Homing

by Grace Livingston Hill

  “You didn’t expect to see me here, did you? I’m real, indeed I am. I traveled on the second car ahead of yours and that’s how I happened to be out ahead of you. You see, I wanted to surprise you. I thought it would be fun to greet you and see how surprised you would be.” He ended with one of his pleasant grins.

  “But how, why—?” she began, and looked almost as if she were going to cry. “Did you have to travel all this way and lose all this time from your work? Couldn’t you trust me to come back?”

  “Oh, Jane! Of course! Yes! But, you see, I had some business up the road a little farther that I can transact while you are repacking your trunk and saying hello to your friends. I thought it would be nice for me to be here and make arrangements for that trunk to be sent. Mr. Sanderson thought so, too. He said there was no telling what contingencies might arise about the trunk and I ought to be here to help you out with it. You see, it is quite important that we get those proofs on file. There is only one day left now, and we don’t want to run any risks. Incidentally, too, I’m to wipe out another errand that has been troubling the office for a week. It’s only thirty miles above here and ought not to take long, a mere formality but had to be attended to by one of the firm, so they wished it on me, besides the job of personally conducting you on this treasure hunt. Now, young lady, the next act is to get some breakfast. Do you suppose this restaurant is any good, or should we go to a hotel?”

  “I’m afraid this is rather expensive,” said Jane shyly. “It used to have that reputation.”

  “Then let’s go in. It ought to be good. I’m hungry as a bear, aren’t you?”

  “Why, I wasn’t going to bother to get any breakfast,” Jane grinned back. “I was too excited about being off traveling alone.”

  “But you aren’t off traveling alone anymore, so what? Do I get any breakfast or not?”

  He seated her at the table and started in with orange juice, oatmeal and cream, beefsteak and pancakes and coffee.

  “Don’t forget the maple syrup,” he said as he handed the order to the waiter.

  “Now, Jane, what is the order of the day?” he said, leaning back and looking at her with satisfaction. “Do we take a taxi to the residence of Mrs. Forbes at once, or are there preliminaries?”

  “Why, I was going to walk,” said Jane thoughtfully. “I don’t know that they would know me if I came in a taxi.”

  “It could be done I suppose, if time is not too much of a factor. How far is it?”

  “About two miles.”

  “Oh! In that case I think we’d better take the taxi. It seems a good thing that I came after all, in spite of the rather cool welcome you gave me, if you were going to economize at that rate. We’ve got to get back to the city tonight, if possible!”

  “Oh! Of course! I didn’t realize!” said Jane. “But listen. I didn’t give you a cool welcome. I was just surprised. I just didn’t understand it.”

  “You weren’t very glad to see me, were you? Honest?”

  Jane’s cheeks suddenly got very red.

  “Yes, I was,” she owned, with her eyes down half shamedly. “I was a great deal gladder than I wanted you to see!”

  “But why?”

  “Well, I thought this was a matter of business, and I had no right to just friendly gladness. Besides I was a little scared.”

  She lifted her eyes with a swift glance and lowered them again, quickly.

  “Why, you everlasting little fraud, you!” laughed Kent. “You weren’t willing I should get any satisfaction out of coming. I see. Well, I’ll take pains to rub that in on you someday and make you bitterly repent. Now, tell me the rest of your plan. Should we arrange with a truck to follow us at a reasonable distance to get the trunk, or arrange with him to come at telephone call?”

  “Maybe that,” said Jane. “I was beginning to be afraid there might be something off about their not being able to find that trunk. It might take time to find it, you know. Oh, I’m glad you came along!”

  “Thanks! So am I. Now, shall we go, or will you have another batch of pancakes?”

  “Oh, no, thank you. Let’s go!”

  So they went.

  While Jane went up to see Mrs. Forbes, Kent sat on the porch of the Forbes residence and envisioned Jane going about there as a little serving maid, a little lonely girl with only an old Scotch woman for a friend, and a lot of hard work to do.

  The old Scotch woman lifted a frail hand in greeting, and smiled a faint smile.

