Homing

by Grace Livingston Hill

  “No, that’s fine,” said Jane with relief in her voice. She was afraid he might be going to ask her to go to some hotel or place of amusement, and that she was determined not to do. She might be late, and then what would Miss Leech think?

  So they entered the lobby and sat down. Jane got out her little notebook and Kent opened his book of John and they were soon deep in study.

  Kent Havenner had forgotten all about Evadne for the time being. He was studying an entirely different type of girl, and he had no intention whatever of letting her out of his sight until he knew just where she was located. Not that he doubted her genuineness, but she had been lost out of the scheme of things once, and there was no telling but something might happen again. Besides, he was really interested to know just what type of girl this was who had gotten interest and apparently entertainment out of a Bible class.

  Jane opened her notebook at the beginning and made him turn to the different chapters and verses, and then went on. With remarkable clearness, in well-chosen words, she spread out the story in John as she had heard it, enlivening it all by what it had done for her own soul, and incidentally revealing the sadness and desolation of her own lot. She did not know she was doing this latter. It would have been the last thing in life she would have willingly done, to have projected herself into his notice.

  He watched her face, which had suddenly become vivid, as she detailed the lessons she had got, and now and then the listener was startled at the applicability of the truths given.

  “You couldn’t, if you had tried, have told me anything that would so have hit my own case,” he suddenly confessed, looking into her sweet eyes with a kind of wonder. His sister had sweetness in her eyes and so had his mother. But most of the girls he knew had sharp, brilliant, unsympathetic eyes. He marveled at this girl. This girl who had been living in the very common walks of life.

  But his confession brought a sudden consciousness to Jane. Before that she had been talking to him much as if she were talking aloud to herself, going over a lesson that had helped her. Now suddenly he became a stranger, an utter stranger, and she felt herself presumptuous to be talking thus so freely. She was only a button salesgirl. She had no business to be preaching a sermon to this stranger.

  The color stole up into her pale cheeks, and she dropped her lashes shyly.

  “I have talked too much,” she said abruptly. “I did not intend to apply this to anyone but myself.”

  “Perhaps that is the fineness of your ability, that you could use a lesson that has touched your soul to touch mine also. I thank you for it. And is that all?”

  “No, there is one more before tonight.”

  Rapidly she went over the tiny pages, touching upon the main points, and just as she finished she heard a taxi drive up in front of the building, and glancing up caught a glimpse of Miss Leech getting out and lingering to pay the driver.

  “And that brings us up to tonight,” finished Jane hastily, “and there comes my friend. I shall have to go now. Take the notebook if you like and copy it. I can get it again when you bring the letter.” She smiled at him and rose with a finality that startled him. There was something about it that seemed so self-possessed, so like a woman of the world who was dismissing him. “Good night!” and she walked gracefully over to the door and possessed herself of the suitcase Miss Leech was capably carrying in.

  Kent Havenner sat absolutely still where she had left him, glancing up at the newcomer, but not intruding himself upon the scene. He was pleasantly surprised to notice that the elderly woman who came in, greeting Jane with friendly eyes, was neither a snob, nor a woman of the world in appearance, just a quiet self-possessed businesswoman.

  The elevator came down with a slam just then and clattered its door open, and the two walked into it without looking toward him. He had a feeling that Jane Scarlett would prefer it so.

  And so Kent Havenner sat and studied the little notebook till he knew its phrases by heart, caught the turn of words and sentences that spoke of the personality of the writer, the lesson coming through her own heart to his.

  It is hard to say just what Evadne Laverock would have thought if she had passed that way and looking in had seen her former lover, who she thought was now under her thumb, studying a little book like that and sitting there at his ease as if he had all the night before him, while she waited impatiently for his coming. But there he sat, and several miles away across the city Evadne sat and fumed and waited.

  Chapter 10

  Miss Leech was delighted with the look of her apartment, especially with the pot of African violets that Jane had bought at a wayside stand as a little expression of her thanks.

  Jane insisted on her going around and looking at everything before she took her leave.

  “I hate to have you go,” said the older woman looking at Jane approvingly. “It’s so late wouldn’t you like to stay here and sleep on the couch tonight?”

  “Thank you, no. I have a room, and I must go to it and get settled for the morning. I’m so glad you are pleased with everything. I’ve tried to keep it just as you left it.”

  “Oh, you have! At least, I believe it is cleaner than when I left. I’m afraid you haven’t done anything but clean house every day.”

  “Oh, yes, I have!” said Jane eagerly, her eyes lighting up. “I’ve read two whole rows of books, and I’ve listened to the radio a lot. I’ve had a wonderful time, and I’ve gained five pounds. I’m proud of that. I was really getting too thin.”

  “Yes, you’re looking very well. I’m so glad! I was a little worried about you. I thought perhaps I had been the means of keeping you in the hot city when otherwise you might have gone somewhere in the country.”

  “Oh, no!” said Jane quickly. “I couldn’t. I should have stayed right here and worked hard in the store if you hadn’t let me keep your house for you. I had no idea of taking a vacation at all till Mr. Clark came and told me the store was giving me a vacation with pay because I had been sick. I thought that was wonderful of them. But I wouldn’t have had any place to go if it hadn’t been for you. You see my room was perfectly dreadful. It was breathless and the food was something terrible. Some days I could scarcely eat a bite.”

