“Mind?” said Jane, the glad tears in her eyes. “They’ll be too happy! Oh, it’s so wonderful to hear you call them that! It’s going to be so wonderful to have you love them, too!”
“Love them! Why, I’ve loved them ever since I first saw them. And you haven’t any idea what it’s going to be to me to have a real father and mother. You know my mother died when I was only six, and I can’t remember my father at all.”
The family had waited for dinner. They enjoyed having everybody together at a meal. When Jane and Sherwood burst into the living room, they were all sitting around just as if it were a party, waiting for their coming.
Sherwood had his arm around Jane, and there was an un- mistakable look of bliss in his tired, handsome face. His hair was awry, and there was a smudge on his chin, but he looked like a happy boy. The gray eyes were full of a great light as he walked up to the old couch where Mother and Father were sitting, and from which Mother was about to jump and run to put the dinner on.
“Mother! Father!” he said with a lilt in his voice that was like music. “Do you mind if I marry Jane?”
The two older people arose with joy in their faces.
“The Lord be praised!” said Arleth, putting a loving hand on the young man’s shoulder. “I couldn’t ask anything better for my girl.”
But Mother drew John Sherwood’s face down with her two gentle hands and kissed him tenderly.
“My dear boy!” she murmured close to his ear, and then she looked up and said in a clear voice so they all could hear, “And now I’ve got two dear sons! Isn’t that wonderful?”
“Oh boy!” said Tom, suddenly taking in the situation. “Has my sister really got some sense at last? Gee, John, this is going ta be great! You and I are buddies now in earnest!”
Then Betty Lou sidled up to Jane shyly, her eyes full of wonder. “Jinny, will he be my real brother now, just like Tom?”
Sherwood reached over and drew her within his other arm. “My two girls!” he laughed boyishly and leaned down to kiss Betty Lou’s forehead.
“Here, I get in on this somewhere, too,” declared Tom, swinging an awkward arm around Jane’s shoulders.
Then Mother, catching hold of Father’s hand, swung her arm as if to encircle the four.
“Our children!” she said with a happy light in her face. “And now come to dinner quick, for I smell something burning!”
But they didn’t eat dinner right away after all, for just as they were about to sit down, Jane remembered and, with a quiver of her lips, cried out, “But, oh Mother, we forgot to tell you! Somebody tried to shoot John!” And she rushed to her mother, who was just bearing a large platter containing a roast to the table. Regardless, Jane flung her arms around her mother’s neck and burst into tears again, to the intense peril of the roast, which slid around on the platter at all angles till Father suddenly rescued the platter and the agitated roast and set Mother free to put her arms around a thoroughly upset Jane.
“Good night!” said Tom, his eyes big with interest. “Is that right, John? Somebody try to hold you up? Oh boy! Wish I’d been there! Who was it? Some bum?”
But Mr. Arleth’s eyes were at once filled with anxiety.
“Somebody from the office?” he asked quickly. “Not Harold Dulaney? I’ve been afraid there would be some effort to put you out of commission, but I didn’t think they’d dare go as far as that. Who was it? Not Harold Dulaney surely.”
“No, Minnick!” said Sherwood in a low voice.
“Minnick! H’m! I’ve been watching him! He’s the first man I spoke of as being questionable when I came into the office. He’s pretty thick with young Dulaney, isn’t he?”
Sherwood assented gravely.
“There’s something there to be looked into,” said Mr. Arleth. “Did he really shoot?”
But Jane was telling the story now, vividly, characteristically, making them see the whole brief scene, with many a catch of breath and her lashes wet with tears.
“John sat there, and I sat right inside the door where I could see him! And I saw this shadow of a man come stealing along close to the glass partition!”
“Good night!” punctuated Tom, ruffling his hair up excitedly.
“And then I saw the gun come slowly out of the open doorway!” went on Jane graphically.
“Well, good night, Jane, why don’t ya get somewhere? Did he shoot? Who stopped him? How’d it happen he didn’t—”
“Oh—I—I—” began Jane with a new quiver of her lip. “I don’t know, Tom!” she finished with a sob and turning hid her face in her mother’s neck again.
