engaged lately, I hear. Beats all how the news gets around. I don't suppose I'd have heard much about it if it hadn't been for Sam. He's been substituting on the mail route for Jacoby Winters for the last fortnight ur so, while Jacoby had the flu, an' he told me. He said as how this here guy from New York had been writin' letters an' even postcards. Most of 'em was postcards it seems, else he wouldn't have knowed so much about their affairs. Yes, sir, the expensive kind of postcards, all photographs and colored pictures on 'em, mostly Palm Beach. He'd been writin' them all the season. He's seen 'em off'n on. Of course, he wasn't supposed to mention it, and he was usually very particular, though, of course, we home folks don't count. And so he'd come in to supper and he'd say, 'Well, that Eden Thurston got another bunch o' mail today,' he'd say, 'an' two postcards. My but that guy does waste money!' He tells her how he's always watching for her answers, and how the day isn't nothin' when she don't write, an' all that slob, ya know. An' he says he's comin' pretty soon, an' he'll tell her more. An' he says they'll have some trip pretty soon, an' fer her not to waste her time gettin' stuff fer the journey. He'll he'p her pick it out when he comes."

  "You don't say!" the other man exclaimed. "Strange, I've never heard anything about her bein' engaged."

  "Well, I guess it's an 'ngagement, all righty. Tom said it sounded a lot like it. And they say he's been ta see her twicet this spring. Oncet about six weeks ago, only stayed a day. Then jus' this week. Seems his mother's awful sick, an' they got two nurses. He must have a pile of money. He's figuring on a trip to Californy, mebbe he means the weddin' trip, an' wants her to be all ready when he calls up."

  "Does sound like it, don't it? Wal, I'm certainly s'prized. Her papa useta be so keerful to her. But now he's gone, an' she's got money aplenty, it's not strange the young men should come around after her. Pretty girl, too."

  "Certainly is," said the other man. "Don't b'lief there's a prettier, ner a richer girl in the hull down of Glencarroll!"

  "That's right! But I thought there was another feller she was 'bout promised to. Caspar Carvel, wasn't that his name?"

  "Yes, that's the name. But he went to war. Hasn't been seen back in three years, has he?"

  "Yes, he has," said the other. "I saw him myself just last week comin' out of the Thurston house. Seems to me that girl has got more than her share of men. And I don't suppose that is a whole tale, either. A girl as pretty as that ought to have a lot of beaus."

  "Yes, but, you see, that Thurston girl never was one to flirt. She went around with that Caspar Carvel in school years, but I haven't seen her around much with any fella lately. She stuck by that sick father of hers. She never seemed to leave him. She wasn't around anywhere while he was alive."

  "Yes, I'll own she was a faithful daughter. And he was a good man, her father. He done his best to bring up that girl right. I guess he done a pretty good job of it, too. She's a modest-appearing girl, and I hope to goodness she gets a good husband."

  "Well, the guy I saw comin' away from the house seemed like a nice-appearin' fella."

  "Well, if what you say is so, then I suppose we'll be havin' a high-flyin' weddin' pretty soon."

  "Seems like! Wal, I wish 'em luck! Say, did you see the price of potatoes is goin' up? An' just after I sold my crop below what I was reckonin' on. If that ain't the doggonedest luck ever. But that's the way things allus hit me."

  But Lance Lorrimer heard no more. His thoughts were off on the news he had been hearing. Was this true? Could it all be true? His heart sank.

  There was no further gossip in the seat in front of him, but Lance would not get away from it. It was perhaps the first time that he had realized how very much Eden was beginning to mean in his life, and now that it had come in this breathtaking way, he took it full in the face and let it roll over him.

  He had recognized when he first saw her how sweet she was, and how beautiful, but he also knew how rich she was, and he had not considered her in the light of a possible partner for himself. His years in college and war service had put him in too serious surroundings to leave him time for considering romance, and he was not one who looked at every girl as a possible future bride. In spite of the loveliness of Eden, he had thought of her as scarcely more than a child at first. And later, when he knew her age, on account of his familiarity with her financial status, he had thought of her as a wealthy young woman, entirely out of his class. For although he had done well so far--he was already in an enviable job with a fine outlook--he was not one who thought of himself so highly that he reached forward to marry a rich wife. It was only when Eden began to ask him questions on religious themes that his interest grew greatly. Even before he realized how much he was enjoying her society, he must have been harboring a happiness that his wisdom and his caution would never have approved in another.

  So this revelation that Eden was pledged to another--a man among the wealthy, a fitting one to place her in a notable position, suitable to her worth--was a shock to him.

  For a long time he sat with closed eyes and thought the thing over, going back to his first meeting with Eden, her fine reactions to all that had happened. And then those questions she had asked him. How they thrilled him now again as he thought them over. He had never seen a girl before who would have asked questions like that: "Please tell me how I can get to know Jesus Christ? What does the verse mean, 'As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive'? " What a companion a girl like that could be for a man! And this man to whom she was supposed to be engaged, was he a Christian man? Would he know how to lead and help her aright? Or would he be a worldly man who would lead her into ways far from God? Oh, the heartache in that thought! Another man to lead her, and how he would like to be the one! How they could study God's Word together! To see her eyes shine at a new thought as he had already seen them once or twice, to share her study and her joy, and her worries! He had never really taken time to go into such beautiful thoughts. Except in a general way, he had never dwelt much on thoughts of marriage. He had hoped in a dim way that someday he would have a happy home of his own, but as yet such dreams had not taken definite form. Now, however, in the light of what he had just heard, it suddenly seemed as if a great door had been opened into a beautiful place that he had never glimpsed before, and then the next instant the door had been slammed in his face.

  For a little while he lay back with his eyes closed, trying to take deep breaths and get control of himself. Trying to get into a normal state of mind. Trying to tell himself he wasn't in love with this girl, nor any girl. He was just crazy, thinking such thoughts.

  And if he did admire her greatly, he certainly wanted her to be happy, didn't he? Happy with the man of her choice. She wasn't for him, of course. He had never started out to win her. Perhaps this other man who was said to be engaged to her was an old friend of years, someone her wonderful father had known and approved, in which case he had no right to think of her any more than if she were married. Modern marriage and divorce were not for Christian young people. That girl with the wonderful face and the light of Christ in her eyes would never give her life to a man of the world, never choose for a life companion one who was not worthy of being her husband.

  But there! There was no use in wasting time arguing about a thing like that. It wasn't in his hands to settle of course, and the only possible business that could be his in the whole matter was that he should look out that his own heart interest should not be found in territory that belonged to someone else. T
his love, or possible beginning of love, must be rooted out and stand away where it belonged. No man had a right to barge in and set his love upon a girl someone else had won. Equally, of course, he should have found out how it was with this lovely girl whom he admired. And yet how could he? He hadn't dreamed of trying to win any girl for himself at that stage of the game.

  Well, perhaps this was all just an emotional upset, startled into being, or shocked into being, by hearing this news about Eden in such a crude way from strangers' lips. And perhaps he was just very tired. It all might not seem so important, or so startling, when morning came and normal conditions were restored, with a good night's sleep and a real breakfast. For he hadn't been taking much time to eat in the past forty-eight hours.

  This was all just foolishness, of course. He must get this straight at once. Then with his eyes still closed he took the matter to his place of refuge, where he had always found relief from trouble since ever he had surrendered to his risen Lord.