  “Oh, my dear! That’s too bad. But what are you going to do now?”

  “Oh, I have another room,” said Jane lightly, evading the searching glance of the older woman’s eyes. “I hope it is going to be much better.”

  “Well, I hope so,” said Miss Leech. “You must keep in touch with me, and come and visit me for a day or two if you have to hunt for another place.”

  “Oh, thank you!” said Jane. “You’ve been just wonderful to me. I won’t forget it, ever!”

  “Well, I hope we’ll always be friends. You don’t know what a comfort it has been to me to know I could trust you with my room. It being the only real home I have in the world, of course I prize it.”

  “Oh, of course. It’s a beautiful place. If I ever get rich I shall try to have one just like it, only I’m sure I shall never be as prosperous as all that.”

  “You can never tell, my dear!” said Miss Leech. “I used to be terribly hard up fifteen years ago when I first got a job, and I tell you I’ve worked hard for every little thing I own. Except of course a few of the old things, furniture and dishes that came from my home after my mother and father died. So I love it all. And now I shall feel that you have a share of interest in it, too, and shall want you to come and see me as often as you can spare the time. Of course, I’m getting to be an old woman, and I can’t be very good company for a young girl like you, but I shall enjoy you whenever you haven’t any better company.”

  “Oh, I’ll love to come,” said Jane. “You and I have a lot in common, for I’ve read some of your wonderful books, and so I feel as if I knew the same people you know. And now I must run along and let you get to bed, for I know you are tired after that long journey. Good-bye and don’t forget there are some cinnamon buns in the tin box for your breakfast, and fre
sh eggs in the refrigerator.”

  Jane picked up her suitcase and suit box that held her curtains, and started toward the door, but Miss Leech held out an envelope.

  “Here, my dear,” she said. “Here is your compensation for looking after my place.”

  “But indeed, no!” said Jane drawing away. “I couldn’t think of taking anything for that. I’ve had a wonderful vacation and couldn’t have had it if you hadn’t loaned me your room.”

  “Indeed you will take it, young lady,” said Miss Leech determinedly. “I always pay something for having my place looked after, only I never had such efficient service before. And you don’t want to spoil my vacation, do you? I should feel like a selfish thing if you refused to take this.”

  “But you needn’t at all. I really don’t need it. The store gave me my vacation with pay, so I have enough to get a start.”

  “That makes no difference,” said Miss Leech. “I’m giving you this little bit because I want to, and you’re going to be a good girl and take it. If you don’t want to count that you’ve earned it, then pretend it is a present I’ve brought you, and you go and buy something with it to remember me by.”

  They argued for two or three minutes more, but finally Jane came away with the money. Ten whole dollars! It seemed a fortune to her. Just for staying in a better place than she could possibly have afforded!

  Her face was shining with happiness as she got out of the elevator. And there right before her stood Kent Havenner, her little notebook in his hand, and a smile of welcome on his face.

  “I’ve copied it all,” he announced pleasantly, “and I thought you wouldn’t mind if I stayed till you came down and gave it to you tonight. Here! Let me have that baggage!”

  “Oh, thank you, no,” said Jane, her face crimsoning with embarrassment to think how shabby her baggage was, and to remember that she had only a very poor rooming house as a destination. He mustn’t find out where it was. She would be ashamed!

  “But yes,” he said possessing himself of the box and suitcase. “I’m going to see you to your apartment. I couldn’t think of letting you go alone at this time of night.”

  “Oh, I’m not afraid,” said Jane. “I’m used to it, you see. I have to do it often. You mustn’t spoil me. I’m a working girl, you know. Please let me have them.”

  “Oh, no,” he said brightly. “You may be a working girl, but you’re in my care tonight, and I have a debt to pay you for introducing me to the book of John. I have a hunch I’m going to be pretty crazy over that before I get through.”

  She walked perforce by his side to the door and tried to make another stand when she reached the sidewalk, but he only laughed, and gathering the two pieces of luggage under one arm he waved his other hand to a taxi.

  The taxi swept up to the curb, and he handed the luggage to the driver as he swung open the door.

  “Now,” he said as he put her in and got in beside her, “where to? What’s the street and number?”

  Jane faltered out the address, and added, “But please, I wish you wouldn’t feel that you must go out of your way to go with me. I’ll be quite all right alone now.”

  She reflected that after all it wouldn’t cost much to pay taxi fare, just this once, and of course it was rather a long way to carry her baggage herself.

  But the young man only closed the door of the cab and laughed.

  “Sorry my company isn’t agreeable to you,” he said, “but I’ve a great desire to see you definitely located for the night so that I shall be reasonably sure to be able to find you in the morning in case you are detained from going to the store. You see I’ve got to deliver that letter, and I’m taking no chances.”

  His face was a broad grin, and Jane reflected how pleasant he looked when he grinned, and thought how nice it would be to have a real friend who looked like that and insisted on taking care of her now and then.