“Here, I guess it’s up to me to finish this tale.” Sherwood grinned. “Right at that point I heard something stirring at the end of the room where I thought nobody was, a sort of a rushing sound like something being thrown, and I looked up just in time to see Jane hurl herself at a man who was pointing a gun at my head. He was just about to pull the trigger, I guess, and Jane caught him by the wrist and shook the thing out of his hand. It went off, of course, on the floor, and the man tried to get away, and then they both fell over struggling on the floor. But Jane held on till I got him tied. I almost had to pry her fingers loose.
“Of course the shot brought everybody who was in the building, and somebody sent for the police. They’ve got Minnick safe for the night where he won’t make any further trouble, but I have an idea there’s something more to this than just what is on the surface.”
“You think it has something to do with the other trouble?” questioned the older man thoughtfully.
Sherwood nodded.
“But I can’t see why you should be the victim. Just the fact that you were the one selected to search this thing out isn’t cause enough for a man to commit murder.”
Sherwood closed his lips tight and drew a long breath. “Well, we shall see—tomorrow—perhaps!”
They sat down to the belated meal, but they were all so excited nobody ate much, except Tom, and he kept saying, “Good night!” and then looking at Jane and saying in a proud, half-envious tone, “Oh boy! I’ve got some sister! I’ll tell the world!”
Sherwood left right after dinner. He said he still had a lot of papers to fill out before tomorrow and must hurry. At Jane’s anxious plea that he would not go back to the office again that night he laughed. “No, I have the papers here in my briefcase. I’ll go straight back to the house. I don’t think you need worry any more about me. There’ll be no more criminal attempts tonight. The real culprit won’t dare come out in the open for a while now.”
When he was gone, Betty Lou slipped solemnly up to her sister and said in an awed, sorrowful tone, “Jinny, when will you get married? And will you have to go away, the way Marietta Smith did?”
Tom frowned at her. “Go away?” he said fiercely. “What would they wanta go way for? Isn’t there plentya room here, I’d like ta know? They c’n have my room, and I’ll fix up something out over the garage.”
Jane began to laugh. “Oh, you dears! We haven’t got that far yet. Don’t you know we only just got engaged? Why, it will be a long, long time yet before we can be married I suppose. John has to get a promotion before he can afford to get married.”
“Oh, that’s all right,” sighed Betty Lou. “I was afraid you might be going right away. I was thinking, maybe the Smiths would move and you might live there sometime.” She smiled shyly. “Then we could cut a door through for rainy days, couldn’t we?”
“Don’t fret about the future, little dear,” said Mother. “Haven’t we enough to be thankful for tonight? Jane can’t settle her whole future life in one evening, and anyhow, she needs to go to bed at once. God will fix it right for us all, child, so put your worries away and let’s get these dishes picked up.”
But Jane insisted on helping with the dishes, too, and Tom came without being asked and dried some and put them away. Tom kept looking at his sister with admiration, now and then asking a question about the affair in the office, till his mother protested.
“Some sister!” he murmured as she said good night. “Oh boy! I wish I’d been there!”
Jane, so weary and excited she could hardly get upstairs, fell asleep thanking God for saving John’s life and giving her his love.
Chapter 20
But Jane was on hand bright and early next morning at the office and was glad to find that the orders from Dulaney had been that no one should be told about the shooting affair of last evening. Even Joe, who was just leaving for his daytime sleep as she arrived, greeted her with sealed lips and only a glint of unusual intelligence and wholesome fear in his eye. The morning passed with the usual commonplace greetings and a lot of hard work.
Miss Tenney told in nasal intervals of her new grass-green dress of chiffon with an ankle-length skirt and a green and silver rose on the shoulder, which she had got for seven ninety-eight at a bargain sale, and asked the advice of Miss Bronson and the others as to whether you wore gloves at a banquet while you ate. She said she had had her whites ones cleaned and they looked as good as new.
