The Palace
Ben, taking an occasional look around at his passenger, flew directly on
toward a landing-field. Their destination had hardly yet interested
Geraldine. The whole experience, in spite of the noise of the motor,
seemed as yet unreal to her. In reaction from the frightful nightmare of
the last few days, her whole being responded to the flight through the
bright spring air, and had Ben seen fit to do a figure eight she would
have accepted it as part of the reckless joyousness of the present
dream.
As the plane began to descend and objects below came into view, she
wondered for the first time where the great bird was coming to earth.
Perhaps Miss Upton's ample and blessed figure would be waiting to greet
her. Nothing, nothing was too good to be true.
The plane touched earth and flitted along to a standstill. They were in
a field, just now deserted, and her escort, pushing back his helmet,
smiled upon her radiantly.
"First time you've ever flown?" he asked.
"Yes, except in dreams," she answered. "This seems only one more."
"Were they happy dreams?"
"None so happy as this."
"You weren't afraid, then? You're a good sport."
"I think I shall never be afraid again. I've sounded the depths of fear
in the last week."
The two sat looking into one another's eyes and the appeal in those
long-lashed orbs of Geraldine continued the havoc that they had begun.
Her lips were very grave as she recalled the precipice from which she
had been snatched.
"I saw that he frightened you terribly that day he gave me such a warm
welcome."
"He was going to marry me," explained Geraldine simply.
"How could he--the old ogre?"
"I was to consent in order to save my father's name. I'm going to tell
you about it because you're a lawyer, aren't you, and the finest man in
the world? I have it here."
Geraldine loosened her coat and felt inside her white blouse for Miss
Upton's letter.
Ben laughed and blushed to his ears. "I haven't attained the former yet.
The latter, of course, I can't deny."
Geraldine produced the letter, inside of which was folded that from her
father.
"Miss Upton wrote me about you and--"
"You're not going to show it to me," interrupted Ben hastily. "I'm
afraid the dear woman spread it on too thick for the victim to view."
"You see, she knew how I hate men," explained Geraldine, "and she knew
how friendless I was and she wanted me to trust you."
"And do you?" asked Ben with ardor.
"Yes, perfectly. I have to, you know." She tucked back the rejected
letter in its hiding-place.
"And you're not going to hate me?"
"I should think not," returned the girl with the same simple gravity;
"not when you've done me the greatest kindness of my whole life!"
"I'm so glad I haven't named the plane yet," said Ben impulsively. "You
shall name it."
"There's no name good enough," she replied--"unless--unless we name it
for that carrier pigeon that was such a hero in the War. We might name
it _Cher Ami_."
"Good," declared Ben. "It is surely a homing bird."
"And such a _cher ami_ to me," added Geraldine fervently.
Ben wondered if this marvelous girl never smiled.
"You were going to tell me how the ogre was able to force you to marry
him," he said.
"Yes; I don't like to tell you. It is very sad, and he crushed me with
it." The girl's lips trembled for a silent moment, and Cupid alone knows
how Ben longed to kiss them, close to him as they were.
"He said that my father forged two checks, and that he only refrained
from prosecuting him because of me. He said my father had promised that
he should have me."
Ben scowled, and the dark eyes fixed upon him brightened with sudden
eagerness. "But that was a lie--about father giving me to him. I have
Daddy's letter here." She felt again inside her blouse. "You will have
to know everything--how my poor father was his own worst enemy and came
to rely for money on that impossible man."
She took out the letter and gave it to Ben and he read it in silence.
"Probably it was a lie also about the checks," he said when he had
finished.
"No, oh, no," she replied earnestly. "He showed me those. He said that
my father was held in affectionate remembrance at his clubs and among
his friends, and that he could ruin all that and hold him up to contempt
as a criminal, unless--unless I married him." Geraldine's bosom heaved
convulsively. "I have been wild with joy ever since you came," she
declared. "If I ever go to heaven I can't be happier than I was flying
up from that meadow where there seemed a curse even on the poor little
wild flowers but you can see how it is going to keep coming over me in
waves that perhaps I have done wrong. You see, Daddy tells me not to
consider him; but should I not guard his name in spite of that? That is
the question that will keep coming up to me. Nevertheless"--she made a
gesture of despair--"if I went through with it--if I married Mr. Carder,
I'm sure I should lose all control and kill myself. I'm sure of it."
