THE LIFTED VEIL
At last their plans were reduced to order and Harry placed the papers
carefully in his pocket.
"Come in and let's have a look at the house, Julia," he suggested. "It
won't do to go to the stables without Jewel."
They entered the drawing-room and Julia moved about admiring the pictures
and carvings, and paused long before the oil portrait of a beautiful woman,
conspicuously placed.
"That's my grandmother," remarked Harry. "Isn't she stunning? That's the
side of the family I didn't take after."
While they still examined the portrait and the exquisite painting of its
laces, Jewel ran into the room and seized them from behind.
"Well, well, all dressed!" exclaimed her father as the two stooped to kiss
her.
"Yes, but my hair isn't very nice," said the child, putting up her hand to
her braids, "because I didn't want to be late to breakfast."
Her father's hearty laugh rang out. "Lunch, do you mean?"
"We're through breakfast long ago, dearie," said her mother. "No wonder you
slept late. We wanted you to."
"Breakfast's all through!" exclaimed the child, and they were surprised at
her dismay.
"Yes, but Mrs. Forbes will get you something," said her father.
"But has grandpa gone?" asked the child. Before they could reply the
housekeeper passed the door and Jewel ran to her. "Has grandpa gone, Mrs.
Forbes?" she repeated anxiously.
"Yes, indeed, it's after ten. Come into the dining-room, Jewel; Sarah will
give you your breakfast."
"I'm not a bit hungry--yes, I am, a little--but what is grandpa's telephone
number, Mrs. Forbes."
"Oh, now, you won't call him up, dear," said the housekeeper coaxingly.
"Come and eat your breakfast like a good girl."
"Yes, in just one minute I will. What is the number, please, Mrs. Forbes?"
The housekeeper gave the number, and Harry and Julia drew nearer.
"Your grandpa is coming out early, Jewel," said her father. "You'll see him
in a few hours, and you can ask him whatever you wish to then."
"She never has called Mr. Evringham up, sir," said the housekeeper. "He
speaks to _her_ sometimes. You know, Jewel, your grandfather doesn't like
to be disturbed in his business and called to the 'phone unless it is
something very important."
"It is," returned the child, and she ran to the part of the hall where the
instrument was situated. Her mother and father followed, the former feeling
that she ought to interfere, but the latter amused and curious.
"My little girl," began Julia, in protest, but Harry put his hand on her
arm and detained her. Jewel was evidently filled with one idea and deaf to
all else. With her usual energy she took down the receiver and made her
request to the central office. Harry drew his wife to where they could
watch her absorbed, rosy face. Her listening expression was anxiously
intent. Mrs. Forbes also lingered at a little distance, enjoying the
parents' interest and sharing it.
"Is that you, grandpa?" asked the sweet voice.
"Oh, well, I want to see Mr. Evringham."
"What? No. I'm sorry, but nobody will do but grandpa. You tell him it's
Jewel, please."
"What? I thought I _did_ speak plain. It's _Jewel_; his little grandchild."
The little girl smiled at the next response. "Yes, I'm the very one that
ate the Nesselrode pudding," she said, and chuckled into the 'phone.
By this time even Julia had given up all thought of interfering, and was
watching, curiously, the round head with its untidy blond hair.
Jewel spoke again. "I'm sorry I can't tell you the business, but it's
_very_ important."
Evidently the earnestness of this declaration had an effect. After a minute
more of waiting, the child's face lighted.
"Oh, grandpa, is that you?"
"Yes, I am. I'm _so_ sorry I slept too long!"
"Yes, I know you missed me, and now I have to eat my breakfast without you.
Why didn't you come and bring me downstairs?"
"Oh, but I _would_ have. Did you feel very sorry when you got in the
brougham, grandpa?"
"I know it. Did the ride seem _very_ long, all alone?"
"Yes, indeed. I felt so sorry inside when I found you'd gone, I had to hear
you speak so as to get better so I could visit with mother and father."
"Yes, it _is_ a comfort. Are you _sure_ you don't feel sorry now?"
"Well, but are you smiling, grandpa?"
Whatever the answer was to this, it made Jewel's anxious brows relax and
she laughed into the 'phone.
"Grandpa, you're such a joker! One smile won't make you any fatter," she
protested.
Another listening silence, then:--
"You know the reason I feel the worst, don't you?"
"Why yes, you do. What we were talking about yesterday." The child sighed.
"Well, isn't it a comfort about eternity?"
"Yes, indeed, and I guess I'll kiss the 'phone now, grandpa. Can you hear
me?"
"Well, you do it, too, then. Yes--yes--I hear it; and you'll come home
early because you know--our secret?"