Jane hurried here and there doing odd leftovers for everybody, overseeing the last arrangements about decorations, consulting with the caterer at Mr. Dulaney’s request, putting the flowers in the vases after the tables were set. It was a busy morning and with it all a new customer arrived, and it was Jane who had to see him and go over price lists with him, sitting in the very seat at her desk in the storeroom office where she had sat last night and watched death approach the man she loved.
But through it all Jane wore a sort of glory light in her face, and over and over again sang a little snatch of words from the Book of Life: “His banner over me is love.”
“You don’t look a bit tired, Miss Arleth,” said Miss Tenney jealously, just after lunch. “Me, I’m all in. I never had such a day in my life as yesterday. I think they oughtta give us double pay, don’t you? Giving a party and taking it outta us don’t seem fair.”
“Aren’t you expecting to enjoy the party?” twinkled Jane amusedly.
“Why, sure, I s’pose! But I believe you really like work. You jus’ seem ta eat it up.”
“Why, of course,” said Jane. “It would be awful if you hadn’t anything to do, wouldn’t it?”
“Not me. I wouldn’t do a stroke if I could help it. I’d just lie around and read and go t’ th’ movies, and eat chocolates. Mebbe have a car, too, and take rides. Don’t know but I’ll get a car anyway this summer. A boyfriend of mine offered ta teach me ta drive. Say, where’s Mr. Sherwood ta-day? I haven’t seen him around fer a couppla days! He hasn’t been fired, has he?”
“Not that I know of,” answered Jane amusedly.
“You’re funny!” said Miss Tenney. “A time ago I useta think you had a crush on him. Minnick, he seemed to think you had. But now you don’t seem ta bother about him at all. And of course he is awfully good-looking. You ain’t had a quarrel, have ya?”
“Oh no!” Jane laughed. “Nothing like it. But see, it’s almost three o’clock. We’re to go home at three, you know. Hadn’t we better look around and see if there’s anything forgotten? You take that end of the room and police it, and I’ll take this.” And so Jane got rid of Miss Tenney.
It was Jane’s duty to arrange the place cards, and when all the other helpers were gone she took her little diagram that she had been carefully working out between times all the morning, and began to put about the little gold-edged cards, attached to the tiny gilt baskets that were to be filled with golden confectionery.
She had placed Sherwood and herself inconspicuously down one side from the speaker’s table, and she gave a little extra pat to John’s card just to feel she had the right to think of him tenderly. When it was all finished, she stood back looking over the tables with an artistic eye and thinking how pretty they were, and then she got her hat and coat and went home, singing in her heart. She hadn’t seen Sherwood all day, but she had heard his voice as she passed the door of Dulaney’s office about noon, so she knew he was all right.
Jane and her father were among the first to arrive at the banquet hall that evening. Tom had driven them down, insisting that his father ought not to drive in his new dinner coat. He was coming for them later in the evening. He intended that everything should be properly done so far as he could manage it.
Jane, in pale blue tulle and gold shoes, with the deep yellow buds that Sherwood had sent her at her shoulder and another rose in her dark hair, made a lovely picture, so tall and slim in her long dress like a fleecy cloud. She was wearing a little string of small pearl beads about her throat, and she carried a charming little blue silk bag that Betty Lou had made for her. It was made on a tiny gold frame that had belonged to the mother long ago. Its slender gold chain was over her arm, and as she moved, it glinted and sparkled with the little bright stones that Betty Lou had embroidered it with in twinkly patterns.
Sherwood spotted her across the room, talking to Gates, little stout Gates stuffed into his wedding outfit, a swallowtail of fifteen years ago. His collar was too tight, and his face was congested. He looked like a little red rooster. But Jane was smiling down at him pleasantly from her slim cool height, and for an instant Sherwood stood and looked at the beauty of the girl who had promised to marry him. It was the first time he had seen her dressed thus, for he had always avoided the nights when he knew she was going out with Lauderdale, and his other contacts had not been dress occasions.
Lovely! he said in his heart, and anyone looking just then must have noticed the joy light in his eyes and wondered.