Here Ben gave rein to the dastardly instinct which occasionally causes a
poor mortal to fling all conscience to the winds when he sees an
unexpected opportunity to attain a longed-for prize.
"For you to become his wife cannot be right," declared Ben, endeavoring
to speak with mature and legal poise; "but as you say, that heartrending
doubt of your duty may attack you at times. How would it be to put it
beyond your power to yield to his wishes by marrying some one else--me,
for instance?"
Geraldine regarded the speaker with grief and reproach. "Can you joke
about my trouble?" She turned away and he suspected hurt tears.
"Miss Melody--Geraldine." What Ben had fondly hoped was the judicial
manner disappeared in a whirlwind of words. "I'm in earnest! I've
thought of nothing but you since the day I saw you with that cut-throat.
It's my highest desire to guard you, to make you happy. Give me the
right, and every day of my life will prove it. Of course, I saw that
Carder had some hold over you. I've spent all my time ever since that
day trying to ferret out facts that could give me some hold on him. I
haven't found them. The fox has always left himself a loophole. Marry me
to-day: now: before we go home. I'm well known in the town yonder. I can
arrange it. Marry me, and whatever comes you will be safe from him.
Geraldine!"
The girl's gaze was fixed on the flushed face and glowing eyes beside
her and she leaned as far away from him as possible.
"You really mean it?" she said when he paused.
"As I never meant anything before in my life."
"Have you a mother?"
"The best on earth."
"And yet you would do this to her, just because I have nice eyes."
It was a frigid bucket of water, but Ben stood up under it.
"Yes, I could give her nothing better."
"You don't even know me," said Geraldine. "How strange men are."
"Yes, those you hate; but how about me? You said you liked me."
At this the girl did smile, and the effect was so wonderful that it
knocked what little sense Ben Barry had left into oblivion.
"Love at first sight is a fact," he declared. "No one believes it till
he's hit, but then there's no questioning. You looked that day as if you
would have liked to speak to me--yes"--boldly--"as if to escape Carder
you would have mounted that motor-cycle with me and we should have done
that Tennyson act, you know--'beyond the earth's remotest rim the happy
princess followed him'--or something like that. I don't know it exactly
but I'm going to learn it from start to finish and read law afterward.
I've dreamed of you all night and worked for you all day ever since and
yet I haven't accomplished anything!"
"Haven't!" exclaimed Geraldine. "You've done the most wonderful thing in
the world."
"Oh, well, _Cher Ami_ did that. Tell me you'll let me take care of you
always, and knock Carder's few remaining teeth down his throat if he
ever comes in sight. Tell me you do--you like me a little."
Geraldine's entrancing smile was still lighting her pensive eyes.
"Oh, no, I don't like you. How can I? People don't like utter strangers.
One feels worship, adoration for a creature that drops from the skies,
and lifts a wretched helpless girl out of torturing captivity into the
free sweet air of heaven."
"Well, that'll do," returned Ben, nodding. "Adoration and worship will
do to begin with. Let us go over to the village and be married--_my
beautiful darling_."
Geraldine colored vividly under this escape of her companion's
ungovernable steam, but she did not change her expression.
"I certainly shall not do that," she answered quietly.
Ben relaxed his tense, appealing posture.
"Well, then," he said, drawing a long breath, "if you positively decline
the trap--oh, it was a trap all right--if you are determined to postpone
the wedding, I'll tell you that I really don't believe your father
forged those checks."
"Oh, Mr. Barry--" the girl leaned toward him.
"Ben, or I won't go on."
"Ben, then. It is no sort of a name compared to the one I have been
giving you. I've been calling you Sir Galahad."
Ben smiled at her blissfully. "Nice," he said. "I don't believe Miss
Upton went beyond that."
"Oh, please go on, Mr. Barry--Ben--Sir Galahad."
"Why couldn't our cheerful friend have shown you any checks he drew to
your father's name and claim that they were forged?"
Geraldine's eyes shone. "I never thought of that."
"Of course I cannot be sure of it. I would far rather get something
definite on the old scamp."
Geraldine shuddered. "He is so cruel. He is so rough to that poor little
fellow Pete. Think what I owe that boy! He managed to get your message
to me even when threatened with his master's whip. Mr. Carder saw you
speaking to him and questioned him."
