by Zane Grey
“Why, she’s a Miss Bailey,” said the mother, relieved. “Mrs. Wilton Merrill Bailey’s granddaughter. Did you ever happen to meet her? I never did.”
“Never heard of her,” growled George. “Wish I hadn’t now.”
“George!”
“Well, mother, go on. I’ll be good. What does she do? Dance, and play bridge, and sing?”
“I haven’t heard anything that she does,” said his mother, laughing.
“Well, of course she’s a paragon; they all are, mother. I’ll be ready in half an hour. Let’s go and get it done. We can come home early, can’t we?”
Mrs. Benedict sighed. If only George would settle down on some suitable girl of good family! But he was so queer and restless. She was afraid for him. Ever since she had taken him away to Europe, when she was so ill, she had been afraid for him. He seemed so moody and absent-minded then and afterwards. Now this Miss Bailey was said to be as beautiful as she was good. If only George would take a notion to her!
Elizabeth was sitting in a great arm-chair by the open fire when he entered the room. He had not expected to find any one there. He heard voices up-stairs, and supposed Miss Bailey was talking with her hostess. His mother followed the servant to remove her wraps, and he entered the drawing-room alone. She stirred, looked up, and saw him.
“Elizabeth!” he said, and came forward to grasp her hand. “I have found you again. How came you here?”
But she had no opportunity to answer, for the ladies entered almost at once, and there stood the two smiling at each other.
“Why, you have met before!” exclaimed the hostess. “How delighted I am! I knew you two would enjoy meeting. Elizabeth, child, you never told me you knew George.”
George Benedict kept looking around for Miss Bailey to enter the room; but to his relief she did not come, and, when they went out to the dining-room, there was no place set for her. She must have preferred to remain at home. He forgot her, and settled down to the joy of having Elizabeth by his side. His mother, opposite, watched his face blossom into the old-time joy as he handed this new girl the olives, and had eyes for no one else.
It was to Elizabeth a blessed evening. They held sweet converse one with another as children of the King. For a little time under the old influence of the restful, helpful talk she forgot “the lady,” and all the perplexing questions that had vexed her soul. She knew only that she had entered into an atmosphere of peace and love and joy.
It was not until the evening was over, and the guests were about to leave, that Mrs. Benedict addressed Elizabeth as Miss Bailey. Up to that moment it had not entered her son’s mind that Miss Bailey was present at all. He turned with a start, and looked into Elizabeth’s eyes; and she smiled back to him as if to acknowledge the name. Could she read his thoughts? he wondered.
It was only a few steps across the Square, and Mrs. Benedict and her son walked to Elizabeth’s door with her. He had no opportunity to speak to Elizabeth alone, but he said as he bade her good-night, “I shall see you to-morrow, then, in the morning?”
The inflection was almost a question; but Elizabeth only said, “Good night,” and vanished into the house.
“Then you have met her before, George?” asked his mother wonderingly.
“Yes,” he answered hurriedly, as if to stop her further question. “Yes, I have met her before. She is very beautiful, mother.”
And because the mother was afraid she might say too much she assented, and held her peace. It was the first time in years that George had called a girl beautiful.
Meantime Elizabeth had gone to her own room and locked the door. She hardly knew what to think, her heart was so happy. Yet beneath it all was the troubled thought of the lady, the haunting lady for whom they had prayed together on the prairie. And as if to add to the thought she found a bit of newspaper lying on the floor beside her dressing-table. Marie must have dropped it as she came in to turn up the lights. It was nothing but the corner torn from a newspaper, and should be consigned to the waste-basket; yet her eye caught the words in large head-lines as she picked it up idly, “Miss Geraldine Loring’s Wedding to Be an Elaborate Affair.” There was nothing more readable. The paper was torn in a zigzag line just beneath. Yet that was enough. It reminded her of her duty.
Down beside the bed she knelt, and prayed: “O my Father, hide me now; hide me! I am in trouble; hide me!” Over and over she prayed till her heart grew calm and she could think.
Then she sat down quietly, and put the matter before her.
This man whom she loved with her whole soul was to be married in a few days. The world of society would be at the wedding. He was pledged to another, and he was not hers. Yet he was her old friend, and was coming to see her. If he came and looked into her face with those clear eyes of his, he might read in hers that she loved him. How dreadful that would be!
Yes, she must search yet deeper. She had heard the glad ring in his voice when he met her, and said, “Elizabeth!” She had seen his eyes. He was in danger himself. She knew it; she might not hide it from herself. She must help him to be true to the woman to whom he was pledged, whom now he would have to marry.
She must go away from it all. She would run away, now at once. It seemed that she was always running away from some one. She would go back to the mountains where she had started. She was not afraid now of the man from whom she had fled. Culture and education had done their work. Religion had set her upon a rock. She could go back with the protection that her money would put about her, with the companionship of some good, elderly woman, and be safe from harm in that way; but she could not stay here and meet George Benedict in the morning, nor face Geraldine Loring on her wedding-day. It would be all the same the facing whether she were in the wedding-party or not. Her days of mourning for her grandmother would of course protect her from this public facing. It was the thought she could not bear. She must get away from it all forever.
