Homing

by Grace Livingston Hill

  He helped her out, and they walked through the big, bright station.

  “How about a spot of ice cream?” he said as they came to the station restaurant. “I think we’ve plenty of time, and I’m hungry, aren’t you? I didn’t half eat my supper tonight, I was in such a hurry.”

  “That would be lovely,” said Jane, “but I’m afraid it was my fault you didn’t have time for your supper.”

  “No, it wasn’t. That was before I had heard from you. I missed my usual train out and took a bite in town before the next train left.”

  Such a pleasant little time they had together, talking of the sea and the moonlight, and what a wonderful preacher Pat was.

  “Audrey thinks he’s swell,” mused Kent, “and I’m glad she does. I can’t abide that egg of a Bainbridge she’s been affecting. I was afraid she would lose all ability to judge character if she kept on companioning with him. I certainly was pleased she liked Pat, and so was Dad. You know, that’s another thing we have to thank you for! If you hadn’t gone to Mrs. Brooke’s class I never would have heard of Pat, and known him in Boston, and brought him home with me. Oh, all things are working together for us with a vengeance these last few days. I’m going to have all kinds of a good time with Pat. He was just what I needed.”

  Soon they went down the long steps to the train, and Kent led her to her car and introduced her to her seat.

  “I got you a whole section,” he said. “Then you don’t have to worry about anybody getting up above you. I’ll tell the porter not to make up the upper berth, so that you can have all the air there is.”

  “Oh,” said Jane, “you shouldn’t have got me a berth at all. I could just as well have sat up. I can sleep anywhere.”

  “Oh, yes?” he said grinning. “And look like a little washed-out lamb in the morning, too, I’ll bet. Well, you’ve got a berth. And now, I guess I’d better be going. Good night, and I wish you success. I’ll be praying!” That last was in a soft voice just for her ear. Then he gave her hand a quick warm clasp and was gone, down a little narrow corridor at the end of the car. Jane felt suddenly all alone and very small and inefficient. What a difference it made to have someone look after you!

  Well, there she was again, harping on Kent Havenner. After all, it was God, not Kent Havenner. If Kent had been just a nice, pleasant man, without some consciousness of God, he probably wouldn’t have looked at her, even for the sake of his business. He probably would have been going after girls like Evadne Laverock.

  But Jane had little time for meditation. The porter asked her if she would like her berth made up at once, and told her she could sit on the other side of the aisle while he did it. So it was not long before she was getting ready for her night’s rest behind heavy green curtains. But it wasn’t hot there. There seemed to be clean breezes in every corner. Probably it was all air-conditioned. Well, she would be thankful for every bit of rest and comfort that came her way. The memory of it would help her sometimes when the days were hot and unbearable in the store, or when she lay on her hard little bed in that hall bedroom and wished for morning because she could not bear the heat of her room.

  So she folded her cotton robe about her and snapping off her light lay down on the incredibly soft bed, resting her head on pillows such as she had never owned.

  She fully intended to stay awake awhile and enjoy this luxury, not waste her time in sleep, but before she knew it she had drifted away into unconsciousness, her last thought the words of Kent as he said: “I might tell you what I think of you myself, but it would take too long—” She wished she might have heard what he thought. But no, that remark was probably just a polite nothing. He knew so well how to say such things gracefully. It was an art to say pleasant things as if you really meant them. Perhaps he did mean them in a way, only she must be very, very careful never to think of them as if they were anything special for herself. He would have said the same to anybody.

  And then oblivion came down with a vision of Kent’s kindly smile lighting her path through the unknown way of tomorrow.

  Chapter 21

  Meantime Audrey was having troubles of her own. Ballard Bainbridge was on the warpath.

  Audrey had just settled herself with a new Bible she had gone in town that day especially to buy, and with a list of notes Pat had given her propped up on the table beside her and a brand-new pencil with a lovely green handle, she was about to begin a new and fascinating bit of education that she had come to feel in the last twenty-four hours that she sadly needed. Then Molly came up to her room to say that there was a caller downstairs.

