by Zane Grey
“I have prayed for you always,” he said in one of the pauses. It was just as they were coming into Flora Street. The urchins were all out on the sidewalk yet, for the night was hot; and they gathered about, and ran hooting after the car as it slowed up at the door. “I am sure He did hide you safely, and I shall thank Him for answering my prayer. And now I am coming to see you. May I come to-morrow?”
There was a great gladness in her eyes. “Yes,” she said.
The Bradys had arrived from the corner trolley, and were hovering about the door self-assertively. It was most apparent to an onlooker that this was a good opportunity for an introduction, but the two young people were entirely oblivious. The man touched his hat gravely, a look of great admiration in his eyes, and said, “Good night” like a benediction. Then the girl turned and went into the plain little home and to her belligerent relatives with a light in her eyes and a joy in her steps that had not been there earlier in the day. The dreams that visited her hard pillow that night were heavenly and sweet.
CHAPTER XVI
ALONE AGAIN
“Now we’re goin’ to see ef the paper says anythin’ about our Bessie,” said Grandmother Brady the next morning, settling her spectacles over her nose comfortably and crossing one fat gingham knee over the other. “I always read the society notes, Bess.”
Elizabeth smiled, and her grandmother read down, the column:
“Mr. George Trescott Benedict and his mother, Mrs. Vincent Benedict, have arrived home after an extended tower of Europe,” read Mrs. Brady. “Mrs. Benedict is much improved in health. It is rumored they will spend the summer at their country seat on Wissahickon Heights.”
“My!” interrupted Lizzie with her mouth full of fried potatoes. “That’s that fellow that was engaged to that Miss What’s-her-Name Loring. Don’t you ’member? They had his picture in the papers, and her; and then all at once she threw him over for some dook or something, and this feller went off. I heard about it from Mame. Her sister works in a department-store, and she knows Miss Loring. She says she’s an awfully handsome girl, and George Benedict was just gone on her. He had a fearful case. Mame says Miss Loring—what is her name?—O, Geraldine—Geraldine Loring bought some lace of her. She heard her say it was for the gown she was going to wear at the horse-show. They had her picture in the paper just after the horse-show, and it was all over lace, I saw it. It cost a whole lot. I forget how many dollars a yard. But there was something the matter with the dook. She didn’t marry him, after all. In her picture she was driving four horses. Don’t you remember it, grandma? She sat up tall and high on a seat, holding a whole lot of ribbons and whips and things. She has an elegant figger. I guess mebbe the dook wasn’t rich enough. She hasn’t been engaged to anybody else, and I shouldn’t wonder now but she’d take George Benedict back. He was so awful stuck on her!”
Lizzie rattled on, and the grandmother read more society notes, but Elizabeth heard no more. Her hear had suddenly frozen, and dropped down like lead into her being. She felt as if she never would be able to raise it again. The lady! Surely she had forgotten the lady. But Geraldine Loring! Of all women! Could it be possible? Geraldine Loring was almost—well, fast, at least, as nearly so as one who was really of a fine old family, and still held her own in society, could be. She was beautiful as a picture; but her face, to Elizabeth’s mind, was lacking in fine feeling and intellect. A great pity went out from her heart to the man whose fate was in that doll-girl’s hands. True, she had heard that Miss Loring’s family were unquestionable, and she knew her mother was a most charming woman. Perhaps she had misjudged her. She must have done so if he cared for her, for it could not be otherwise.
The joy had gone out of the morning when Elizabeth went home. She went up to her Grandmother Bailey at once, and after she had read her letters for her, and performed the little services that were her habit, she said:
“Grandmother, I’m expecting a man to call upon me to-day. I thought I had better tell you.”
“A man!” said Madam Bailey, alarmed at once. She wanted to look over and portion out the right man when the time came. “What man?”
“Why, a man I met in Montana,” said Elizabeth, wondering how much she ought to tell.
“A man you met in Montana! Horrors!” exclaimed the now thoroughly aroused grandmother. “Not that dreadful creature you ran away from?”
“O no!” said Elizabeth, smiling. “Not that man. A man who was very kind to me, and whom I like very much.”
So much the worse. Immediate action was necessary.
“Well, Elizabeth,” said Madam Bailey in her stiffest tones, “I really do not care to have any of your Montana friends visit you. You will have to excuse yourself. It will lead to embarrassing entanglements. You do not in the least realize your position in society. It is all well enough to please your relatives, although I think you often overdo that. You could just as well send them a present now and then, and please them more than to go yourself. But as for any outsiders, it is impossible. I draw the line there.”
“But grandmother——”
“Don’t interrupt me, Elizabeth; I have something more to say. I had word this morning from the steamship company. They can give us our staterooms on the Deutschland on Saturday, and I have decided to take them. I have telegraphed, and we shall leave here to-day for New York. I have one or two matters of business I wish to attend to in New York. We shall go to the Waldorf for a few days, and you will have more opportunity to see New York than you have had yet. It will not be too warm to enjoy going about a little, I fancy; and a number of our friends are going to be at the Waldorf, too. The Craigs sail on Saturday with us. You will have young company on the voyage.”