Her lawyers should arrange the business. They would purchase the house that Grandmother Brady desired, and then give her her money to build a church. She would go back, and teach among the lonely wastes of mountain and prairie what Jesus Christ longed to be to the people made in His image. She would go back and place above the graves of her father and mother and brothers stones that should bear the words of life to all who should pass by in that desolate region. And that should be her excuse to the world for going, if she needed any excuse—she had gone to see about placing a monument over her father’s grave. But the monument should be a church somewhere where it was most needed. She was resolved upon that.
That was a busy night. Marie was called upon to pack a few things for a hurried journey. The telephone rang, and the sleepy night-operator answered crossly. But Elizabeth found out all she wanted to know about the early Chicago trains, and then lay down to rest.
Early the next morning George Benedict telephoned for some flowers from the florist; and, when they arrived, he pleased himself by taking them to Elizabeth’s door.
He did not expect to find her up, but it would be a pleasure to have them reach her by his own hand. They would be sent up to her room, and she would know in her first waking thought that he remembered her. He smiled as he touched the bell and stood waiting.
The old butler opened the door. He looked as if he had not fully finished his night’s sleep. He listened mechanically to the message, “For Miss Bailey with Mr. Benedict’s good-morning,” and then his face took on a deprecatory expression.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Benedict,” he said, as if in the matter he were personally to blame; “but she’s just gone. Miss Elizabeth’s mighty quick in her ways, and last night after she come home she decided to go to Chicago on the early train. She’s just gone to the station not ten minutes ago. They was late, and had to hurry. I’m expecting the footman back every minute.”
“Gone?” said George Bene
dict, standing blankly on the door-step and looking down the street as if that should bring her. “Gone? To Chicago, did you say?”
“Yes, sir, she’s gone to Chicago. That is, she’s going further, but she took the Chicago Limited. She’s gone to see about a monument for Madam’s son John, Miss ’Lizabuth’s father. She said she must go at once, and she went.”
“What time does that train leave?” asked the young man. It was a thread of hope. He was stung into a superhuman effort as he had been on the prairie when he had caught the flying vision of the girl and horse, and he had shouted, and she would not stop for him.
“Nine-fifty, sir,” said the butler. He wished this excited young man would go after her. She needed some one. His heart had often stirred against fate that this pearl among young mistresses should have no intimate friend or lover now in her loneliness.
“Nine-fifty!” He looked at his watch. No chance! “Broad Street?” he asked sharply.
“Yes, sir.”
Would there be a chance if he had his automobile? Possibly, but hardly unless the train was late. There would be a trifle more chance of catching the train at West Philadelphia. O for his automobile! He turned to the butler in despair.
“Telephone her!” he said. “Stop her if you possibly can on board the train, and I will try to get there. I must see her. It is important.” He started down the steps, his mind in a whirl of trouble. How should he go? The trolley would be the only available way, and yet the trolley would be useless; it would take too long. Nevertheless, he sped down toward Chestnut Street blindly, and now in his despair his new habit came to him. “O my Father, help me! Help me! Save her for me!”
Up Walnut Street at a breakneck pace came a flaming red automobile, sounding its taunting menace, “Honk-honk! Honk-honk!” but George Benedict stopped not for automobiles. Straight into the jaws of death he rushed, and was saved only by the timely grasp of a policeman, who rolled him over on the ground. The machine came to a halt, and a familiar voice shouted: “Conscience alive, George, is that you? What are you trying to do? Say, but that was a close shave! Where you going in such a hurry, anyway? Hustle in, and I’ll take you there.”
The young man sprang into the seat, and gasped: “West Philadelphia station, Chicago Limited! Hurry! Train leaves Broad Street station at nine-fifty. Get me there if you can, Billy. I’ll be your friend forever.”
By this time they were speeding fast. Neither of the two had time to consider which station was the easier to make; and, as the machine was headed toward West Philadelphia, on they went, regardless of laws or vainly shouting policemen.
George Benedict sprang from the car before it had stopped, and nearly fell again. His nerves were not steady from his other fall yet. He tore into the station and out through the passageway past the beckoning hand of the ticket-man who sat in the booth at the staircase, and strode up three steps at a time. The guard shouted: “Hurry! You may get it; she’s just starting!” and a friendly hand reached out, and hauled him up on the platform of the last car.
For an instant after he was safely in the car he was too dazed to think. It seemed as if he must keep on blindly rushing through that train all the way to Chicago, or she would get away from him. He sat down in an empty seat for a minute to get his senses. He was actually on the train! It had not gone without him!
Now the next question was, Was she on it herself, or had she in some way slipped from his grasp even yet? The old butler might have caught her by telephone. He doubted it. He knew her stubborn determination, and all at once he began to suspect that she was with intention running away from him, and perhaps had been doing so before! It was an astonishing thought and a grave one, yet, if it were true, what had meant that welcoming smile in her eyes that had been like dear sunshine to his heart?