  “I’m sorry—” she faltered, “couldn’t get it—off.”

  The sullen maid who had let her in explained to Jane that Mrs. Forbes’ accident had happened the same evening she had telephoned for the trunk. She had been coming downstairs with some blankets that she had brought from a room she had been cleaning for a new boarder. The blankets needed mending and she was going to do it that evening. She caught her foot in a torn blanket and fell the full flight, rolling down to the foot and striking her head on the railing several times.

  “No, ma’am. She hadn’t been up to the attic yet to look for the trunk. She was awful busy and she thought it would be time enough to do that when the man came for it in the morning. But when he came she didn’t know nothing at all, and couldn’t answer a question, so we couldn’t give him no trunk, and she didn’t never get so she could show us, so the man stopped comin’. Yes, ma’am, you could go up an’ find it if you know where you left it.”

  Jane was greatly relieved that Mrs. Forbes had not fallen going after her trunk, and she tried to talk cheerily to the sick woman.

  “Never mind, Mrs. Forbes,” she said gently. “I’ll find the trunk, I’m sure. Is it just where I put it before I went away?”

  The sick woman looked dazed.

  “I think it is. Though mebbe my husband—he mighta moved things around—a bit—afore we went south.”

  She closed her eyes as if it had been an effort to say so much, and Jane arose.

  “Don’t you worry,” she said. “I’ll go up. I’m sure I can find it. I have a friend downstairs who will help me. He’s strong and can help me bring it down.”

  “All right! You go find it!” said Mrs. Forbes, and shut her eyes again.

  Jane called Kent, and together they went upstairs to the attic.

  At first, when they got up to the attic, Jane’s heart sank as she looked toward the corner where she knew she had left her trunk, for there wasn’t any trunk there. Only a pile of old broken chairs and an old-fashioned bedstead and bureau. The whole arrangement of the attic seemed to have changed, and it was crowded full of things, furniture piled up to the ceiling. Cards tacked on the back of several boxes with a name and address showed that the Forbeses must have allowed somebody to store all their furniture there.

  In despair Jane walked around, poking into corners. Kent followed her, suddenly realizing that this expedition might not turn out to be as successful as he had hoped after all.

  “If it wasn’t so dark here!” said Jane desperately. “I’ll run down and see if I can’t borrow a flashlight.”

  Presently she came back with a candle, and holding it aloft Kent finally discovered several trunks back under the eaves behind a lot more furniture. He flung off his coat and got to work, and presently cleared a path to the trunks.

  “There it is!” cried Jane in a relieved tone. “Oh, I’m so glad!”

  Kent hauled it out and brushed the dust off his hands.

  “I certainly am glad I came along,” he remarked, “even if you’re not!”

  “Oh, but I am!” said Jane. “I never said I wasn’t! What would I have done without you?”

  “That’s the talk. Now, here’s a bit of advice. Don’t you think it would be wise in you to open this trunk right here and now and make sure that nobody else has done so in the interval and removed any of the contents? We don’t want to have to return again tomorrow if we can help it.”

  “Oh, I never thought of that!” said Jane aghast.

  “Have you the key?” ask
ed Kent anxiously.

  “Oh, yes.” Jane produced it promptly.

  There followed another anxious moment while Kent wrestled with the lock, and then the ancient hinges groaned as he flung back the top.

  “Full to the brim!” said Kent as he arose and brushed the dust from his knees. “But are they yours? Make sure of that. Are the special things there that we need?”

  He took the candle from Jane and held it high while she knelt before the trunk and laid out pile after pile of folded garments, touching them tenderly because they reminded her of her beloved mother.

  “There’s Mother’s wedding dress!” she said softly as she laid out a long white box.

  “That’s nice!” said Kent in a voice that was soft with sympathy.

  “Yes. And here is the Bible!” said Jane, feeling deep into the trunk. “And the photograph album!”

  “That’s good!” Kent’s voice rang with satisfaction.