"What? A lot of men waiting for you? All right. You know I love you just
the same, even if I _did_ sleep, don't you?"
"Good-by, then, good-by."
She hung up the receiver and turned a beaming face upon her dumbfounded
parents.
"Now I'll have breakfast," she said cheerfully. "I'll only eat a little
because we must go out and see Star. You waited for me, didn't you?"
pausing in sudden apprehension.
"Yes, indeed," replied Harry, collecting himself. "We haven't been off the
piazza."
"Goody. I'm so glad. I'll hurry."
Mrs. Forbes followed the child as she bounded away, and the father and
mother sank upon an old settle of Flemish oak, gazing at one another. The
veil having been completely lifted from their eyes, each was viewing recent
circumstances in a new light.
At last Harry began to laugh in repressed fashion. "Sold, and the money
taken!" he ejaculated, softly smiting his knee.
His wife smiled, too, but there was a mist in her eyes.
"I smell a large mouse, Julia. How is it with you?"
"You mean my invitation?"
"I mean that we come under the head of those things that can't be cured and
must be endured."
She nodded. "And that's why he wants to take me to the seashore."
"Yes, but all the same he's got to do it to carry his point. You get the
fun just the same." The moisture that rose to Harry's eyes was forced there
by the effort to repress his mirth. "By jinks, the governor kissing the
'phone! I'll never get over that, never," and he exploded again.
His wife laid her hand on his arm. "Oh, Harry, can't you see how touching
it is?"
"I'll sue him for alienating my daughter's affections. See if I don't. Why,
we're not in it at all. Did you feel our insignificance when she found he'd
gone? We've been blockheads, Julia, blockheads."
"We're certainly figureheads," she returned, rather ruefully. "I don't
like to feel that your father has to pay such a price for the sake of
keeping Jewel a little longer."
"'T won't hurt him a bit. It's a good joke on him. If he doesn't go ahead
and take you now, I'll bring another suit against him for breach of
promise."
Julia was looking thoughtfully into space. "I believe," she said, at last,
"that we may find out that Jewel has been a missionary here."
"She's given father a brand new heart," returned Harry promptly. "That's
plain."
"Let us not say a word to the child about the plan for her and me to stay,"
said Julia. "Let us leave it all for Mr. Evringham."
"All right; only he won't think you're much pleased with the idea."
"I'm not," returned the other, smiling. "I'm a little dazed; but if he was
the man he appeared to be the day we left Jewel with him, and she has loved
him into being a happier and better man, it may be a matter of duty for us
not to deprive him of her at once. I'll try to resign myself to the rôle of
necessary baggage, and even try to conceal from him the fact that I know my
place."
"Oh, my girl, you'll have him captured in a week, and Jewel will have a
rival. You have the same knack she has for making the indifferent
different."
At this juncture the housekeeper came back into the hall.
"Well, Mrs. Forbes," said Harry, rising, "that was rather amusing important
business Jewel had with my father."
The housekeeper held up her hands and shook her head. "Such lovers, sir,"
she responded. "Such lovers! Whatever he's going to do without her is more
than I know."
"Why, it's a big change come over father, to be fond of children," returned
the young man, openly perplexed.
"_Children!_" repeated the housekeeper. "If you suppose, Mr. Harry, that
Jewel is any common child, you must have had a wonderful experience."
Her impressive, almost solemn manner, sobered the father's mood. "What she
is, is the result of what her mother has taught her," he returned.
"Not one of us wanted her when she came," said the housekeeper, looking
from one to the other of the young couple standing before her. "Not one
person in the house was half civil to her." Julia's hand tightened on her
husband's arm. "I didn't want anybody troubling Mr. Evringham. People
called him a hard, cold, selfish man; but I knew his trials, yes, Mr.
Harry, you know I knew them. He was my employer and it was my business to
make him comfortable, and I hated that dear little girl because I'd made up
my mind that she'd upset him. Well, Jewel didn't know anything about hate,
not enough to know it when she saw it. She just loved us all, through thick
and thin, and you'll have to wait till you can read what the recording
angel's set down, before you can have any full idea of what she's done for
us. She's made a humble woman out of me, and I was the stiff-neckedest
member of the congregation. There's my only child, Zeke; she's persuaded
him out of habits that were breaking up our lives. There was Eloise
Evringham, without hope or God in the world. She gave her both, that little
Jewel did. Then, most of all, she crept into Mr. Evringham's empty heart
and filled it full, and made his whole life, as you might say, blossom
again. That's what she's done, single handed, in two months, and she has no
more conceit of her work than a ray of God's sunshine has when it's opening
a flower bud."
