ALONE AGAIN
"Now we're goin' to see ef the paper says anythin' about our Bessie," said
Grandmother Brady the next morning, settling her spectacles over her nose
comfortably and crossing one fat gingham knee over the other. "I always
read the society notes, Bess."
Elizabeth smiled, and her grandmother read down, the column:
"Mr. George Trescott Benedict and his mother, Mrs. Vincent Benedict, have
arrived home after an extended tower of Europe," read Mrs. Brady. "Mrs.
Benedict is much improved in health. It is rumored they will spend the
summer at their country seat on Wissahickon Heights."
"My!" interrupted Lizzie with her mouth full of fried potatoes. "That's
that fellow that was engaged to that Miss What's-her-Name Loring. Don't
you 'member? They had his picture in the papers, and her; and then all at
once she threw him over for some dook or something, and this feller went
off. I heard about it from Mame. Her sister works in a department-store,
and she knows Miss Loring. She says she's an awfully handsome girl, and
George Benedict was just gone on her. He had a fearful case. Mame says
Miss Loring--what is her name?--O, Geraldine--Geraldine Loring bought some
lace of her. She heard her say it was for the gown she was going to wear
at the horse-show. They had her picture in the paper just after the
horse-show, and it was all over lace, I saw it. It cost a whole lot. I
forget how many dollars a yard. But there was something the matter with
the dook. She didn't marry him, after all. In her picture she was driving
four horses. Don't you remember it, grandma? She sat up tall and high on a
seat, holding a whole lot of ribbons and whips and things. She has an
elegant figger. I guess mebbe the dook wasn't rich enough. She hasn't been
engaged to anybody else, and I shouldn't wonder now but she'd take George
Benedict back. He was so awful stuck on her!"
Lizzie rattled on, and the grandmother read more society notes, but
Elizabeth heard no more. Her hear had suddenly frozen, and dropped down
like lead into her being. She felt as if she never would be able to raise
it again. The lady! Surely she had forgotten the lady. But Geraldine
Loring! Of all women! Could it be possible? Geraldine Loring was
almost--well, fast, at least, as nearly so as one who was really of a fine
old family, and still held her own in society, could be. She was beautiful
as a picture; but her face, to Elizabeth's mind, was lacking in fine
feeling and intellect. A great pity went out from her heart to the man
whose fate was in that doll-girl's hands. True, she had heard that Miss
Loring's family were unquestionable, and she knew her mother was a most
charming woman. Perhaps she had misjudged her. She must have done so if he
cared for her, for it could not be otherwise.
The joy had gone out of the morning when Elizabeth went home. She went up
to her Grandmother Bailey at once, and after she had read her letters for
her, and performed the little services that were her habit, she said:
"Grandmother, I'm expecting a man to call upon me to-day. I thought I had
better tell you."
"A man!" said Madam Bailey, alarmed at once. She wanted to look over and
portion out the right man when the time came. "What man?"
"Why, a man I met in Montana," said Elizabeth, wondering how much she
ought to tell.
"A man you met in Montana! Horrors!" exclaimed the now thoroughly aroused
grandmother. "Not that dreadful creature you ran away from?"
"O no!" said Elizabeth, smiling. "Not that man. A man who was very kind to
me, and whom I like very much."
So much the worse. Immediate action was necessary.
"Well, Elizabeth," said Madam Bailey in her stiffest tones, "I really do
not care to have any of your Montana friends visit you. You will have to
excuse yourself. It will lead to embarrassing entanglements. You do not in
the least realize your position in society. It is all well enough to
please your relatives, although I think you often overdo that. You could
just as well send them a present now and then, and please them more than
to go yourself. But as for any outsiders, it is impossible. I draw the
line there."
"But grandmother----"
"Don't interrupt me, Elizabeth; I have something more to say. I had word
this morning from the steamship company. They can give us our staterooms
on the Deutschland on Saturday, and I have decided to take them. I have
telegraphed, and we shall leave here to-day for New York. I have one or
two matters of business I wish to attend to in New York. We shall go to
the Waldorf for a few days, and you will have more opportunity to see New
York than you have had yet. It will not be too warm to enjoy going about a
little, I fancy; and a number of our friends are going to be at the
Waldorf, too. The Craigs sail on Saturday with us. You will have young
company on the voyage."
Elizabeth's heart sank lower than she had known it could go, and she grew
white to the lips. The observant grandmother decided that she had done
well to be so prompt. The man from Montana was by no means to be admitted.
