Spice Box

by Grace Livingston Hill

  But Sterling, with a great delight in his eyes, went forward and took both her hands in his.

  “Mary! My lost little love! I have found you at last! Thank God!” he murmured.

  Perhaps nobody heard him, unless it might have been the other doctor who had been studying that group of boys and marveling at the effect this story had had upon them.

  But he came up now to introduce his onetime patient to the substitute doctor, and lo, he found them holding hands.

  “Oh,” he said smiling. “You’ve introduced yourself, I see, Sterling! Well that’s pleasant. You don’t waste much time, do you?”

  “Oh, but she’s an old friend of mine,” said Sterling in a moved voice. “She’s one I’ve been searching for for more than a year. You see, I lost her!”

  “Yes?” said Blackwell with a peculiar twinkle in his eyes. “I see. Well, that being the case, I guess my services are not required, and I’ll go help Miss Martha pass the lemonade.”

  He slid away to Martha’s side and passed lemonade and cake most efficiently, until Ronald corralled him and asked in a disgruntled voice, “Say, who is that guy over there holding our Janice’s hand? Who does he think he is, anyway? Seems to me he’s a little bit fresh, right at the start this way.”

  Blackwell grinned.

  “That’s the new doctor, kid! Get close to him as soon as you can. He’s an all right guy, and it seems he’s an old friend of your Janice, so I guess we can’t put any objections at this late day. But I’ll tell you this much, he’s going into army work as soon as he gets done substituting for me, so he won’t likely be around forever. Enjoy him while you can. But take it from me, he’s an all right guy!”

  “I see!” said Ronald, narrowing his eyes and looking across the room at the new doctor. Then he got his own glass of lemonade and went across the room where he could get a good view of the new man, studying him hard with the eyes of a man who has precious things to protect and was growing up fast.

  And then Martha, who sighted the two happy faces looking at one another, marched over to her doctor, and asked, “Who is that guy?” or words to that effect, uttered in more Marthanian phrases.

  Chapter 19

  They were all gone at last except Ronald and the cat. Even the two doctors were gone, because Dr. Blackwell remembered suddenly that he had made an appointment to meet one of his patients just at six o’clock and bring the substitute doctor to see him, and there was barely time for them to reach the place before six.

  “It’s important, Sterling,” said Blackwell when he saw the desperate look in the other man’s eyes, “and the girl will be here when you come back again. She lives here.”

  “Oh yes, of course,” said Sterling, wondering why there was always a desperate situation where this girl was concerned. “Well, if I must, I must, but—I must speak to her for at least a minute before we go.”

  “Very well, I’ll tell her,” said Dr. Blackwell, and he went over to Janice’s side.

  “Could you come over and speak with Dr. Sterling, Janice, for just a moment? We have an appointment to meet a patient at six and we’ve barely time to get there.” He spoke gravely, firmly, trying to let her know she must somehow get away from these people and come with him at once. Also, he was watching her keenly. Was she as interested in his substitute as Sterling was with her?

  The quick flash of interest in her eyes and the bright flush of her cheeks told him without words. Yes, she was.

  “Of course,” she said at once. “Boys, will you excuse me a moment? I must speak to someone.”

  They stood watching her as she hurried across the room, watching “the strange guy,” as they all instantly called Sterling. They had seen the bright look in her face. Was he good enough for her? That was the question in every boy’s mind. And what about “Doc,” the other Doc whom they knew and liked? The Doc who was going away to be sick, and maybe—just maybe—never coming back!

  Sterling watched the girl as she hurried toward him, watched the banner in her eyes, the joy on her lips, and his heart leaped with hope. Still—there had been so many setbacks. Dared he hope? Yet—she was here! He had seen her, had heard her! What a wonderful girl she was!