"Oh, you mean that nut who took my letter?"
"The hero who took your letter. He had to lie outside my door every
night to keep me from escaping, and he slipped your message under it.
Where should I be now but for him? Poor child, he is as friendless as I
am"--Geraldine interrupted herself with a grateful look at her
companion--"as I was, I mean. He had to follow me and guard me wherever
I went, always keeping at a distance, because he mustn't speak to me and
the ogre was always watching. How I thank Heaven," added Geraldine
fervently, "that Mr. Carder himself had called Pete off duty for the
first time before the--the archangel swooped down from the sky."
"I'm getting on," said Ben. "If you keep on promoting me, I'll arrive
first thing you know."
"I should honestly be wretched if I had to think Mr. Carder was blaming
Pete for my escape. The boy did tell me his life depended on my safety."
"Well, I don't understand," said Ben with a puzzled frown. "Who lies in
front of Pete's door? Why does he stay there? Why doesn't he light out
some time between two days?"
"Oh, Mr. Carder has told him no one would employ him, that Pete would
starve but for him. Did you notice how ragged and neglected he looked?"
"He looked like a nut. I was afraid he was so stupid that you would
never receive the message." Ben looked thoughtful. "How long has he
lived at the farm?"
"For years. Mrs. Carder took him from the orphan asylum when he was a
child. She thought he would be more useful than a girl. They keep him as
a slave. You saw how very bow-legged he is. He can't get about normally,
but he drives the car and helps in the kitchen and does every sort of
menial task. There was such a look in his eyes always when he saw me.
Little as I could do for him, or even speak to him, I'm afraid he is
missing me terribly." Geraldine's look suddenly grew misty. "See how
faithful he was about Daddy's letter. Poor little Pete. Mr. Carder will
be out of his mind at my flight. I hope he doesn't visit it on that poor
boy."
"Well," said Ben, heroically refraining from putting his arms around
her, "why don't we take him?"
"We? Take Pete? How wonderful!" she returned, her handkerchief pausing
in mid-air.
"Sure thing, if you want him. Send him to the barber and have his hair
mowed. Have some trousers cut out for him with a circular saw and fix
him up to the queen's taste."
"Oh, Mr. Barry--Ben! You don't know what you're saying. It would give me
more relief than I can express, for the boy's lot is so miserable and
starved."
"Well, then, that is settled, my princess."
"But you can't get him. I can't help feeling that anyone who has lived
there so long, and been so unconsidered and unnoticed, must know more
than Mr. Carder wishes to have go to the outside world. His mother
hinted some things." Geraldine gasped with reminiscent horror of that
low-ceiled kitchen.
Her companion suddenly looked very alert. "Highly probable," he
returned. "Why didn't you say that before? We certainly will take Pete
in. What are his habits? You say he drives the car."
"Yes, he did until he was set to dog my movements. I often heard it
referred to. Do you mean--you could never get him in this blessed
chariot. He will probably never see the meadow again unless they send
him to get the cows."
Ben shook his head. "No; I think he will have to be bagged some other
way. What's the matter with my going back to the farm on my motor-cycle
and engaging him, overbidding the ogre?"
Geraldine actually clasped her hands on the leathern arm beside her.
"Promise me," she said fervently, looking into her companion's
eyes--"promise me that you will never go back to that farm alone."
"You want to go with me?"
"Don't joke. Promise me solemnly."
Ben's lips took a grave line and he put one hand over the beseeching
ones.
"Then what will you promise me?" he returned.
The blood mantled high over the girl's face. "You're taking me to Miss
Upton, aren't you?" she returned irrelevantly.
"Yes, if you positively refuse still to go to the parson."
The expression of her anxious eyes grew inscrutable.
"I want your mother to love me," she said naively.
Ben lifted her hands and held them to his lips.
"You haven't promised," she said softly. "I know he suspects you now. I
think he is a madman when he is angry."
"Very well, I promise." Ben released her hands and smiled down with
adoring eyes. "Now, we will go home," he said.
Again the great bird rose and winged its way between heaven and earth.
Now it was not as before when Geraldine's whole being had seemed
absorbed in flight and freedom. The earth was before her and a new life.