Julia Evringham's gaze was fixed intently upon the speaker, and she was
unconscious that two tears rolled down her cheeks.
"You've made us very happy, telling us this," she said, rather
breathlessly, as the housekeeper paused.
"And I should like to add, Mrs. Evringham," said Mrs. Forbes impressively,
"that you'd better turn your attention to an orphan asylum and catch them
as young as you can and train them up. What this old world wants is a whole
crop of Jewels."
Julia's smile was very sweet. "We may all have the pure child thought," she
returned.
Mrs. Forbes passed on upstairs. Harry looked at his wife. He was winking
fast. "Well, this isn't any laughing matter, after all, Julia."
"No, it's a matter to make us very humble with joy and gratitude."
As she spoke Jewel bounded back into the hall and ran into her father's
open arms.
"A good breakfast, eh?" he asked tenderly.
"Yes, I didn't mean to be so long, but Sarah said grandpa wanted me to eat
a chop. Now, _now_, we're going to see Star!"
"I'd better fix your hair first," remarked her mother.
"Oh, let her hair go till lunch time," said Harry. "The horses won't care,
will they, Jewel?" He picked her up and set her on his shoulder and out
they went to the clean, spacious stables.
Zeke pulled down his shirt-sleeves as he saw them coming. "This is my
father and mother, Zeke," cried the child, happily, and the coachman ducked
his head with his most unprofessional grin.
"Jewel's got a great pony here," he said.
"Well, I should think so!" remarked Harry, as he and his wife followed
where the child led, to a box stall.
"Why, Jewel, he's right out of a story!" said her mother, viewing the wavy
locks and sweeping tail, as the pony turned eagerly to meet his mistress.
Jewel put her arms around his neck and buried her face for an instant in
his mane. "I haven't anything for you, Star, this time," she said, as the
pretty creature nosed about her. "Mother, do you see his star?"
"Indeed I do," replied Mrs. Evringham, examining the snowflake between the
full, bright eyes. "He's the prettiest pony I ever saw, Jewel. Did your
grandpa have him made to order?"
Zeke shrugged his gingham clad shoulders. "He would have, if he could,
ma'am," he put in.
Mrs. Evringham laughed. "Well, he certainly didn't need to. Oh, see that
beautiful head!" for Essex Maid looked out to discover what all the
disturbance was about.
Harry paused in his examination of the pony, to go over to the mare's
stall.
"Whew, what a stunner!" he remarked.
"Mr. Evringham said you were to ride her this morning, sir, if you liked.
You'll be the first, beside him." Zeke paused and with a comical gesture of
his head indicated the child and then the mare. "It's been nip and tuck
between them, sir; but I guess Jewel's got the Maid beat by now."
Harry laughed.
"Two blue ribbons, she's won, sir. She'll get another this autumn if he
shows her."
"I should think so. She's a raving beauty." As he spoke, Harry smoothed the
bright coat. "When are we going out, Jewel?"
"But we couldn't leave mother," returned the child, from her slippery perch
on the pony's back. She had been thinking about it. "Are you sure, Zeke,
that grandpa said father might ride Essex Maid?"
"He told me so, himself," said Harry, amused.
Jewel shook her head, much impressed. "Then he loves you about the most of
anybody," she remarked, with conviction.
"Don't think of me," said her mother. "You and father do just what you
like. I can be happy just looking about this beautiful place."
"Oh, I know what," exclaimed Jewel, with sudden brightness. "Let's all go
to the Ravine of Happiness before lunch time, and then wait for grandpa,
and he can take mother in the phaeton, and father and I can ride
horseback."
"Oh, I'm afraid your grandpa wouldn't like that," returned Mrs. Evringham
quickly.
Zeke was standing near her. "He would if she said so, ma'am," he put in, in
a low tone.
Julia smiled kindly upon him.
Harry tossed his head, amused. "It's a case, isn't it, Zeke?" he remarked.
"Yes, sir," returned the coachman. "He comes when he's called, and will eat
out of her hand, sir."
Harry laughed and went back to the pony's stall. "Come on, then, Jewel,
come to my old stamping ground, the ravine."
"And if her hair frightens the birds it's your fault," smiled Julia,
smoothing with both hands the little flaxen head.
"The birds have seen me look a great deal worse than this, a great _deal_
worse," said Jewel cheerfully.
"Perhaps they'll think her hair is a nest and sit down in it," suggested
her father, as they moved away, the happy child between them, holding a
hand of each.
The little girl drew in her chin as she looked up at him.
"Oh, father, you're such a joker!"