  His smile met hers halfway across the room, bringing out more banners in her cheeks, and when she came and looked up into his face there was a new dignity about her that he had not seen in her first surprise at meeting him, a dignity that had grown in the interval of her absence. She had suffered, of course, to bring that look in her face. Oh God, must she suffer anymore? Was there still something insurmountable that would keep them separated?

  He began to speak, rapidly, eagerly.

  “I have to go,” he said, and there was a wistfulness in his voice. “It seems to be important to Dr. Blackwell. But may I have your assurance that you will be here when I come back? That you will not vanish into the wide world again? I have spent much time in searching for you. I know that when you go you have some mysterious power of disappearance, but I beg of you that you will not do so again. For the love of mercy, let us have an understanding this time.”

  “Oh yes!” said Janice eagerly. “Yes, I have so wanted to explain it all to you, and yet there didn’t seem any way before. I have thought of writing pretty soon just to let you know what really was the reason I had to hurry away without explanation.”

  “Oh yes,” said Sterling, “that I know already. It was Herbert Stuart, and he had some kind of power over you. Of course I don’t know what, but I know he is a scoundrel of the lowest type. But what I didn’t understand was why you did not come to me, why you didn’t tell me he was your brother-in-law and ask me to help you. I had promised to do so. I thought you trusted me.”

  “Oh, I did trust you. I do!” she said, deeply moved. “But—how did you know he was my brother-in-law?”

  Sterling smiled sadly.

  “I have not been over a year hunting you everywhere I could think of, without finding out a good many things about you and your family. But the thing that hurt was that you did not confide in me. You had ample time when you came back to consciousness, while the nurse was out of the room.”

  Her eyes grew suddenly deeply troubled.

  “Oh—I thought—It didn’t seem that I had the right to bring my troubles down upon you—and the hospital—I—”

  “Excuse me, Sterling!” said Dr. Blackwell. “I think we shall have to go at once! I know Janice will understand and excuse us. You can come back!”

  “Oh yes,” said Janice, putting out a little cold, trembling hand. “You will come back?”

  He gripped the small hand in a firm clasp that told her how deeply he was feeling.

  “I shall come back,” he said, “and—you will be here?”

  “Oh yes, I will be here. You will let me know how soon that will be?”

  “I’m afraid not tonight,” said Dr. Blackwell firmly. “We have yet a number of important calls to make on very sick people. I’ll try to figure it out for you, Howard. Janice is working, and her hours are nine to half past four or five. Are you free tomorrow night, Janice? I’m afraid I’ll want Howard every minute till I leave, but I’ll try to find a place somewhere, and meantime, won’t she keep?”

  “Oh, I trust so,” said Sterling with a great anxiety in his voice.

  “Sure she will!” assured Blackwell. “Man, I’m glad you are so much interested in my very best prize patient! But I don’t know but I’m a little jealous also. Come on, fella! We can’t wait another second!”

  And so the doctors went away, and Janice turned to those boys and tried to think where she had left off talking to them. She found herself trembling from head to foot with a great gladness.

  That night after everybody had gone home and the house was very quiet, Martha got to thinking about the new doctor and the fact that he had seemed to be holding hands with Janice, and she wondered what it all meant and what might it mean to herself. She didn’t get much sleep.

  And Janice in her room, hugging to herself
the thought of her dear doctor and that he was here and she was to see him soon, suddenly remembered Rose Bradford, and her heart went down, down to the depths. How silly she had been! He was here, of course, and she was going to see him soon and talk with him. She could explain all about Herbert and her other job perhaps and how she’d had to run from him again. But how, after all, was the situation enough changed to give her such great joy? There was still that Rose woman, and she still must keep her admiration to herself. She must not let her heart get the uppermost for, since she definitely knew that he was engaged, it would not do for her to even get very friendly. Her own heart was not to be trusted, she saw that now. One couldn’t be awfully good friends with a man who belonged to somebody else, because the line between friendliness and love was very closely blended, and one never knew when it was going to get closer, so it was better to keep away.

