For three long, beautiful weeks Cornelia enjoyed her calm and hope
climbed high.
The stone columns of the pretty front porch grew rapidly, and began
to take on comeliness. Brand endeared himself to them all by his
cheerful, steady, patient aid, coming every afternoon attired in
overalls, and working hard till dark, getting his white hands callous
and dirty, cut with the stones, and hard as nails. Once Cornelia
had to tie an ugly cut he got when a stone fell on his hand; and
he looked at her lovingly, and thanked her just like a child. From
that time forth she gathered him into her heart with her brothers
and sister, and began genuinely to like him and be anxious for his
welfare. It seemed that his mother and sister were society people,
and made little over him at home. He had his own companions and went
his own way without consulting them; and, although he must have had a
wonderful mansion of a home, he seemed much to prefer the little cozy
house of the Copley’s, and spent many evenings there as well as days.
He seemed to be as much interested in getting the stone porch done as
Carey himself, and he often worked away alone when Carey felt he must
stay at the garage awhile to get money enough for more stone or more
cement and sand. Once or twice Cornelia suspected from a few words
she gathered, as the boys were arguing outside the window, that Brand
had offered to supply the needed funds rather than have Carey leave
to earn them; but she recognized proudly that Carey always declined
emphatically such financial assistance.
Now and then Brand would order Carey to “doll up,” and would whirl
him away in his car to see a man somewhere with the hope of a
position; but as yet nothing had come of these various expeditions,
although Carey was always hopeful and kept telling about a new
“lead,” as he called it, with the same joyous assurance of youth.
Brand, too, had been drawn into the young people’s choir, and took a
sudden interest in Sunday-night church. Once he went with Cornelia,
and found the place in the hymn book for her, and sang lustily
at her side. The next Sunday he was sitting up in the choir loft
beside Carey and acting as if he were one of the chief pillars in
that church. It was wonderful how eagerly he grasped a thing that
caught his interest. He had a wild, care-free, loving nature, and
bubbled over with life and recklessness; but he was easily led if
anybody chose to give him a little friendship. It seemed that he led
a starved life so far as loving care was concerned, and he accepted
eagerly any little favor done for him. Cornelia soon found that he
grew pleasantly into the little family group; and even the children
accepted and loved him, and often depended upon him.
Arthur Maxwell, too, had become an intimate friend of the family
circle, and since Harry had come back from his trip to the mountains
he could talk of nothing else but “Mr. Maxwell says this and Mr.
Maxwell does that,” till the family began gently to poke fun at him
about it. Nevertheless, they were well pleased that they had such a
friend. He came down one day, and took Cornelia off for the whole
afternoon on a wonderful drive in the country. They brought back a
great basket of fruit and armfuls of wild flowers and vines. Another
day he took her to a nursery where they selected some vines for the
front porch, some climbing roses and young hedge-plants, which he
proceeded to set out for her on their return. Then next day a big box
of chocolates was delivered at the door with his card. But his mother
had not been out for her promised visit yet; for she had been called
away on a business trip to California the day after she reached home,
and had decided to remain with her relatives there for a month or
six weeks. Cornelia as she daily beautified her pretty home kept
wondering what Mrs. Maxwell would say to it when she did come. But
most of all she wondered about her own dear mother, and what she
would say to the glorified old house when she got back to it again.
Great news had been coming from the sanitarium where the mother was
taking the rest-cure. The nurse said that she grew decidedly better
from the day the letter arrived telling how Carey was singing in the
church choir and going to Christian Endeavor, and building a front
porch. The nurse’s letter did not show that she laid any greater
stress on any one of these occupations than on the others, but
Cornelia knew that her mother’s heart was rejoicing that the boy had
found a place in the church of God where he was interested enough to
go to work. In her very next letter she told about the minister’s
people, and described Grace Kendall, telling of Carey’s friendship
for her. Again the nurse wrote how much good that letter had done the
mother, so that she sat up for quite a little while that day without
feeling any ill effects from it. Cornelia began to wonder whether
Clytie had been at the bottom of some of her mother’s trouble, and to
congratulate herself on the fact that Clytie had suffered eclipse at
last.
About this time Maxwell arrived one evening while Carey was putting
the finishing-touches to the front porch, and instead of coming in as
was his custom, he sat down on a pile of floor-boards and talked with
Carey.