He went over by Jane presently when he saw the Bronson girl in shades of purple join the group and begin to talk to Gates. Slipping up beside Jane, he reached down unobtrusively and put something small and smooth in her hand.
“Put that on!” he said without seeming to move his lips at all. “Put it on quick before anyone else comes around!”
Jane brought her hands together and looked at the little white velvet cube in her hand. “Oh John, I told you not to do that!”
Then she looked up and saw Sherwood and everything else vanished from her mind. “Oh John! How wonderful you look!”
“Put it on quick!” answered Sherwood vehemently. “That henpenny tenpenny woman is coming! Don’t let her see you doing it. Put it on, I say! If you love me, put it on quick!”
Jane, with a quick glance at Miss Tenney in her green garments and “floaters,” touched the spring of the velvet case. Without looking down at all, she slid the ring on her finger and the velvet box in her small bag, and greeted Miss Tenney cordially as Sherwood moved quickly away to the other side of the room.
Jane put off Miss Tenney onto Mr. Halstead as soon as she could and glanced across at Sherwood, her heart swelling with new pride.
How distinguished he looked in evening clothes. What poise and bearing he had. One would be sure he had always been used to evening affairs like this. With what ease of manner he stood and talked with Jefferson Dulaney! There was not a man in the room as good-looking as he was. Her eyes noted every little detail and approved.
But he shouldn’t have bought that dress suit. His dark blue suit that he wore on Sundays was quite all right. It wouldn’t have been expected of him, in his position as a new employee. Indeed, it might even do harm to his prospects, for Jefferson Dulaney was a great one for advising young men not to be extravagant, nor try to put up an appearance beyond their means. She could see that she would have to help him out in that way, keep him from spending everything he had just to please her. He had likely got that suit just because he felt it was due her that he look well. She must make him understand that she was not that kind of a girl. She loved him for himself, not his appearance. But oh, he did look wonderful over there talking to Mr. Dulaney! He might have been a partner of the firm himself, as far as looks were concerned.
And there was that matter of the ring that she dared not look at, because the hawkeyed Tenney woman was eyeing her this minute, studying every line and seam of her frock and almost counting
the petals of those rose leaves, wondering who sent them or if she bought them herself.
The ring was turned around with the stone cutting deliciously into the palm of her hand. She pressed it into her flesh and felt a thrill. Her ring! Her man! Oh, life was sweet after all the hard things and uncertainties. Oh, of course there would be other hard things as the years came, but to have his love, the love of a man like that!
Presently Mr. Tomkins from the advertising department took Miss Tenney away, and behind a little insurge of new arrivals, Jane opened her hand and glimpsed that stone! The glory of it shot into her soul like light and took her breath away. A diamond the like of which she never saw nearby before. The size of it, the gorgeousness of it, standing alone in its simple platinum setting, frightened her. She shut her hand quickly and looked around to be sure that no one had seen her. But the beauty of the stone, the whiteness of it, remained with her. Oh, how did he get a stone like that? He ought not to have done it. He mustn’t! She must make him return it. They mustn’t be extravagant. And yet the fact that he had wanted to get her a ring like that sent thrill after thrill through her soul. She could do with a plain little jewel-less band all her life knowing that he had just wanted to get this for her.
And now they were taking their seats, wandering around hunting their names on the place cards, the girls from the office, the men from downstairs in the printing room, the advertisers, the elderly women who kept the files, were all hunting their names as if it were a pretty game and they were children. How they were enjoying this party! After all, it was great of Dulaney to give it to them—once in fifty years!
Jane lingered in the corner just a moment to watch them, and then to look again at Sherwood. And again more strongly than ever before as she met his eyes she was reminded of something in the past, those eyes. Where had she seen them?
He was signaling her to come over where he stood, but she tried to make him understand by motions that their seats were down here at this end. But as she stepped to the table to hold up a place card as further sign to him, she could not find Sherwood’s and her cards anywhere. She must have somehow made a mistake. But no—she was sure she had not. Then she saw Sherwood coming toward her and she went to meet him.
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