She gave orders to that effect, unknown to Elizabeth.
The girl went slowly to her room. All at once it had dawned upon her that
she had not given her address to the man the night before, nor told him by
so much as a word what were her circumstances. An hour's meditation
brought her to the unpleasant decision that perhaps even now in this hard
spot God was only hiding her from worse trouble. Mr. George Benedict
belonged to Geraldine Loring. He had declared as much when he was in
Montana. It would not be well for her to renew the acquaintance. Her heart
told her by its great ache that she would be crushed under a friendship
that could not be lasting.
Very sadly she sat down to write a note.
"_My dear Friend_," she wrote on plain paper with no crest. It
was like her to choose that. She would not flaunt her good
fortune in his face. She was a plain Montana girl to him, and so
she would remain.
"My grandmother has been very ill, and is obliged to go away for
her health. Unexpectedly I find that we are to go to-day. I
supposed it would not be for a week yet. I am so sorry not to
see you again, but I send you a little book that has helped me
to get acquainted with Jesus Christ. Perhaps it will help you
too. It is called 'My Best Friend.' I shall not forget to pray
always that you may find Him. He is so precious to me! I must
thank you in words, though I never can say it as it should be
said, for your very great kindness to me when I was in trouble.
God sent you to me, I am sure. Always gratefully your friend,
"ELIZABETH."
That was all, no date, no address. He was not hers, and she would hang out
no clues for him to find her, even if he wished. It was better so.
She sent the note and the little book to his address on Walnut Street; and
then after writing a note to her Grandmother Brady, saying that she was
going away for a long trip with Grandmother Bailey, she gave herself into
the hands of the future like a submissive but weary child.
The noon train to New York carried in its drawing-room-car Madam Bailey,
her granddaughter, her maid, and her dog, bound for Europe. The society
columns so stated; and so read Grandmother Brady a few days afterward. So
also read George Benedict, but it meant nothing to him.
When he received the note, his mind was almost as much excited as when he
saw the little brown girl and the little brown horse vanishing behind the
little brown station on the prairie. He went to the telephone, and
reflected that he knew no names. He called up his automobile, and tore up
to Flora Street; but in his bewilderment of the night before he had not
noticed which block the house was in, nor which number. He thought he knew
where to find it, but in broad daylight the houses were all alike for
three blocks, and for the life of him he could not remember whether he
had turned up to the right or the left when he came to Flora Street. He
tried both, but saw no sign of the people he had but casually noticed at
Willow Grove.
He could not ask where she lived, for he did not know her name. Nothing
but Elizabeth, and they had called her Bessie. He could not go from house
to house asking for a girl named Bessie. They would think him a fool, as
he was, for not finding out her name, her precious name, at once. How
could he let her slip from him again when he had just found her?
At last he hit upon a bright idea. He asked some children along the street
whether they knew of any young woman named Bessie or Elizabeth living
there, but they all with one accord shook their heads, though one
volunteered the information that "Lizzie Smith lives there." It was most
distracting and unsatisfying. There was nothing for it but for him to go
home and wait in patience for her return. She would come back sometime
probably. She had not said so, but she had not said she would not. He had
found her once; he might find her again. And he could pray. She had found
comfort in that; so would he. He would learn what her secret was. He would
get acquainted with her "best Friend." Diligently did he study that little
book, and then he went and hunted up the man of God who had written it,
and who had been the one to lead Elizabeth into the path of light by his
earnest preaching every Sabbath, though this fact he did not know.
The days passed, and the Saturday came. Elizabeth, heavy-hearted, stood on
the deck of the Deutschland, and watched her native land disappear from
view. So again George Benedict had lost her from sight.
It struck Elizabeth, as she stood straining her eyes to see the last of
the shore through tears that would burn to the surface and fall down her
white cheeks, that again she was running away from a man, only this time
not of her own free will. She was being taken away. But perhaps it was
better.
And it never once entered her mind that, if she had told her grandmother
who the friend in Montana was, and where he lived in Philadelphia, it
would have made all the difference in the world.
From the first of the voyage Grandmother Bailey grew steadily worse, and
when they landed on the other side they went from one place to another
seeking health. Carlsbad waters did not agree with her, and they went to
the south of France to try the climate. At each move the little old lady
grew weaker and more querulous. She finally made no further resistance,
and gave up to the rôle of invalid. Then Elizabeth must be in constant
attendance. Madam Bailey demanded reading, and no voice was so soothing as
Elizabeth's.