She had a lover. Wonderful, sweet, incredible fact. A good man, Miss
Upton said. Could it be that never again desolation and fear should
sicken her heart; that like the princess of the tales her great third
day had come and brought her love as well as liberty? Happiness deluged
her, flushed her cheeks, and shone in her eyes. She longed and dreaded
to alight again upon that earth which had never shown her kindness.
Could it be possible that she should reign queen in a good man's heart?
For so many years she had been habitually in the background, kept there
either by her stepmother's will or her own desire to hide her
shabbiness, and when need had at last forced her to initiative, she had
received such humiliating stabs from the greed of men--could it be that
she was to walk surrounded by protection, and love, and _respect_?
She closed her eyes. Spring, sunlight, joy coursed through every vein.
When at last they began again to dip toward earth, the question surged
through her: "Shall I ever be so happy again?"
And now Miss Upton's figure loomed large and gracious in the foreground
of her thoughts. She longed for the refuge of her kindly arms until she
could gather herself together in the new era of safety and peace.
The plane touched the earth, ran a little way toward an arched building,
and stopped.
Ben jumped out, and Geraldine exclaimed over the beauty of a rose-tinted
cloud of blossoms.
"Yes. Pretty orchard, isn't it?" he said. He unstrapped her safety belt
and lifted her out of the cockpit. Her eager eyes noted that they were
at the back of a large brick dwelling.
"Is Miss Upton here?" she asked while her escort took off her leather
coat and her helmet. The latter had been pushed on and off once too
often. The wonder of her golden hair fell over the poor little white
cotton gown and Ben repressed his gasp of admiration.
"Oh, this is dreadful," she said, putting her hands up helplessly.
"Don't touch it," exclaimed her companion quickly. "You can't do
anything with it anyway. There isn't a hairpin in the hangar. Miss Upton
will love to see it. She will take care of it."
"Oh, I can't. How can I!" exclaimed Geraldine.
"Certainly, that's all right," said Ben hastily. "Miss Upton is right
here. She will take you into the house and make you comfy. Let me put
this around you."
He took the crepe shawl and put it about her shoulders, lifting out the
shining gold that fell over the fringes.
"I know it is very old-fashioned and queer," said Geraldine, pulling the
wrap over the grass stains and looking up into his eyes with a childlike
appeal that made him set his teeth. "It was my mother's and you said
'white.' It was all I had."
Miss Upton had come to Mrs. Barry's to receive her protegee provided Ben
could bring her. The two ladies were sitting out under the trees
waiting. Miss Mehitable had obeyed Ben, and some days since had given
Mrs. Barry the young girl's story, and that lady had received it
courteously and with the tempered sympathy which one bestows on the
absolutely unknown.
Miss Upton's excitement when she heard the humming of the aeroplane and
saw it approaching in the distance baffles description. She had been
forcing herself to talk on other subjects, perceiving clearly that her
hostess was what our English friends would term fed up on the subject of
the girl with the fanciful name; but now she clasped her plump hands and
caught her breath.
"Well, she ain't killed, anyway," she said. She longed to rush back to
the landing-place, but instinctively felt that such action on the part
of a guest would be indecorous. She hoped Mrs. Barry would suggest it,
but such a move was evidently far from that lady's thought. She sat in
her white silken gown, with sewing in her lap, the picture of unruffled
calm.
Miss Upton swallowed and kept her eyes on the approaching plane. "She
ain't killed, anyway," she repeated.
"Nor Ben either," remarked Mrs. Barry, drawing the fine needle in and
out of her work. "He is of some importance, isn't he?"
"Oh, do you suppose he got her, Mrs. Barry?" gasped Miss Mehitable.
"Ben would be likely to," returned that lady, who had been somewhat
tried by her son's preoccupation in the last few days and considered the
adventure a rather annoying interlude in their ordered life.
"Why don't she say let's go and see! How can she just set there as cool
as a cucumber!" thought Miss Mehitable, squeezing the blood out of her
hands.
The plane descended, the humming ceased. Miss Upton sat on the edge of
her chair looking excitedly at the figure in white who embroidered
serenely. Moments passed with the tableau undisturbed; then:
"Oh! Oh!" exclaimed Miss Mehitable, still holding a rein over herself,
mindful that she was not the hostess.