  Audrey arose with a sigh when she heard the name of Bainbridge. Now it had come, what she dreaded. She would hear plenty of comment upon the new people, she would be lectured severely for her behavior Saturday and Sunday and urged to amend her ways. She would hear that detestable Evadne held up as a model. Audrey could see in her suitor’s eye Saturday night the retribution that would be coming to her.

  Almost she was tempted to send down word she had retired and couldn’t see him tonight, and then it occurred to her that that would only be putting off the evil day. She would have this to meet eventually; why not get it over with once and for all and be done with him? She needed no further time to think. She knew now she would never marry him, nor even care to keep him as a friend.

  So she slipped on a plain little dress and went downstairs as quickly as she could, anxious to get it over with and get back to her study. There were certain verses she had promised Pat she would look up and memorize before the class on Thursday night. She had no more time to waste.

  She appeared suddenly before the prancing impatient young man, and his expression grew blank as he looked at her.

  “Oh,” he said. “I hoped you’d be dressed. There isn’t too much time. I’m taking you across the point to the hotel where Vad and I found a marvelous dance floor Saturday night. Champ is taking us in his car and he’ll be here inside of ten minutes. Hustle up and change as quick as you can. Put on the gaudiest thing you have. They certainly are swell dressers over there.”

  Audrey held her head high. It happened that she had heard from her mother the condition of Evadne when she came back Saturday night.

  “Thank you, Ballard,” she said firmly. “I can’t go anywhere tonight, and I certainly wouldn’t care to go over there, of all places.”

  He frowned.

  “Don’t waste time!” he said. “Go and get ready and talk on the way!”

  But Audrey did not stir.

  “I’m not going out tonight, Ballard. That’s final. I am exceedingly busy. And I’m not saying again, I do not wish to go over to that hotel. Its reputation is anything but savory. And I wouldn’t care to have anyone know I went there. I wouldn’t go. I guess perhaps you don’t know in what condition you brought home Miss Laverock Saturday night.”

  “Oh, what utter nonsense!” raved the young autocrat. “It’s time you got over such archaic notions. Certainly I know. Vad wouldn’t have got into that condition if she hadn’t wanted to, would she? She had a reason all righty.”

  “Yes?” said Audrey. “Well, I have a reason for not wishing to go out with you tonight, or any other night. I am done! Please consider that final!”

  “Aw now, Audrey, I didn’t think you’d be jealous! You’ve always seemed bigger than that. Just because I went out a night or two with Vad, do you have to act like a child? In fact, it was you started the whole thing if you’ll remember. I called for you to take you out for a plane ride, and you refused to come to the door to speak to me. In fact you simply ran off with another man and left me. Could I be blamed for taking the lady you handed over to me?”

  “I’m not blaming you, Ballard. I simply say I do not wish to go anywhere with you tonight, and especially not to that place you have selected. In fact, I may as well tell you that I have been discovering lately that you and I haven’t even two ideas in common. I know you expected to change me, to mold me to suit your own ideas, but I have just come to reali
ze that I don’t wish to be molded. Not by you anyway. I don’t agree with your ideas about modern life and the new order of things that you are always talking about. And I don’t wish to discuss them anymore. I’m done! I’m sorry if I seem to be unpleasant, but I felt it was best to be frank.”

  “Now, Audrey, don’t be a simp! Go and get your best togs on and we’ll talk on the way.”

  “No,” said Audrey. “Positively no! You’ll have to excuse me from now on. I’m really sorry that I’ve let you waste so much of your valuable time on me. But, you see, I never quite understood until a few days ago just how I felt about the matter. I kept putting off thinking about it, hoping, perhaps, that you might change. I don’t know just what it was I thought. I guess I was too lazy to think. But now I know what I think, and I’m telling you.”