Elizabeth’s heart sank lower than she had known it could go, and she grew white to the lips. The observant grandmother decided that she had done well to be so prompt. The man from Montana was by no means to be admitted. She gave orders to that effect, unknown to Elizabeth.
The girl went slowly to her room. All at once it had dawned upon her that she had not given her address to the man the night before, nor told him by so much as a word what were her circumstances. An hour’s meditation brought her to the unpleasant decision that perhaps even now in this hard spot God was only hiding her from worse trouble. Mr. George Benedict belonged to Geraldine Loring. He had declared as much when he was in Montana. It would not be well for her to renew the acquaintance. Her heart told her by its great ache that she would be crushed under a friendship that could not be lasting.
Very sadly she sat down to write a note.
“My dear Friend,” she wrote on plain paper with no crest. It was like her to choose that. She would not flaunt her good fortune in his face. She was a plain Montana girl to him, and so she would remain.
“My grandmother has been very ill, and is obliged to go away for her health. Unexpectedly I find that we are to go to-day. I supposed it would not be for a week yet. I am so sorry not to see you again, but I send you a little book that has helped me to get acquainted with Jesus Christ. Perhaps it will help you too. It is called ‘My Best Friend.’ I shall not forget to pray always that you may find Him. He is so precious to me! I must thank you in words, though I never can say it as it should be said, for your very great kindness to me when I was in trouble. God sent you to me, I am sure. Always gratefully your friend,
“ELIZABETH.”
That was all, no date, no address. He was not hers, and she would hang out no clues for him to find her, even if he wished. It was better so.
She sent the note and the little book to his address on Walnut Street; and then after writing a note to her Grandmother Brady, saying that she was going away for a long trip with Grandmother Bailey, she gave herself into the hands of the future like a submissive but weary child.
The noon train to New York carried in its drawing-room-car Madam Bailey, her granddaughter
, her maid, and her dog, bound for Europe. The society columns so stated; and so read Grandmother Brady a few days afterward. So also read George Benedict, but it meant nothing to him.
When he received the note, his mind was almost as much excited as when he saw the little brown girl and the little brown horse vanishing behind the little brown station on the prairie. He went to the telephone, and reflected that he knew no names. He called up his automobile, and tore up to Flora Street; but in his bewilderment of the night before he had not noticed which block the house was in, nor which number. He thought he knew where to find it, but in broad daylight the houses were all alike for three blocks, and for the life of him he could not remember whether he had turned up to the right or the left when he came to Flora Street. He tried both, but saw no sign of the people he had but casually noticed at Willow Grove.
He could not ask where she lived, for he did not know her name. Nothing but Elizabeth, and they had called her Bessie. He could not go from house to house asking for a girl named Bessie. They would think him a fool, as he was, for not finding out her name, her precious name, at once. How could he let her slip from him again when he had just found her?
At last he hit upon a bright idea. He asked some children along the street whether they knew of any young woman named Bessie or Elizabeth living there, but they all with one accord shook their heads, though one volunteered the information that “Lizzie Smith lives there.” It was most distracting and unsatisfying. There was nothing for it but for him to go home and wait in patience for her return. She would come back sometime probably. She had not said so, but she had not said she would not. He had found her once; he might find her again. And he could pray. She had found comfort in that; so would he. He would learn what her secret was. He would get acquainted with her “best Friend.” Diligently did he study that little book, and then he went and hunted up the man of God who had written it, and who had been the one to lead Elizabeth into the path of light by his earnest preaching every Sabbath, though this fact he did not know.
The days passed, and the Saturday came. Elizabeth, heavy-hearted, stood on the deck of the Deutschland, and watched her native land disappear from view. So again George Benedict had lost her from sight.
It struck Elizabeth, as she stood straining her eyes to see the last of the shore through tears that would burn to the surface and fall down her white cheeks, that again she was running away from a man, only this time not of her own free will. She was being taken away. But perhaps it was better.
And it never once entered her mind that, if she had told her grandmother who the friend in Montana was, and where he lived in Philadelphia, it would have made all the difference in the world.
From the first of the voyage Grandmother Bailey grew steadily worse, and when they landed on the other side they went from one place to another seeking health. Carlsbad waters did not agree with her, and they went to the south of France to try the climate. At each move the little old lady grew weaker and more querulous. She finally made no further resistance, and gave up to the rôle of invalid. Then Elizabeth must be in constant attendance. Madam Bailey demanded reading, and no voice was so soothing as Elizabeth’s.
Gradually Elizabeth substituted books of her own choice as her grandmother seemed not to mind, and now and then she would read a page of some book that told of the best Friend. At first because it was written by the dear pastor at home it commanded her attention, and finally because some dormant chord in her heart had been touched, she allowed Elizabeth to speak of these things. But it was not until they had been away from home for three months, and she had been growing daily weaker and weaker, that she allowed Elizabeth to read in the Bible.
The girl chose the fourteenth chapter of John, and over and over again, whenever the restless nerves tormented their victim, she would read those words, “Let not your heart be troubled” until the selfish soul, who had lived all her life to please the world and do her own pleasure, came at last to hear the words, and feel that perhaps she did believe in God, and might accept that invitation, “Believe also in me.”
