Jewel: A Chapter in Her Life Part 45

"Oh," hastily, "she pretends to be, and I a.s.sure you I object. Eloise has a good mind, and I hope you will offer a little antidote now and then to the stuff she has begun to read. A word to the wise, Dr.

Ballard. I need say no more."

It was true. Mrs. Evringham had no need to say more. Her ideas, and especially those which related to himself, had always been inscribed in large characters and words of one syllable for her present companion, who was a young man of considerable perception and discrimination.

He had not time to reply before Jewel, radiant of face, appeared in the doorway, where she hesitated, her doll in her arms.

"I brought Anna Belle," she said doubtfully, "but I can leave her under the stairs if there isn't room."

"Anna Belle under the stairs on a morning like this! And in such a toilet? Talk about error!" The doctor's tone was tragic as he lifted the happy child into the buggy.

Mrs. Evringham nodded a reply to their smiling farewells as Hector sprang forward, and she looked after them in some perplexity.

"Why should he take the trouble?" she reflected. "It would have been such a splendid morning for them to have gone riding if he had this leisure. Of course it must have been just one of his indirect and lovely ways of trying to please Eloise."

Just as she was solacing herself with the latter reflection, her daughter stepped out on the piazza, a little black book in her hand.

"Warm enough to sit out, isn't it?" she remarked.

Her mother looked at her critically. She had not seen this care-free look on her child's face since Lawrence died.

"Why didn't you come out a little sooner?"

"I wasn't presentable. How delicious the air is!"

"Yes. Let us sit here and finish that novel."

"All right."

"What have you there?"

"Mrs. Eddy's book,--'Science and Health.'"

Mrs. Evringham made a grimace. "I read part of it once. That was enough for me. Think of the price they charge for it, too. Think of pretending it is such a good thing for everybody to have, and then putting a price on it that prohibits the average pocketbook." Eloise's smile annoyed her mother. "Weren't you with me the day Nat Bonnell's mother said so much about it?"

"How foolish she was not to try it," said Eloise. "Such a hopeless, monotonous invalid."

"Well, some of her friends worked hard enough to induce her to, but when she found out the mercenary side of it, she saw at once that it couldn't be trustworthy."

"I suppose even Christian Scientists must have a roof and food and clothes," returned Eloise coolly; "but I've thought a good deal the last few days about the criticisms I've heard on the price of the book. The fuss over that three dollars is certainly very funny, when the average pocketbook goes to the theatre sometimes, has flowers for its entertainments, and rejoices to find lace reduced from a dollar and a quarter to ninety-five cents a yard for its gowns. It eagerly h.o.a.rds and spends three dollars for some pa.s.sing pleasure or effect, but winces and ponders over paying the same sum for a book that will last a lifetime, and which, if it is worth anything, furnishes the key to every problem in life."

"But why isn't it as cheap as the Bible if it is so beneficial?"

"It will be, probably, when it is generally respected. For the present it wouldn't be wise to cast it about like pearls before swine." Eloise smiled at herself. "You see I'm talking as if I knew it all. My wisdom comes partially from what I have extracted from Jewel, and partly from what is obvious. I haven't reached the place yet where I am convinced, but this book is wonderfully interesting. It came to me in the darkest hour I have ever known, and it has--it has seemed to feed me when I was starving. I don't know how else to put it. I can't think of anything else. Mother, why haven't we a Bible? I was ashamed when Jewel asked me."

Mrs. Evringham, astonished and dismayed by her daughter's earnestness, drew herself up. "We have a Bible, certainly. What an idea!"

"Where is it?" eagerly.

"In the storage warehouse with the other books."

Eloise's laugh nettled her mother.

"The prayer books are upstairs on my table. What more do you want if you are going to take an interest in such things? I wish you would, dear, and embroider an altar cloth while you are here. I'm sure father would gladly contribute the materials and feel a pride in it."

"Oh mother," Eloise still smiled, "you know he never goes to church."

"But he contributes largely."

"Well, I haven't time to embroider altar cloths. Shall I get the story?"

"Yes, do. We'll go around the corner, out of the wind."

Meanwhile Dr. Ballard's buggy was covering the ground rapidly. Through the avenues of the park sped Hector, and joy! Dr. Ballard allowed Jewel to drive as long as they remained within its precincts. Slipping his hand through the reins above where she grasped them, he held Anna Belle on his knee. Jewel had not suspected the size of the park. One could almost see the watered leaves increase in the sunshine, and the birds were swelling their little throats to the utmost. The roses in her cheeks deepened in her happy excitement. She allowed the doctor to do most of the talking, while she kept her eyes on the horse's ears. Just once she ventured to turn enough to glance at him.

"I've had dreams of driving horses," she said.

"Is this the first time you've done it waking?"

"No, the second. Father took me once in Washington Park just before he came away, but the horse didn't pull like this." She smiled seraphically.

"So, boy, steady," said the doctor soothingly, and Hector obeyed the voice.

"Did you play in the Ravine of Happiness when you were a little boy?"

"Where's that?"

"Where the brook is."

"Oh yes. Are you planning to take me to that brook and wet my feet, Jewel?"

"We've gone long past it. Don't you know?"

"I think my education has been neglected. I don't remember it."

"We can go," returned Jewel suggestively.

"Very well, we will; but first I have a couple of visits I must make."

The horse was now trotting toward the park gate. As they reached it Dr.

Ballard returned Anna Belle and took the lines.

Jewel gave an unconscious sigh of rapture. "Trolleys and so on, you know," explained Dr. Ballard. "When you come back ten years from now you shall drive outside too. How was Ess.e.x Maid this morning?"

"She was all right, but grandpa took only a short ride. I guess he was a little--bit--afraid."

"She's the apple of his eye, or he wouldn't have been so nervous over a trifle last evening," remarked the doctor.

"Well, she made a great fuss," replied Jewel. "She fell down in her stall, and everything like that."