But there was no time to consider such questions now. He had started on this quest, and he must continue it until he found her. Then she should be made to explain once and for all most fully. He would live through no more torturing agonies of separation without a full understanding of the matter. He got upon his shaking feet, and started to hunt for Elizabeth.
Then all at once he became aware that he was still carrying the box of flowers. Battered and out of shape it was, but he was holding it as if it held the very hope of life for him. He smiled grimly as he tottered shakily down the aisle, grasping his floral offering with determination. This was not exactly the morning call he had planned, nor the way he had expected to present his flowers; but it seemed to be the best he could do. Then, at last, in the very furthest car from the end, in the drawing-room he found her, sitting gray and sorrowful, looking at the fast-flying landscape.
“Elizabeth!” He stood in the open door and called to her; and she started as from a deep sleep, her face blazing into glad sunshine at sight of him. She put her hand to her heart, and smiled.
“I have brought you some flowers,” he said grimly. “I am afraid there isn’t much left of them now; but, such as they are, they are here. I hope you will accept them.”
“Oh!” gasped Elizabeth, reaching out for the poor crushed roses as if they had been a little child in danger. She drew them from the battered box and to her arms with a delicious movement of caressing, as if she would make up to them for all they had come through. He watched her, half pleased, half savagely. Why should all that tenderness be wasted on mere fading flowers?
At last he spoke, interrupting her brooding over his roses.
“You are running away from me!” he charged.
“Well, and what if I am?” She looked at him with a loving defiance in her eyes.
“Don’t you know I love you?” he asked, sitting down beside her and talking low and almost fiercely. “Don’t you know I’ve been torn away from you, or you from me, twice before now, and that I cannot stand it any more? Say, don’t you know it? Answer, please,” The demand was kind, but peremptory.
“I was afraid so,” she murmured with drooping eyes, and cheeks from which all color had fled.
“Well, why do you do it? Why did you run away? Don’t you care for me? Tell me that. If you can’t ever love me, you are excusable; but I must know it all now.”
“Yes, I care as much as you,” she faltered, “but——”
“But what?” sharply.
“But you are going to be married this week,” she said in desperation, raising her miserable eyes to his.
He looked at her in astonishment.
“Am I?” said he. “Well, that’s news to me; but it’s the best news I’ve heard in a long time. When does the ceremony come off? I wish it was this morning. Make it this morning, will you? Let’s stop this blessed old train and go back to the Doctor. He’ll fix it so we can’t ever run away from each other again. Elizabeth, look at me!”
But Elizabeth hid her eyes now. They were full of tears.
“But the lady—” she gasped out, struggling with the sobs. She was so weary, and the thought of what he had suggested was so precious.
“What lady? There is no lady but you, Elizabeth, and never has been. Haven’t you known that for a long time? I have. That was all a hallucination of my foolish brain. I had to go out on the plains to get rid of it, but I left it there forever. She was nothing to me after I saw you.”
“But—but people said—and it was in the paper, I saw it. You cannot desert her now; it would be dishonorable.”
“Thunder!” ejaculated the distracted young man. “In the paper! What lady?”
“Why, Miss Loring! Geraldine Loring. I saw that the preparations were all made for her wedding, and I was told she was to marry you.”
In sheer relief he began to laugh.
At last he stopped, as the old hurt look spread over her face.
“Excuse me, dear,” he said gently, “There was a little acquaintance between Miss Loring and myself. It only amo
unted to a flirtation on her part, one of many. It was a great distress to my mother, and I went out West, as you know, to get away from her. I knew she would only bring me unhappiness, and she was not willing to give up some of her ways that were impossible. I am glad and thankful that God saved me from her. I believe she is going to marry a distant relative of mine by the name of Benedict, but I thank the kind Father that I am not going to marry her. There is only one woman in the whole wide world that I am willing to marry, or ever will be; and she is sitting beside me now.”
The train was going rapidly now. It would not be long before the conductor would reach them. The man leaned over, and clasped the little gloved hand that lay in the girl’s lap; and Elizabeth felt the great joy that had tantalized her for these three years in dreams and visions settle down about her in beautiful reality. She was his now forever. She need never run away again.
The conductor was not long in coming to them, and the matter-of-fact world had to be faced once more. The young man produced his card, and said a few words to the conductor, mentioning the name of his uncle, who, by the way, happened to be a director of the road; and then he explained the situation. It was very necessary that the young lady be recalled at once to her home because of a change in the circumstances. He had caught the train at West Philadelphia by automobile, coming as he was in his morning clothes, without baggage and with little money. Would the conductor be so kind as to put them off that they might return to the city by the shortest possible route?
The conductor glared and scolded, and said people “didn’t know their own minds,” and “wanted to move the earth.” Then he eyed Elizabeth, and she smiled. He let a grim glimmer of what might have been a sour smile years ago peep out for an instant, and—he let them off.
They wandered delightedly about from one trolley to another until they found an automobile garage, and soon were speeding back to Philadelphia.