Cornelia, hearing low, earnest voices, stepped quietly to the window
and looked out, wondering to see Maxwell talking so earnestly with
her brother. She felt proud that the older young man was interested
enough in him to linger and talk, and wondered whether it might be
politics or the last baseball score that was absorbing them. Then she
heard Maxwell say: “You’ll be there at eight tomorrow morning, will
you? He wants to talk with you in his private office before the rush
of the day begins.”
In a moment more Maxwell came into the house, bringing with him a
great box of gorgeous roses, and in her joy over the roses, arranging
them in vases, she forgot to wonder what Maxwell and her brother
had been talking about. He might have told her, perhaps, but they
were interrupted almost immediately, much to her disappointment,
by callers. First, the carpenter next door ran in to say he was
building a bungalow in a new suburb for a bride and groom, and the
man wanted to furnish the house throughout before he brought his
wife home, to surprise her. The bride didn’t know he was building,
but thought they would have to board for a while; and he wanted
everything pretty and shipshape for her before she came, so they
could go right in and begin to live. He didn’t have a lot of money
for furnishing, and the carpenter had found out about it, and told
him about Cornelia. Would she undertake the job on a percentage
basis, taking for selecting the things ten per cent. say, on what
they cost, and charging her usual prices for any work she had to do?
Cornelia at the door facing out into the starlight, flushed with
pleasure over the new business opportunity, and made arrangements
in a happy tone to meet the new householder the next morning, talk
plans over with him, and find out what he wanted. The young man in
the living room, waiting for her, pretending to turn over the pages
of a magazine that lay on the table was furtively watching her the
while and thinking how fine she was, how enterprising and successful,
and yet how sweet withal! How right his mother had been! He smiled
to himself to think how nearly always right his mother was, anyhow,
and wondered again, as he had done before, whether his mother had a
hidden reason for sending him out with those ferns that first night.
Cornelia returned in a flutter of pleasure, and was scarcely seated
when there came another summons to the door; and there stood the
minister’s wife. She came in and met Maxwell, and they had a
pleasant little chat. Then Mrs. Kendall revealed her errand. She
wanted Cornelia to give a series of talks on what she called “The
House Beautiful and Convenient” to the Ladies’ Aid Society in the
church. She had the course all outlined suggestively, with a place
for all the questions that come up in making a house comfortable and
attractive; and she wanted Cornelia to keep in mind the thought that
many of her auditors would be people in very limited circumstances,
with very little money or time or material at hand to use in making
their homes lovely. She said there were many people in their church
neighborhood who would be attracted by such a course to come to the
church gatherings, and she wanted Cornelia to help. The Ladies’ Aid
had voted to pay five dollars a lesson for such a course of talks
as this, and had instructed her to secure some one for it at once,
and she knew of no one so well fitted as Cornelia. Would Cornelia
consider it for the trifle they could afford to pay? They were going
to charge the women twenty-five cents a lesson, and hoped to make a
little money on the enterprise for their Ladies’ Aid. Of course the
remuneration was small; but with her experience the work ought not to
take much time, and she could have the added reward of knowing she
was doing a lot of good and probably brightening a lot of homes. Also
it would bring her opportunities for other openings of the sort.
“I just wish they could all see this lovely house from top to
bottom,” she said as she looked around. “It would do them a world of
good.”
“Why, they could,” said Cornelia, smiling. “I suppose I could clear
it all up and let them go over it, if you think that would help any.
I’d love to do the work if you think I’m able. I never talked in
public in my life. I’m not sure I can.”
“Oh, this isn’t talking in public,” said the minister’s wife eagerly.
“This is just telling people that don’t know how, how to do things
that you have done yourself. I’m sure you have that gift. I’ve
listened to you talking, and you’re wonderfully interesting. But
would you consider giving them a reception and letting them see how
you have made your house lovely? That would be a wonderful addition,
and I’m sure the ladies would be delighted to pay extra for that; and
we’d all come over and help you clear up afterwards, and before, too,
if you would let us, although I’m sure you always look in immaculate
order for a reception or anything else every time I’ve ever been
here.”
When the matter was finally arranged and Mrs. Kendall had left, Carey
came in, scrubbed, shaved, neatly attired, and proposed that they
have a sing. Maxwell, nothing loath, joined in eagerly, and sang
with all his splendid voice. Then after a time he asked Cornelia to
play, and before they realized it the evening was over. Not until
Carey said in his casual way, “Call me at quarter to seven, will you,
Nell?—and turn on the hot water when you get down; that’s a dear,”
did Cornelia remember her curiosity concerning the conversation
between her brother and Maxwell. Carey said nothing about it, and
Cornelia was enough of a wise woman not to ask.