Gradually Elizabeth substituted books of her own choice as her grandmother
seemed not to mind, and now and then she would read a page of some book
that told of the best Friend. At first because it was written by the dear
pastor at home it commanded her attention, and finally because some
dormant chord in her heart had been touched, she allowed Elizabeth to
speak of these things. But it was not until they had been away from home
for three months, and she had been growing daily weaker and weaker, that
she allowed Elizabeth to read in the Bible.
The girl chose the fourteenth chapter of John, and over and over again,
whenever the restless nerves tormented their victim, she would read those
words, "Let not your heart be troubled" until the selfish soul, who had
lived all her life to please the world and do her own pleasure, came at
last to hear the words, and feel that perhaps she did believe in God, and
might accept that invitation, "Believe also in me."
One day Elizabeth had been reading a psalm, and thought her grandmother
was asleep. She was sitting back with weary heart, thinking what would
happen if her grandmother should not get well. The old lady opened her
eyes.
"Elizabeth," she said abruptly, just as when she was well, "you've been a
good girl. I'm glad you came. I couldn't have died right without you. I
never thought much about these things before, but it really is worth
while. In my Father's house. He is my Father, Elizabeth."
She went to sleep then, and Elizabeth tiptoed out and left her with the
nurse. By and by Marie came crying in, and told her that the Madam was
dead.
Elizabeth was used to having people die. She was not shocked; only it
seemed lonely again to find herself facing the world, in a foreign land.
And when she came to face the arrangements that had to be made, which,
after all, money and servants made easy, she found herself dreading her
own land. What must she do after her grandmother was laid to rest? She
could not live in the great house in Rittenhouse Square, and neither could
she very well go and live in Flora Street. O, well, her Father would hide
her. She need not plan; He would plan for her. The mansions on the earth
were His too, as well as those in heaven.
And so resting she passed through the weary voyage and the day when the
body was laid to rest in the Bailey lot in the cemetery, and she went back
to the empty house alone. It was not until after the funeral that she went
to see Grandmother Brady. She had not thought it wise or fitting to invite
the hostile grandmother to the other one's funeral. She had thought
Grandmother Bailey would not like it.
She rode to Flora Street in the carriage. She felt too weary to walk or go
in the trolley. She was taking account of stock in the way of friends,
thinking over whom she cared to see. One of the first bits of news she had
heard on arriving in this country had been that Miss Loring's wedding was
to come off in a few days. It seemed to strike her like a thunderbolt, and
she was trying to arraign herself for this as she rode along. It was
therefore not helpful to her state of mind to have her grandmother remark
grimly:
"That feller o' yours 'n his oughtymobble has been goin' up an' down this
street, day in, day out, this whole blessed summer. Ain't been a day he
didn't pass, sometimes once, sometimes twicet. I felt sorry fer him
sometimes. Ef he hadn't been so high an' mighty stuck up that he couldn't
recognize me, I'd 'a' spoke to him. It was plain ez the nose on your face
he was lookin' fer you. Don't he know where you live?"
"I don't believe he does," said Elizabeth languidly. "Say, grandmother,
would you care to come up to Rittenhouse Square and live?"
"Me? In Rittenhouse Square? Fer the land sakes, child, no. That's flat.
I've lived me days out in me own sp'ere, and I don't intend to change now
at me time o' life. Ef you want to do somethin' nice fer me, child, now
you've got all that money, I'd like real well to live in a house that hed
white marble steps. It's been me one aim all me life. There's some round
on the next street that don't come high. There'd be plenty room fer us
all, an' a nice place fer Lizzie to get married when the time comes. The
parlor's real big, and you would send her some roses, couldn't you?"
"All right, grandmother. You shall have it," said Elizabeth with a
relieved sigh, and in a few minutes she went home. Some day pretty soon
she must think what to do, but there was no immediate hurry. She was glad
that Grandmother Brady did not want to come to Rittenhouse Square. Things
would be more congenial without her.
But the house seemed great and empty when she entered, and she was glad to
hear the friendly telephone bell ringing. It was the wife of her pastor,
asking her to come to them for a quiet dinner.
This was the one home in the great city where she felt like going in her
loneliness. There would be no form nor ceremony. Just a friend with them.
It was good. The doctor would give her some helpful words. She was glad
they had asked her.