Jewel: A Chapter in Her Life Part 32

Her reply came promptly and even eagerly. "Well, that's all right, because Divine Love will send me more if I need it."

"Indeed? How can you be sure?"

Jewel smiled at him affectionately. "Do you mean it grandpa?"

"Why yes. I really want to know."

"Even after G.o.d sent you Ess.e.x Maid?" she asked incredulously.

"You think the mare is the best thing in my possession, eh?"

"Ye--es! Don't you?"

"I believe I do." As Mr. Evringham spoke, this kinship of taste induced him to turn his face toward the one beside him. Instantly he found himself kissed full on the lips, and while he was recovering from the shock, Jewel proceeded:--

"G.o.d has given you so many things, grandpa, that's why it surprised me to have you look so sorry when I first came." The child examined his countenance critically. "I don't think you look so sorry as you used to.

I know you must have lots of error to meet, and perhaps," lowering her voice to an extra gentleness, "perhaps you don't know how to remember every minute that G.o.d is a very present help in trouble. Mother says that even grown-up people are just finding out about it."

As she paused Mr. Evringham hesitated, somewhat embarra.s.sed under the blue eyes. "We all have plenty to learn, I dare say," he returned vaguely.

He had more than once wished that he had taken more notice of Harry's wife during his opportunity at the hotel. He had looked upon the interview as a distasteful necessity to be disposed of as cursorily as possible.

His son had married beneath him, some working girl probably, whose ability to support herself had turned out to be a deliverance for her father-in-law when the ne'er-do-well husband shirked his responsibilities; and Mr. Evringham had gone to the hotel that evening intending to make it clear that although he performed a favor for his son, there were no results to follow.

His granddaughter's fearlessness, courtesy, and affection had forced him to wonder as to the mother who had fostered these qualities. He remembered the eloquence of his son's face when Harry expressed the wish that he might know Julia, and a vague admiration and respect were being born in the broker's heart for the deserted woman who had worked with hand and brain for her child--his grandchild was the way he put it--with such results as he saw.

Some perception of what Harry's sensations must have been during the last six months came to him as he sat there with the little girl's arm about him. Harry had come home and discovered his child, his Jewel. A frown gathered on the broker's brow as he realized the hours of vain regret his son must have suffered for those lost years of the child's life.

"Served him right, served him perfectly right!"

"What grandpa?"

The question made Mr. Evringham aware that the indignant words had been muttered above his breath.

"I was thinking of your father," he replied. "Has he learned these things that your mother has taught you?"

"Oh yes," with soft eagerness; "father is learning everything." Jewel saw her grandfather's frown and she lowered her voice almost to a whisper. "Don't feel sorry about father, grandpa. He says he's the happiest man in the world. Mother didn't find out about G.o.d till after father had gone to California, or he wouldn't have gone; and for a long time she didn't know where he was, and I was only beginning to walk around, so I couldn't help her; but when I got bigger I had father's picture, and we used to talk to it every day, and at last mother knew that Divine Love would bring father back; and pretty soon he began to write to her, and he said he couldn't come home because he felt so sorry, and he was going to the war. So then mother and I prayed a great deal every day, and we knew father would be taken care of. And then mother kept writing to him not to be sorry, because error was nothing and the child of G.o.d could always have his right place, and everything like that, and at last the war was over and he came home." Jewel paused.

Mr. Evringham wondered what she was seeing with that far-away look.

Presently she turned to him with the smile of irresistible sweetness--Harry's smile--and a surprising fullness came in the broker's throat. "Father's just splendid," she finished.

Her grandfather was not wholly pleased with the verdict. He had gained a taste for incense himself.

"He has been at home over six months, I believe," he returned.

"Yes, all winter; and we have more _fun_!"

"Your father is not a Christian Scientist, I presume," remarked Mr.

Evringham.

"Oh yes, he's learning to be. Of course he goes to church--"

"He does, eh?" put in the broker, surprised.

"Of course; and he studies the lesson with us every day. He had been sorry so much and so long, you know, mother said he was all ready; and beside--beside"--Jewel hesitated and became silent.

"Beside what?"

She began very softly and half reluctantly. "Father had a sickness two or three times when he first came home, and he was healed, and so he was very grateful and wanted to know about G.o.d."

"H'm. I'm glad he was. I hope he will make your mother very happy after this."

"He does." The child lost her seriousness and laughed reminiscently.

"Father and I have the _best_ times. Mothers says he's younger than I am."

"You miss him, eh?" Mr. Evringham half frowned into the fresh little face.

"Oh yes, I do," with a sigh, "but it would be error to be sorry when I could come to see you, grandpa."

Mr. Evringham cogitated a minute on the probable loneliness of the last three days, and began to wonder what this philosophy could be which gave practical help to a child of eight years. He was still holding the letter to Dr. Ballard in his hand.

"I think I'll let you direct this yourself, Jewel," he said. He rose and brought the morocco cushion to his desk chair. "Sit up here and I will tell you the address."

She obeyed, and Mr. Evringham watched the little fingers clenched around the pen as she strove to resist its tendency to write down hill on the envelope.

"And you're quite sure that more money will be forthcoming when yours is gone, eh?" he asked when the feat was accomplished.

"Oh yes; if I need it."

"How will it come, for instance?"

She looked up quickly. "I don't need to know that," she replied.

Mr. Evringham bit his lip. "That's unanswerable," he thought, "and rather neat."

At this moment a knock sounded at the library door, and a moment afterward Mrs. Forbes presented herself.

"Excuse me, Mr. Evringham. I'm afraid Julia has been in your way, staying so long."

"No, Mrs. Forbes, thank you," he returned. "She had a letter to write, and I have been reading."

"Very well. It is her bedtime now." The housekeeper's tone was inexorable, and Jewel lifted her shoulders as she glanced up at her grandfather, and again he found himself taken into a confidence which excluded his excellent housekeeper. "It is better for us to yield," said Jewel's shoulders and mute lips. Before Mr. Evringham could suspect her intention, she had jumped up on the cushion nimbly as a squirrel, and hugging him in a business-like manner, kissed him twice.

"Good-night, grandpa."

"Good-night, Jewel," he returned, going to the length of patting her shoulder.