  “And here’s the box with the papers, birth and wedding certificates. I don’t believe a thing has been touched!” cried Jane in excitement.

  “That’s grand!” said Kent. “Now, the next thing is to get back home as fast as we can. Had you planned to take this trunk to the office or to your rooming house? Because if you want to take it straight to the rooming house we’d better take out these things that are important and carry them by hand, hadn’t we? We could get a box or a suitcase in this town somewhere, I suppose. But why don’t you just take the trunk along to the office and unpack it there? You know, it might turn out that there was something else in it we needed.”

  “Oh! Could I? Wouldn’t it be dreadfully in the way?”

  “No indeed. We have an extra room, and nobody would need to see it. We could pack it right up again after Sanderson has all he needs out of it, and take it in the taxi with us back to your rooming house tonight. Let’s see. It is nine thirty now. If I remember aright there is a return train leaving here about eleven. If we can get that we’d be home around seven. I’ll telephone Sanderson and get him to wait. It isn’t large and I can have it checked on our train. How’s that?”

  “Wonderful!” said Jane. “Oh, I’m glad you are here. I wouldn’t have known what to do next.”

  “All right! Let’s get to work.”

  “But you have to do something else for the office,” reminded Jane.

  “Yes, well, that’s secondary. I’ll talk to Sanderson first.”

  “I suppose I could take the trunk to the office myself if you would tell me how to manage, and then you could stay and do your work,” suggested Jane dubiously.

  “Yes, you could,” said Kent, “but I’m not going to let you. You see there are so many things that men can do in the way of dealing with railroad men and taxi drivers that women wouldn’t be able to work, at least not quite inexperienced girls like yourself, and I’m not taking any chances.”

  Jane’s heart sang a little song of joy, though she tried to still it, making out to herself that she was only frightened lest she would somehow bungle this and disappoint the office. But the song sang steadily on, and its reflection shone in the look on Jane’s face.

  Kent put the things back in the trunk and locked it. Then he turned around to Jane.

  “Now, you are a little glad I came along, for some other reason than just to help you do this work, aren’t you? I see it in your face. I hear it in your voice. And how about letting me kiss you? Just once, anyway. You know, I love you, Jane. And this looks to me like the quietest place we’ll have for several hours for me to show you how I love you. May I?”

  Jane’s face flamed a joyously rosy tint. She looked up and her eyes were alight with beauty.

  “Oh!” she said. “Oh!”

  But she did not draw away. She did not say no.

  And then he folded her in his arms and laid his lips tenderly on hers, holding her close for a long moment.

  “But—I’m only—a poor—working—girl!” gasped Jane with glory in her face. “And you are—”

  “Go on,” he said, looking adoringly down at her and holding her closer. “What am I? I’ve been wanting to know what you thought I was, and I couldn’t find out!”

  “You are—” Jane started again shyly, “a gentleman!”

  “Oh, is that all!” said Kent looking disappointed.

  “Well, that is—a great deal,” went on Jane, “but—besides that—you are—” She paused and looked up into his eyes adoringly. “You are dear!” she added softly.

  Then he grasped her closer and laid his face down to hers.

  “You are precious!” he breathed. “You are the dearest thing that ever came into my life!”

  A little after, when she could get her breath to speak again she said: “And yet, I am a working girl and you are a gentleman! Why, I worked in the kitchen in this very house. I used sometimes to scrub this attic floor when we were housecleaning.”

  “Yes,” said Kent, smiling down into her face just below his own. “That is the reason why I wanted to kiss you here, right here where you did humble work. It is beautiful to me. It reminds me of the lowly way your Lord and mine came to earth for us. It helped to make you what you are, a fine, strong, all-around womanly girl. Not a little fool like most of the girls I know. I’ve tried to think I loved some of them, and I couldn’t. Beloved, I love you!”

  And then he kissed her again.

  Suddenly he drew back.

