Grace Livingston Hill

“ She glanced swiftly over the lifted faces and saw little Louise, white and shrinking, sitting by herself, and saw beyond her, at the open door, two figures just entering, Maxwell and Harry, looking a trifle white and hurried, and glancing anxiously around the audience. Then she opened her mouth and tried to sing, to do her little part among the sopranos in the chorus; but no sound seemed to come. All she could think of now was, “Carey is not here!” beating over and over like a refrain in her brain: “Carey has not come! Carey has not come!” ”

“ She sat back with a sigh of relief, and dismissed this one burden from her young heart. Could she have known what plots were at that very moment revolving in the vengeful girl’s mind, and being suggested to her hilarious and willing group of companions amid shouts of laughter, she would not have rested her soul so easily, nor enjoyed the wonderful moonlight that glorified even the mean little street where she lived. The devil is not idle when angels throng most around, and Cornelia had yet to learn that a single victory is not a whole battle won. ”

“ Copley were on the two middle seats now, having a deep discussion about whether the world was growing better or worse, and Cornelia was on the back seat with her little sister. The evening seemed like an oasis in the great desert of hard work and worry through which she had been passing for the last few weeks. Just to see Carey there in the front seat talking and smiling to Grace was enough to rest her heart. If she could have heard the earnest little talk about real Christian living they were having, she would have been filled with wonder and awe. Carey talking religion with a young girl! ”

“ Footsteps up the walk, and the front door banged open and shut; feet stamped up the stairs, while a faint breath of cigarette smoke trailed out and penetrated into the kitchen to mingle with the fragrance of the dinner. The two cooks stopped, and looked at each other understandingly.
“He’s come,” said the eyes of the little sister.
“We must make him very welcome,” answered the eyes of the big sister, so tired she could hardly hold her young shoulders straight.
“Maybe he won’t stay,” whispered Louise softly a minute later. “Sometimes he doesn’t; he might have a date.” ”

“ No, I don’t think he will, not before a girl. Not before any girl. Not if I know Carey. He may say things afterwards, but we’ll have to be willing to stand that. And, besides, what can he say? Aren’t we polite to one of his friends? We’re not supposed to know anything about her. When it comes down to facts, little sister, we don’t really know anything about her except that she dresses in a loud way, chews gum, and talks too loud on the street. The other things you have only heard, and you can’t be sure they are true unless you see them yourself, or some one you trust perfectly has seen them. ”

“ You mustn’t cry here; people will think something dreadful has happened to you.”
“They can’t think any worse than it is,” murmured Louise, snubbing off a sob with the proffered handkerchief. “To have my nice, handsome big brother be a big fool like that! Oh, I’d like to kill that girl! I would! I’d like to choke her!”
“Louie! Stop! This is awful!” cried Cornelia, horrified. “You mustn’t talk that way about anybody, no matter how much of a fool she is. Perhaps there’s another side to it. Perhaps Carey is just as much to blame. Perhaps the girl doesn’t know any better. ”

“ It seemed a strange topic to be talking about so familiarly with a little girl, her little stranger-sister; but she could not let the child get ahead of her. She could not dash the bright spirit of faith.
“That’s nice,” said Louise with satisfaction. “I’ll tell Harry too. I guess he will; boys are so funny. I wish he’d been in church. But say, Nellie, we can be happy now, can’t we? We don’t need to worry about Carey any more; we can just pray about it and it will all come right.”
Cornelia smiled, and squeezed the little hand nestling in hers. ”

“ No one can take a daughter’s place in a home when there is trouble, not such a daughter’s place as you occupy, I’m sure. And as for the other thing, if you have it in you it will come out, you may be sure. You’ll begin by decorating the home interior, and you won’t lose anything in the end. Such things are never lost nor time wasted. God sees to that, if you are doing your best right where He put you. I can just see what an exquisite spot you’ll make of that home, and how it will rest your mother to know you are taking her place.”
Cornelia sadly shook her head. ”

“ Now and then she thought of her little brother riding afar with young Maxwell, and wondered what they were talking about, and whether they would all know him any better when he got back with Harry. It was always so revealing to have a member of one’s family get really close to everyday living with a person. Then her thoughts would come back to the drifting talk from Grace and Carey in front, and she thought how handsome her brother looked, and how at ease driving the car and talking to this sweet, cultured girl. ”

“ Maxwell turned to the angry girl:
“Now, what can I do for you? I shall be very glad to do anything in my power of course.” He spoke stiffly as to a stranger. The girl perceived that her power over him was waning. Yet she was too subtle to let him see it.
“I am in deep trouble,” she sighed with a quiver of the lips, “but I can’t tell it in a moment. It is a long story.” Her eyelids fluttered down on her lovely painted cheeks. She knew the line that would touch him most.
“What sort of trouble?” he asked almost gently. He never could bear to see a woman suffer. ”