  “Oh!” she said. And then her face grew troubled as she thought of that letter. “Is—that letter—so important?” she managed to ask.

  “Well, yes, I imagine it’s rather important to one member of the Scarlett family, or at least I’ve been led to suppose that. Anyway, it’s important that I shall be able to discharge my duty toward the letter, and prove that there is a Jane Scarlett and that I have seen her and talked with her.”

  “But I can’t imagine that I could have anything to do with an important document,” mused Jane, the worry stealing into her eyes again. “You see, I scarcely know the family at all.”

  “Well, don’t try to imagine, then,” said Kent still smiling. “Wait till morning and let the letter settle it. Is this the house?”

  He gazed out of the taxi window at the tall bare-looking building before which they had stopped. There was nothing in his facial expression to show what was in his heart about the stark, ugly building, nor how unsuited an abode it seemed for that sweet-faced girl, with the delicate features and great serious eyes.

  He helped her out and they stood together in the bare, uninviting hall while she waited for the landlady or matron or whatever she was to finish talking to a slatternly girl with sly eyes who was trying to get a room for the night without any money to pay for it.

  “This is no place for you,” said Kent’s eyes as he gave a critical glance about and then looked down at Jane’s worried eyes. But his lips tried to smile and take it all for granted as if it were an abode of luxury.

  “It’s—” Jane glanced around her with a disapproving glance, “not so very—grand!” she finished apologetically. “But one can’t expect grandeur for a pittance.”

  “No, I suppose not,” said Kent, glancing up the straight, steep stairway that loomed at the end of the hall, “but it’s not very homelike.”

  “It isn’t a home,” said Jane with a quick drawn breath of sadness. “One doesn’t always have a home. That’s why that fourteenth chapter of our little red book of John seems so wonderful to me. ‘In my Father’s house are many mansions. . . . I go to prepare a place for you.’ They will be homes I’m sure, and there will always be those at the end of the road.”

  Kent looked down at her in wonder. Such an earnest young face, so sweet and wistful! Audrey had been right. She was unusual. And Audrey had seen that look in her face. She must have. It was a look that once seen was to be remembered.

  “I wouldn’t know about that,” he said seriously. “I’ve never thought about homes at the end of the road. I’m afraid I’ve been occupied with thinking of homes along the way, like the teacher said tonight. But perhaps after this I shall think more about it. What chapter was that verse you just quoted about your Father’s house?”

  “Oh, that’s the fourteenth of John. I learned that when I was a little girl. I hadn’t thought about it for a long time, until recently, and it came back and—helped me.”

  She confessed her experience gently with a fleeting smile, as if she scarcely could believe that one like this young man would be interested in such things, or in anything she could say. Yet she was pleased and touched with awe that he really seemed to be.

  An unusual conversation to be carried on in, and actually inspired by, that crude rooming house, yet there they stood, he lingering with a strange unexplained reluctance to leave.

  Then the matron dismissed the other girl and came forward to Jane. Her eyes narrowed, looking nearsightedly through sparse, faded lashes. Suddenly, with a striking smile, Kent lifted his hat, with fine impulse not to embarrass Jane by being a listener to her conversation.

  “Well, good night! See you in the morning!” and he was gone.

  Jane gave a quick glance out of the door into the warm darkness where he had disappeared, and it suddenly seemed to her that the sun had just been withdrawn from a very bright day.

  Afterward when she went up to the fourth-floor back room, and discovered its utter desolateness, it did not seem quite so depressing because her mind was on her evening. She discovered that the young man and her talk with him had even superseded and blotted out
the coming of her friend Miss Leech. Yes, and the extra money she had not expected to have! Why, there were pleasant things in the world, even though one had no place but this bare room to call home. She had friends, she had more money than she had hoped for, and best of all she had her heavenly Father’s house to look forward to.

  But what a pleasant man Mr. Havenner was! How his eyes spoke volumes when he was talking about the class. How he had responded to her own thoughts and feelings. Oh, what would it be to have a real friend like that for her very own!

  But of course she mustn’t let her mind dwell on him or anything connected with him. He was a great man, that is, he was likely going to be great, a lawyer, and well started on his way toward success from all appearances. And she was only a button salesgirl. She must never forget that. Perhaps sometime in the Father’s house above they would meet and talk over their common interest in the book of John, but down here he was separated from her by impassable barriers. For of course he had only been kind and courteous. So she must not dwell on their conversation, nor make anything of it. He was keeping in touch with her just to be sure to get that letter to her in the morning. And that he spoke interestedly of the class and the lesson might only have been an extreme of courtesy. He might not even have meant any of it. Yet she couldn’t but think it had been real interest in his eyes, interest for the things of another world.

  However, that was not for her to speculate about. She would just be glad that he was interested, or seemed to be, because it made her comfortable and happy to have a bit of fellowship with another one of God’s children. Or was he God’s child?

  But that letter! What was that going to mean to her? Constantly the thought of it recurred to her as something to be dreaded. Of course it might be some mere technicality that had no significance to her personally, though she couldn’t imagine a circumstance that would make that possible. But she would be glad when it had come and the dread of it was over. Now, she would do as the young man had advised, just put it out of her mind and forget it until it arrived.