  Over and over she canvassed that subject and came again and again to the same conclusion. She must be very careful in the talk she was to have with Dr. Sterling pretty soon.

  “Oh God, help me. Keep me from going in a wrong way, even in my thoughts!” she found herself praying.

  And then would come the agony of returning to the same aloof friendship she had been enduring for a long time, and she finally went to sleep without getting anything settled, except that she must be careful not to say too much. But there was one thing that was a relief. She was glad he knew about Herbert and had no very high opinion of him. He would be able to understand whatever she thought it right to explain, and she need not worry over whether she should tell him anymore or not.

  At last she fell asleep.

  And over in the next house, Ronald had tossed about a bit and yawned and got up and got drinks of water, and when his mother asked him what was the matter, he growled out that he guessed his old arm was “feeling the weather tonight,” although the weather that night was unquestionably fine, so that not even a broken arm could hope to give excuse for any rheumatic pains. But Ronald was definitely worried about that new doctor and Janice. Who was he, anyhow, and what did he want to put Janice into such a conspicuous position for right before a lot of fellows? Holding her hand all that time. Suppose he did used to know her somewhere, did he have to barge in on a perfectly good time she was having and bring that up? Boy! Whyn’t he wait till Monday at least? That was the swellest time they’d had yet, that story and that statuary, and the lemonade and cake. And then he had to hold up traffic holding hands! Well, there wasn’t anything he could do about it, and Doc had said he was an all right guy, so, of course, he had to shut up about it and let come what would. No, he couldn’t do anything about it. But tomorrow night he’d go over to Miss Martha’s, and they would talk all about their Sunday gathering and how well they sang and what a swell story it was and how good the lemonade tasted, and maybe he would feel better. But anyhow, if he didn’t pass his algebra exam, Miss Martha would have to find out about it and feel bad, so he’d better go to sleep right now. Likely everything would come out all right after all, and he mustn’t forget to pray for Doc and his operation. Gee! It would be bad to have anything happen to Doc. And it was sort of good that this new man was willing to come and take Doc’s place when he might have gone to war and got to be a doctor-captain or something. Maybe he’d try to like him after all. So finally Ronald went to sleep.

  Sterling was not free to go and see Janice until after eight o’clock the next evening, and he called up to see if that would be all right for her.

  “Oh yes,” she said, with a joyous welcome in her voice. “I’ll be glad to see you.”

  When he arrived he found the coast clear, and Janice opened the door for him. He took both her hands in his and led her over to the couch, where he drew her down beside him.

  “Now,” he said, “I’ve got to talk fast, because I must take Ted over to his train. He leaves around ten, and I told him I’d be back in time to see him off. But I couldn’t wait any longer without a talk with you. And besides, he has a lot of old patients coming in for last directions, and I didn’t want to spoil their fun by being so constantly on the job. And now, will you tell me why you didn’t come to me for help?”

  “Why, I told you,” said Janice, suddenly looking very uncomfortable. “I didn’t want to complain of one of your patients. And I didn’t want you to know that a man like that was my brother-in-law. My sister Louise spent a good many years trying to hide what he did, and I know she would want me to do all I could to keep up the illusion.”

  “But that, you know, is all a lot of hooey. There shouldn’t be a reason like that between you and me.”

  He was looking straight into her eyes so that she dared not raise her own to look at him, and he still held her hands very firmly. She looked down at them in a troubled way and thought of his beautiful fiancée. She oughtn’t to let him hold her hands, yet perhaps he didn’t think anything of it. Some people didn’t. And she didn’t want to begin to act unpleasant and aloof when he had just come. She had needed him so long! In a minute perhaps he would realize what he was doing and let her hands go. She would rather it would come about in that way. She didn’t like to fight and wrench them away. It didn’t seem ladylike. It didn’t seem friendly.

  He was holding her hands warm and close in both his own now.

  “Tell me, my dear, what has come between us?”