“ About this time Maxwell arrived one evening while Carey was putting the finishing-touches to the front porch, and instead of coming in as was his custom, he sat down on a pile of floor-boards and talked with Carey.
Cornelia, hearing low, earnest voices, stepped quietly to the window and looked out, wondering to see Maxwell talking so earnestly with her brother. She felt proud that the older young man was interested enough in him to linger and talk, and wondered whether it might be politics or the last baseball score that was absorbing them. ”

“ He looked a bit sober over it, although he congratulated his friend warmly; but once or twice Cornelia caught him looking wistfully at Carey, as if somehow he had suddenly grown away from him; and she realized that it was the first break in their boyhood life. For Carey was a new Carey since the morning, walking with a spring in his step, giving a command in the tone of one who had authority, making a decision as one who had long been accustomed to being recognized as having a right. He had in a single morning become a man, and seemed for the time to have put away childish things. ”

“ She drew a deep sigh.
“I guess maybe I better go to bed,” said Louise suddenly, blinking to hide a tendency to tears. It was somehow all so different from what she had expected. She had thought it would be almost like having mother back, and it wasn’t at all. Cornelia seemed strange and difficult.
“Yes,” said the father, coming up from the cellar, where he had been putting the erratic furnace to bed for the night; “you and Harry better get right up to bed. You have to get up so early in the morning.” ”

“ Then he lifted his eyes and saw his mother standing in the doorway, being shown in by a blundering servant, his fine patrician mother with her sweet, true eyes, and pure, sorrowful face, and he knew. He knew that Evadne was wrong, and his mother—yes his mother and he were right. There could be nothing but sin in a love that was stolen—a love that transgressed. ”

“ They look like new! Oh! Isn’t she the darlingest sister in the world?”
“She sure is!” fervently agreed Harry; and Cornelia, half-way up the stairs, stopped suddenly and brushed away two tears that plumped unannounced into her tired eyes. “Gee! That’s some dress,” went on Harry. “Put it all over Clytie, won’t you? Glad you got it kid! You deserve it”; and Harry bolted into the bathroom after this unusual display of affection, and slammed the door after him, while Louise came like a young whirlwind into Cornelia’s arms to hug and kiss her. ”

“ The stone columns of the pretty front porch grew rapidly, and began to take on comeliness. Brand endeared himself to them all by his cheerful, steady, patient aid, coming every afternoon attired in overalls, and working hard till dark, getting his white hands callous and dirty, cut with the stones, and hard as nails. Once Cornelia had to tie an ugly cut he got when a stone fell on his hand ”

“ Suddenly Cornelia put her head down on the dining-room table in the midst of the breakfast clutter, and cried. She felt sorrier and sorrier for herself. Carey upstairs, great, big, lazy fellow, sleeping and letting her make the fire and do the work and carry the burden. He ought to be out hunting a job and helping to fill the family purse. He ought to be up and at his fireplace. ”

“ It is curious how many little things manage to get across into one’s consciousness at a time like this. How, for instance, did Cornelia in the kitchen, taking up the cutlets and placing them on the hot plates, know just the precise instant when Brand Barlock’s car drew up before the door, and Carey’s clear whistle in the third story ceased? She felt it even before the door opened and Louise’s excited whisper announced: “He’s come, Nellie! Hurry!” and she was even then unbuttoning the big enveloping apron and hurrying forward. ”

“ Louise turned a searching glance on her sister, and then looked away with a sober little sigh. “Something ought to be done about that kid before mother gets home,” she said maturely. “It’ll kill mother.”
“Something shall be done. There! don’t look so sorrowful, dear. Carey is young, and I’m sure we can do something if we all try with all our souls. I’m so glad I came home. Mother ought not to have been bearing that alone. Come, let’s get up.” She snatched her blue kimono, and dashed to the foot of the stairs.
“Harry! Harry!” she called softly. “Never mind. Let him sleep.” ”

“ Because there was no excuse for an able-bodied young man to live in a mess like this. No young man with a mite of self-respect would do it. And Carey knew better. Carey had been brought up to take care of himself and his things. Nobody could mend a bit of furniture, or fix the plumbing, or sweep a room, or even wash out a blanket for mother, better than Carey when he was only fifteen. And for Carey as she knew him to be willing to lie down for at least more than one night in a room like this and go off in the morning leaving it this way, was simply unthinkable. ”

“ If she did live in a neighborhood that was utterly uncongenial, she could at least make their little home more comfortable. She knew she could. She could feel the ability for it tingling to her very finger-tips, and she smiled as she hurried on to the next corner, where the gleam of a trolley track gave hint of a possible business street. She paused at the corner and looked each way, a pretty picture of girlhood, balancing daintily on her neat little feet and looking quite out of place in that neighborhood. ”