  “But Audrey, I’m really very fond of you.”

  “Is that so?” said Audrey wearily. “That’s a nice way to part, I’m sure. But I guess it was because I found out that I wasn’t really very fond of you, that made me come to this decision. You know two people who are not of one mind about things in general couldn’t possibly go on together very long without a clash, and I had reached a clash, Ballard. I really had. I couldn’t go on and hear you denounce the things my father and mother count precious, even if I didn’t always myself. I couldn’t go on and hear you talk about morals and laws being all nonsense, and the Bible untrue, and God a fake. It was getting on my nerves. So, Ballard, go and find Evadne Laverock and take her with you to the places you both like. Or find somebody else like-minded—”

  “But see here, Audrey, that’s it. I told Vad I was coming to get you to go with us, and she’s got a man for you she’s sure you will enjoy. He’s a man who has never gone in for sophistication before, and he wants to step out. We thought you would be just the one to induct him into a delightful evening. Now, Audrey, be a good pal and help us out. I can’t go back to Vad and tell her I failed. I never fail, you know.”

  “Don’t you?” smiled Audrey. “Well, this time you have! But I suspect you needed that to teach you that you aren’t as wise as you think you are.”

  “What do you mean by that?”

  “I mean that I’ve found something vaster and more exciting than all your theories and all the books you loaned me. I’ve found the Book of books, and it’s fascinating. I wouldn’t give it up for all the pleasures of the world. I’ve found a friend and a Savior, and I’m happier than I ever was in my life before.”

  “You talk like a fanatic! Don’t tell me you’ve got religion, Audrey, after all the trouble I’ve spent upon you!”

  “Well, I don’t know whether I’ve got religion or not yet, but if I haven’t, I soon will have, for I’m going after it with all my heart. Only I don’t call it religion, I call it Christianity. I understand there are a great many fallacies masquerading under the name of religion, and I want something real. If you’ll excuse me now, I’m going back to what I was doing. I really haven’t any more time to waste in talking about nothings. I’m only sorry I ever wasted any that way. And now I bid you good night!” And Audrey swept up the stairs and left her former lover alone, staring after her. Did she really have that much spirit? What a pity it wasn’t active in something worthwhile instead of chasing after worn out dogmas! Well, let her go awhile! Doubtless she would tire of religion and return to her natural world. Young people didn’t live like ascetics the way they used to do in bygone ages!

  But what was he going to do now? This was going to be awkward. He had wagered a goodly sum on the expectation of bringing Audrey to prove his power over her. And incidentally to get rid of the young man whom Evadne had attached for the evening.

  Slowly he walked out of the house and down the steps, greatly to Audrey’s relief as she listened. She even hurried downstairs to lock the doors so that he could not return and call her back to conflict. She was most eager this time to dip into her new Bible. Would she really be able to find all those wonderful things that Pat had showed her yesterday? Or were they all in his own fertile brain?

  So Audrey settled down again to her study, and her mother coming anxiously in an hour later found her hard at work.

  “Oh, I’m so glad you’re here, and alone!” she said with a relieved sigh. “I thought I heard Ballard Bainbridge come in, and yet it was so still here I couldn’t think what had happened.”

  “He did come in, Mother. He wanted me to go to a dance over at that awful Red Lion Hotel with Evadne and some strange man who needed lessons in sophistication. Imagine it! I think I told him pretty clearly where to get off, and I hope you won’t be troubled with him around here anymore. I’m about fed up on him.”

  “Oh, my dear!” said her mother, dropping down in a chair and bowing her head in her hands, the tears running down freely. “I’m so relieved! I was so afraid you were getting fond of him, and I didn’t know what to do, with both of my dear children running right into danger that way. Oh, I’m so glad you’re done with Ballard.”