But Carey told her the next morning. He was so excited he couldn’t
keep it to himself.
“Didn’t know I was going to be a salesman up at Braithwaite’s, did
you?” he said quite casually between mouthfulls of breakfast.
Harry paused in his chewing a second, and eyed him sceptically.
“Yes, you are _not_!” he remarked scornfully, and went on chewing
again.
But Cornelia, eager-eyed, leaned forward.
“What do you mean, Carey? Is that a fact?”
“Well, just about,” said Carey, enjoying their bewilderment. “Maxwell
told me the manager wants to see me this morning. Says he’s had his
eye on me for three months, been looking up everything about me, and,
when that picture came out in the paper, he told Maxwell he guessed
I’d do. Said they wanted a man that could jump into a situation like
that and handle it, a man with nerve, you know, that had his wits
about him. It’s up to me now to make good. If I do, I get the job
all right. It isn’t great pay to start, only thirty bucks a week;
but it’s all kinds of prospects ahead if I make good. Well, so-long;
wish me luck.” And Carey flung out of the house amid the delighted
exclamations of his astonished family.
“O God, you have been good to us!” breathed Cornelia’s happy soul as
she stood by the window, watching Carey’s broad shoulders and upright
carriage as he hurried down the street to the car. Carey was happy.
It fairly radiated even from his back, and he walked as if he trod
the air. Cornelia was so glad she could have shouted, “Hallelujah!”
Now, if he really got this position,—and it looked reasonably
sure,—he was established in a good and promising way, and the family
could stop worrying about him.
What a wonderful young man Maxwell was to take all that trouble for
a comparative stranger! Her eyes grew dreamy and her lips softened
into a smile as she went over every detail of the evening before,
remembering the snatches of talk she had caught and piecing them out
with new meaning. She leaned over, and laid her face softly among
the roses he had brought, and drew in a long, sweet breath of their
fragrance. And he had been doing this for them all the time, and not
said a word, lest nothing would come of it. As she thought about it
now, she believed he had had the thought about doing something for
Carey that first night when he came so unexpectedly to dinner, that
dreadful dinner party! How far away and impossible it all seemed now!
That terrible girl! What a fool she had been to think it necessary
to invite any one like that to the house! If she had just let things
go on and take their natural course, Maxwell would have dropped in
that night, and they would have had a pleasant time, and all would
have been as it was at present, without the mortification of that
memory. Carey with his new ambitions and hopes would surely never now
disgrace himself by going again with a girl like that. It had been
an unnecessary crucifixion for the whole family.
Yet they never would have known how splendid Maxwell could be in
a trying time without her, perhaps. There was always something
comforting somewhere. Still, she would like to be rid of the memory
of that evening. It brought shame to her cheek even yet to remember
the loud, nasal twang of the cheap voice, the floury face, the
low-cut tight little gown, the air of abandon! Oh! It was awful!
Then her mind went back to the day she returned from college, and
to the sweet-faced, low-voiced woman who was the mother of this new
friend. It hardly seemed as if the two belonged to the same world.
What would she think if she ever heard of Clytie? Would the young
man ever quite forget her, and wipe the memory from his mind so
completely that it would never return to shadow those first days of
their acquaintance?
Carey returned early in the afternoon with an elastic step and a
light of triumph in his face. He had been engaged as a salesman
in one of the largest firms in the country, a business dealing
with tools and machinery and requiring a wide grasp of various
engineering branches. He was just in his element. He had been born
with the instinct for machinery and mechanics. He loved everything
connected with them. Also he was a leader and a natural mixer among
men. All these things Maxwell later told Cornelia had counted in
his favor. The fact that he was not a college man had been the only
drawback; but after the accident, and after the manager had had a
long, searching talk with him, it had been decided that Carey had
natural adaptability and hereditary culture enough to overcome that
lack; and they voted to try him. The manager felt that there was good
material in him. Maxwell did not tell Cornelia that what he had told
the manager concerning her ability and initiative had had much to do
with influencing the decision. The manager was a keen man. He knew
a live family when he saw it; and, when he heard what Cornelia had
accomplished in her little home, he was keen to see the brother. He
felt that he also might be a genius! Now if Carey could only make
good!