One day Elizabeth had been reading a psalm, and thought her grandmother was asleep. She was sitting back with weary heart, thinking what would happen if her grandmother should not get well. The old lady opened her eyes.
“Elizabeth,” she said abruptly, just as when she was well, “you’ve been a good girl. I’m glad you came. I couldn’t have died right without you. I never thought much about these things before, but it really is worth while. In my Father’s house. He is my Father, Elizabeth.”
She went to sleep then, and Elizabeth tiptoed out and left her with the nurse. By and by Marie came crying in, and told her that the Madam was dead.
Elizabeth was used to having people die. She was not shocked; only it seemed lonely again to find herself facing the world, in a foreign land. And when she came to face the arrangements that had to be made, which, after all, money and servants made easy, she found herself dreading her own land. What must she do after her grandmother was laid to rest? She could not live in the great house in Rittenhouse Square, and neither could she very well go and live in Flora Street. O, well, her Father would hide her. She need not plan; He would plan for her. The mansions on the earth were His too, as well as those in heaven.
And so resting she passed through the weary voyage and the day when the body was laid to rest in the Bailey lot in the cemetery, and she went back to the empty house alone. It was not until after the funeral that she went to see Grandmother Brady. She had not thought it wise or fitting to invite the hostile grandmother to the other one’s funeral. She had thought Grandmother Bailey would not like it.
She rode to Flora Street in the carriage. She felt too weary to walk or go in the trolley. She was taking account of stock in the way of friends, thinking over whom she cared to see. One of the first bits of news she had heard on arriving in this country had been that Miss Loring’s wedding was to come off in a few days. It seemed to strike her like a thunderbolt, and she was trying to arraign herself for this as she rode along. It was therefore not helpful to her state of mind to have her grandmother remark grimly:
“That feller o’ yours ’n his oughtymobble has been goin’ up an’ down this street, day in, day out, this whole blessed summer. Ain’t been a day he didn’t pass, sometimes once, sometimes twicet. I felt sorry fer him sometimes. Ef he hadn’t been so high an’ mighty stuck up that he couldn’t recognize me, I’d ’a’ spoke to him. It was plain ez the nose on your face he was lookin’ fer you. Don’t he know where you live?”
“I don’t believe he does,” said Elizabeth languidly. “Say, grandmother, would you care to come up to Rittenhouse Square and live?”
“Me? In Rittenhouse Square? Fer the land sakes, child, no. That’s flat. I’ve lived me days out in me own sp’ere, and I don’t intend to change now at me time o’ life. Ef you want to do somethin’ nice fer me, child, now you’ve got all that money, I’d like real well to live in a house that hed white marble steps. It’s been me one aim all me life. There’s some round on the next street that don’t come high. There’d be plenty room fer us all, an’ a nice place fer Lizzie to get married when the time comes. The parlor’s real big, and you would send her some roses, couldn’t you?”
“All right, grandmother. You shall have it,” said Elizabeth with a relieved sigh, and in a few minutes she went home. Some day pretty soon she must think what to do, but there was no immediate hurry. She was glad that Grandmother Brady did not want to come to Rittenhouse Square. Things would be more congenial without her.
But the house seemed great and empty when she entered, and she was glad to hear the friendly telephone bell ringing. It was the wife of her pastor, asking her to come to them for a quiet dinner.
This was the one home in the great city where she felt like going in her loneliness. There would be no form nor ceremony. Just a friend with them. It was good.
The doctor would give her some helpful words. She was glad they had asked her.
CHAPTER XVII
A FINAL FLIGHT AND PURSUIT
“George,” said Mrs. Vincent Benedict, “I want you to do something for me.”
“Certainly, mother, anything I can.”
“Well, it’s only to go to dinner with me to-night. Our pastor’s wife has telephoned me that she wants us very much. She especially emphasized you. She said she absolutely needed you. It was a case of charity, and she would be so grateful to you if you would come. She has a young friend with her who is very sad, and she wants to cheer her up. Now don’t frown. I won’t bother you again this week. I know you hate dinners and girls. But really, George, this is an unusual case. The girl is just home from Europe, and buried her grandmother yesterday. She hasn’t a soul in the world belonging to her that can be with her, and the pastor’s wife has asked her over to dinner quietly. Of course she isn’t going out. She must be in mourning. And you know you’re fond of the doctor.”
“Yes, I’m fond of the doctor,” said George, frowning discouragedly; “but I’d rather take him alone, and not with a girl flung at me everlastingly. I’m tired of it. I didn’t think it of Christian people, though; I thought she was above such things.”
“Now, George,” said his mother severely, “that’s a real insult to the girl, and to our friend too. She hasn’t an idea of doing any such thing. It seems this girl is quite unusual, very religious, and our friend thought you would be just the one to cheer her. She apologized several times for presuming to ask you to help her. You really will have to go.”
“Well, who is this paragon, anyway? Any one I know? I s’pose I’ve got to go.”