  “But I haven’t time now to tell you all the reasons why I love you. We’ve got to get to work and catch that train. Do you suppose they will let us telephone here? I’ll get an expressman right away. If you’ve anything more to say to Mrs. Forbes, go say it and we’ll get off as soon as our truck goes. I’ll phone Sanderson from the station.”

  It was astonishing how quickly things got moving once they were downstairs. The expressman arrived posthaste. Jane said good-bye to Mrs. Forbes and left a crisp five dollar bill in her hand in sympathy for her in illness, received a shower of blessings from the poor paralyzed tongue, and they were away to the station.

  Kent talked with his chief, agreed to telephone to the nearby town instead of going there, and was able to arrange the business satisfactorily.

  Then suddenly the train came, and Kent saw the trunk onto the baggage car, came back and got Jane just in time to swing onto the Pullman with her, and they were embarked on a blissful journey, which seemed all too short to them both when it was over.

  Later that evening they arrived at the office with the trunk on the taxi with them, and a porter whom Sanderson had bribed to stay late helped Kent take the trunk in.

  It was almost like a sacred rite as the two men stood by watching the girl unpack her treasures. Sanderson found a mist in his eyes more than once, as one and another trifle full of memories was brought to light. For Jane had forgotten their presence, at least the presence of Sanderson, and was talking now and then to herself, evidently recalling dearest memories.

  “And there is my first little dress, and my baby bonnet!” she would say, almost in a whisper. “And mother’s wedding gown!”

  She lifted the cover of the box for a brief second and disclosed a satin dress of other days, its modest train and high puffed sleeves carefully folded back with tissue paper, its wreath of orange blossoms lying on the top. And where the satin had slipped back a little, soft folds of malines, the wedding veil, were disclosed, bordered with a dainty edge of real lace.

  Sanderson stood with his hands clasped behind him, and blinked away the tears, thinking of another bride who had been his, and of the dreary years that had come between that vision and now, ever since another scene with a casket had taken her away from him forever.

  At last he received the big Bible and handled it almost as if it had been a sacred vessel of some sort. And when Jane brought forth the pictures and the important papers, they all sat down at a long polished table and laid them out. Sanderson was very much impressed. The pictures brought out a good many facts.

  There was Harold Scarlett
when he was only a baby, and Harold Scarlett when he was a boy in school, and again when he was in college, and then as best man at his brother’s wedding. The wedding picture, too, was a proof in itself. For there stood Jane’s sweet mother in her bridal array, looking almost like Jane today, and there was Harold Scarlett standing in the group, smiling a bright irresponsible smile at the world.

  There were later pictures. A couple he had sent from Europe, one taken at Monte Carlo, another at some famous resort in the south of France. And then a few clippings and a newspaper picture carefully pasted in and labeled by the hand of Jane’s mother. It was all most convincing. And then there was a photograph of the old Scarlett home.

  Jane looked at it lovingly.

  “I was there once,” she said ruminatively.

  “Why!” said Sanderson looking at it sharply, and then turning to Kent Havenner he said in an undertone, “Identical! That settles it!”

  But Jane was too busy with the dear old pictures and did not notice.

  “Well, now, young lady, I’ll see that your claim goes through quickly,” Sanderson said in a kindly tone. “You can leave these things here with me for a few days, and when all is settled up I’ll return them to you. No, I don’t need the wedding dress. But yes, the marriage certificate and the other papers. Now, Kent, help Miss Scarlett pack up, and you can take the trunk with you. I’ve all that we shall need. You’ve done good work and done it expeditiously. Good night! I’ll let you know, Miss Scarlett, as soon as all is completed.”

  So Jane packed her trunk again and Kent took her home.

  “I’m not going to let you stay long in this dump!” said Kent as they neared the rooming house.

  “Oh, it’s all right,” laughed Jane. “I’ve so much other joy, I’m sure I shan’t mind anymore.”

  “Darling!” he murmured and held her hand close. And then the taxi stopped and he had his hands full getting someone to take that trunk up to Jane’s room.

  “Remember, it won’t be for long,” he murmured in her ear as he said a staid good night.

  Chapter 23