  She looked up quickly, more stirred at his touch than she wanted him to see. Suddenly she spoke. Her lips were quivering, and she tried to draw her hands away.

  “Nothing has come between us,” she said softly, “only we ought not to be doing this.” And she pulled her hands firmly but gently away from his.

  “Wait!” he said. “Just what do you mean? Is there some reason—Janice are you married? Is this something I don’t know?” And he put his hands firmly about her wrists. “Wait! I must understand this! We can’t go on through life with misunderstandings. Are you married?”

  She broke into a ripple of laughter, and then suddenly it was gone.

  “Oh no!” she cried. “Of course not! But you! But you—you are engaged, and it isn’t fair to the other girl! It isn’t right!”

  “What! I, engaged? I certainly am not engaged, and never was! Where did you hear that? It is you I love, and only you! Of course if you don’t love me, and feel you never could, you have a right to draw away from my touch. Is it that, my dear? Am I hateful to you?”

  “Oh no,” she said softly, her earnest eyes looking into his now. “But—they said—”

  “Yes? What did they say? Who said it? I insist on knowing who told you this?”

  “The nurses. They didn’t exactly tell me. I overheard them talking, but I think they meant me to hear. And probably they thought I ought to know. I had been awfully thoughtless.”

  “You? Thoughtless! Nothing of the kind! You were like a lovely statue most of the time those last weeks. You wouldn’t come near me if you could help it, and you smiled so sadly and distantly, like a lovely star! Oh my dear! It broke my heart some of those days when I was reaching for you and you only seemed farther and farther away each day. I wondered why I kept on, when it seemed so clear that you didn’t want to be found. And yet I had to go on and find out where you were, if it was humanly possible. But why did you think you could credit what those nurses said? Didn’t you know they were a jealous, catty lot? Not all of them, of course, but a group who always want attention themselves. I would have thought you would understand what they were and not have trusted them.”

  “Oh, but I had no reason to doubt them. You had always been honorable and fine. And when she came she was so lovely!”

  “She? What on earth are you talking about? When who came?”

  “Why, Rose Bradford, the one they said you were engaged to. And then you went away several times, and they said you had gone to see her. Why wouldn’t I think that was true? I was only trying to be right and true. And they had been talking about me, too. They said I was trying to catch you! Oh, I was so humiliated! I had been
brought up to be decent and self-respecting, and a Christian. I did not want to do anything that would be supposed to be otherwise. I wanted them all to know I was not chasing anybody. You had been very good to me when I was in dire distress, and you saved my life! I could not help being grateful to you and admiring you greatly, but I did not want to be misunderstood. And I did not want to comprise you in any way for the girl you had chosen. I wanted to go quietly about my duties and keep your respect through life if I could, but I did not want to be thought to be silly and indecent!”

  “You were never that, Janice! And only a fool could ever think you were. The trouble was, those girls who talked that way were so lost to all sense of righteousness themselves that they couldn’t conceive of anybody wanting to live on a higher plane. But as for Rose Bradford, I never loved her, nor even wanted to be engaged to her, though she tried hard enough to make me think I did. But after I knew her she was definitely out of my thoughts. She couldn’t ever be compared to you. And now, Janice, let’s forget Rose Bradford and those fool nurses, and let’s talk about you and me. Janice, I love you, and I’ve learned through these long months of searching for you that I shall never be happy or satisfied without you. Do you feel that you could ever come to love me?”

  He searched her face anxiously, the sweet eyes downcast, the lovely lips curved into the lines of great happiness.

  Then she raised her head and let the joy in her eyes shine into his.

  “Oh, I do love you!” she breathed softly. “I’ve loved you from the first! That was what was the matter. I thought I ought not to.”

  “You precious love!” said Sterling, suddenly reaching yearning arms to draw her close. “Oh my darling!” And then his lips were upon hers, and a great joy descended upon them till it seemed as if God stood there with His hands upon their heads, blessing them.