Mrs. Barry looked up. She was a New Englander of the New Englanders,
conservative to her finger tips. Ben was her only son, the light of her
eyes. If what she saw was startling, it can hardly be wondered at.
There came through the pink cloud of the apple blossoms her aviator son
looking handsomer than she had ever beheld him, leading a girl in
white-fringed crepe that clung in soft folds to her slenderness. All
about her shoulders fell a veil of golden hair, and her appealing eyes
glowed in a face at once radiant and timid.
Mrs. Barry started up from her chair.
"Mother!" cried Ben as they approached, "I told you I should bring her
from the stars."
The hostess advanced a step mechanically, Miss Mehitable followed close.
Geraldine gazed fascinated at the tall, regal woman, whose habitually
formal manner took on an additional stiffness.
"This is Miss Melody, I believe." Mrs. Barry held out her smooth, fair
hand. "I hear you have passed through a very trying experience," she
said with cold courtesy. "I am glad you are safe."
The light went out of the girl's eager eyes. The color fled from her
face. She had endured too many extremes of emotion in one day. Miss
Mehitable extended her arms to her with a yearning smile. Geraldine
glided to her and quietly fainted away on that kindly breast.
"Poor lamb, poor lamb," murmured Miss Mehitable, and Ben, frowning,
exclaimed: "Here, let me take her!"
He gathered her up in his arms and carried her into the house and laid
her on a divan, Miss Upton panting after his long strides and his mother
deliberately bringing up the rear. Mrs. Barry knew just what to do and
she did it, while Miss Upton wrung her hands above the recumbent white
figure. When the long eyelashes flickered on the pallid cheek, Ben spoke
commandingly: "I'll take her upstairs. She must be put to bed."
Miss Mehitable came to herself with a rush. "Not here," she said
decidedly. "If you'll let me have the car, Mrs. Barry, we'll be out of
your way in five minutes."
Ben looked at his mother, who was still cool and unexcited; and the
expression on his face was a new one for her to meet.
"She isn't fit to be moved, Mother, and Miss Upton hasn't room. Miss
Melody is exhausted. She has had a frightful experience," he said
sternly.
If he had appealed she might have been touched, but it is doubtful. The
grass stains, the quaint shawl, the hair that was rippling down to the
rug, were none of them part of her visions of a daughter-in-law, and, at
any rate, Ben shouldn't look at her like that--at her! for the sake of a
friendless waif whose existence he had not suspected one week ago.
Miss Upton, understanding the situation perfectly, saved the hostess the
trouble of replying.
"It won't hurt her a bit to drive as far as my house after she's been
caperin' all over the sky!" she exclaimed, seizing Geraldine's hands.
The girl heard the declaration and essayed to rise while her eyes fixed
on the round face bending over her.
"I want to go with you," she said.
"And you're going, my lamb," returned Miss Mehitable.
"Certainly, you shall have the car," said Mrs. Barry suavely.
She wished to send word to the chauffeur, she wished to give Geraldine
tea, she was entirely polite and sufficiently solicitous, but her heir
looked terrible things, and, bringing around the car, himself drove the
guests to Miss Upton's Fancy Goods and Notions.
Geraldine declined his help to walk to the door of the shop. Miss Upton
had her arm around her, and though the girl was pale she gave her
rescuer a look full of gratitude; and when he pressed her hand she
answered the pressure and restored a portion of his equanimity.
"I never, never shall forget this happiest day of my life," she said.
"And don't forget we are going to get Pete," he responded eagerly,
holding her hand close, "and everything is going to come out right."
"Yes"--she looked doubtful and frightened; "but if you get Pete don't
let your mother see him. She is--she couldn't bear it."
"Don't judge her, Geraldine," he begged. "She is glorious. Ask Miss
Upton. Just a little--a little shy at first, you know. Miss Upton, you
explain, won't you?"
"Don't fret, Ben," said Miss Mehitable. "You're the best boy on earth,
and I want to hear all about it, for I'm sure you did something
wonderful to get her."
"Yes, wonderful, Miss Upton!" echoed Geraldine, with another
heart-warming smile at her deliverer whose own smile lessened and died
as he walked back to his car. By the time he entered it he was frowning,
thinking of his "shy" mother.