  “So am I!” said Audrey impetuously. “I was getting more and more involved and didn’t know how to get out. It took a fool girl like Evadne, and a little button salesgirl, and a real man who teaches the Bible to show me the false from the true, but now I guess I’m wise to my follies. Mums, why didn’t you ever make us learn the Bible and know what it means when we were kids? It’s simply great! It would have done more to keep us straight than anything else you could have done. Why didn’t you?”

  “Oh, my dear, I don’t know,” wailed her mother. “I guess I never knew much about it myself, but I’ve always respected it. My own father used to read it for hours and seemed to love it. Is that a Bible you have?”

  “Yes, I bought it in town today, and I’m going to study it regularly. Pat Whitney is helping me. I’m going to his class Thursday evenings. I think it’s great. Why don’t you and Dad take it up? I believe you’d like it better than bridge. I really do. Neither of you ever cared much for cards. And this would be something unique. Not just like what everybody else is doing.”

  “Why, I wonder if your father would like it. I’ll talk to him about it. I always thought it was hard to understand, and maybe it was better to let ministers interpret it for us.”

  “Oh, but it’s not hard the way Pat teaches it!” exclaimed Audrey. “If I’d known it was like that I’d have studied it long ago. He makes it very interesting.”

  Her mother sat watching her wistfully.

  “You like Mr. Whitney pretty well, don’t you?”

  “I think he’s simply swell, Mother. Only I feel so awfully ignorant when I’m with him, more ignorant than I did even with Ballard. You know, he always took it for granted you were ignorant anyway, even when you knew a thing pretty well. But Pat is so humble he never assumes that he is dead right. He just tells what the Bible says, and I think he must know it all by heart. Whereas Ballard didn’t believe the Bible was anything but a bunch of lies. Now go to bed, Mother. You’re all shivery and shaky and you need a good night’s sleep. You don’t need to worry any more about me. I’m cured. No more Bainbridge for me. And as for Kent, I shouldn’t wonder if he had had almost enough of Evadne, too. He seems to like Jane a lot, doesn’t he? You liked Jane, too, didn’t you? I thought you would. I think she’s sweet. So lay down your burdens and get a good night’s rest, and let’s do something nice, make plans and things in the morning.”

  Mrs. Havenner kissed her daughter and went away with a smile on her face, and Audrey plunged into her study again. She didn’t want to stop until she had looked up all the references that Pat had given her, and proved that everything he had told her was true.

  Chapter 22

  When Jane awoke the next morning she did not know where she was for a moment, and then the motion of the train and the softness of the bed on which she lay recalled her to the present, and she realized that she was on her way to get her trunk. What a lot of changes had come into her life lately! A vacation and a weekend at the shore, and now this wonderful trip i
n a Pullman train!

  Then she realized that it must be near morning, and she pulled up her shade and looked at her watch. Yes, it was late. The train would be at her destination in half an hour! She must get dressed at once!

  She hadn’t really undressed fully, so it did not take her long to be in neat array and ready to get out. Then she went to the washroom and washed and made her hair tidy. Everything she had to do, even the washing of her face, seemed a part of a play in this complete little dressing room, and she longed to linger and enjoy it. But she knew she must have her hat on and everything ready to get out at once when the train reached her station. It did not stop long at small stations. She mustn’t run the risk of being carried on to Boston!

  So in a very short time she was ready, hat on, little box packed, and watching each station. As she drew nearer to the well-remembered locality, things began to seem familiar to her. She watched the farms she knew slip by. The Gilmans had painted their house by the lake. The Fosters had built a garage. How interesting it was to see changes in the places she knew so well.

  And then they reached her stopping place and she got out and walked slowly down the long platform to the station, noticing the line of new busses that were drawn up on the side next to the station. The whole place looked pleasant to her just because it was familiar.

  “Good morning! Did you have a comfortable sleep?” said Kent suddenly, getting up from behind a pile of baggage and coming forward to greet her.

  “Oh!” she said blinking at him, half frightened lest she was losing her mind. How could he be here?