Then the girl with the dark hair mounted the steps slowly, looking off toward the sunset, and he caught a glimpse of her face. Yes! There she was at last!
It was then he called out! He completely forgot Evadne Laverock, and cried: “Miss Scarlett! Wait! Miss Scarlett! Jane!”
But she went right on up the steps deliberately. Yet she must have heard. If that was her name she would have turned, wouldn’t she? He was a fool. Of course it wasn’t Jane Scarlett! And yet, if it only was, how glad he would be. She was very much wanted at the office, and he certainly would like to be the one to complete the contact and produce her, after the way he seemed to have fumbled the job in the first place.
“Miss Scarlett!”
He was standing at the foot of the steps looking up and other girls turned and looked down at him curiously, but she did not turn. If she had been Jane Scarlett she would surely have heard and turned, wouldn’t she?
Of course, it was time he went to Evadne Laverock if he was going at all, and yet so strong was his impression as he watched the shoulders and back of this girl disappear into the darkness of the hall above that he seemed compelled to follow her. After all, it would take but a minute in a lighted room with a good square look at her to discover his mistake if it was one. So he followed up the steps and came, after a devious way through a winding hall, to stand in the doorway of the classroom where he saw the lady he was following just sitting down in a seat away at the front. From here he could not be any more definitely sure by the look of her back and shoulders whether she was the girl he sought or not.
So he walked all the way up the middle aisle to the only vacant seat anywhere near her. It was across the aisle one row ahead of hers, in the middle of the row. Here he might hope to get a good view of her face.
And so, after various twistings and turnings, and trying to appear to be watching for somebody coming in the door at the back, he finally got a full view of her and knew it was none other than Jane Scarlett.
But Jane Scarlett was bending over a little red book, finding the place, and then opening a small notebook and getting out a tiny pencil. She was not noticing in the least the people about her. And though he turned his head and looked full at her as long as his natural courtesy would permit him to do, he could not seem to make her look up and recognize him.
At last he settled back in his chair with folded arms and resigned himself to wait till whatever this was was over and he could speak to her. What had he come in on anyway, and how long was it likely to last? Some sort of class? A business course? Was she trying to get ready to do something more lucrative than sell buttons? That was commendable. She seemed a bright girl. The rounded line of her cheek was really lovely.
He glanced at his watch. It was still early. Evadne would not be expecting him yet. And a class of any sort would likely be out in a half or three quarters of an hour.
So Kent Havenner sat still and waited, studying the faces of the quite large group of young men and maidens who were gathered eagerly, with their attention fixed on the woman who was speaking.
Then suddenly his attention was caught by the speaker.
“If you want God in your life you must be willing to comply with the conditions.”
Heavens, what was this, some kind of religious quackery?
Then he gave entire attention to the teacher.
“Life is not a mere matter of seventy or eighty years on this earth. Life is eternity-long. Did it ever occur to you how strange it is that we spend about a quarter of the time we count as life in getting ready for it? Going to school to learn how to live? To learn how to earn money and enjoy ourselves? And never give a thought to getting ready for eternity? Some of us try to persuade ourselves that there is no eternity. That when we die we just pass out and are never conscious anymore.
“Yet Jesus invites us to a life that never ends. A life that is full of joy and hope. A life that need make no mistakes under His guidance. And we take no pains to acquaint ourselves with it, nor even try to find out if it be true. This book gives us unmistakable signs of eternity and shows us how to prepare for it.”
Kent looked down at the little book in his hand. It was evidently a portion of the Bible. He was more or less familiar with at least the outside of the Bible, but he had never looked upon it as a book that contained any proofs of anything. He had always supposed it mere theories.
He listened to the teacher as she briefly went over the details of the past weeks’ studies, and he followed her in chapter and verse, surprised at the apt questions.
Now and then he cast a quick glance at Jane and noted her intent interest, the quick kindling of her eye at a new thought. Then all at once he thought of Evadne, and glanced at his watch. She would be wondering why he did not come. He tried to imagine telling her about this place and explaining to her how he happened to be here. He tried to imagine her here with him, and somehow couldn’t do it. If she sat over there where Jane sat she would certainly not be gazing up with that eagerness. She would be uneasily looking at her watch, or openly yawning, or definitely getting up and leaving. Evadne was impatient. She would never sit still and listen to words about eternity. Evadne knew the smartest fashions; she knew the price of jewels and other precious things of earth, fine cars, and mansions, and the latest dances, new shades of lipstick—but perhaps she was not figuring on eternity. And if he were to try to tell her about what he had heard tonight while she was awaiting his coming, she would but laugh him to scorn.
Was it possibly true as his mother claimed, that Evadne had a vapid mind incapable of serious thought?
And then the old question got the ascendency for the instant, to the exclusion of all that was going on about him. Should he go and see Evadne again at all, or just let the summer’s break that had come between them be the end? Did he really want her for the daily companion of his life? Or would he regret it later when he found someone more suited to him?
But the teacher’s voice broke upon his consciousness again:
“Did you ever think what it would be in your life to know God intimately and to have Jesus Christ your hourly companion?” she asked. The words fell into his perplexities with almost a shock. It came to him that if that could be true he would have an answer to all his perplexities. He needn’t be in danger of making lifelong mistakes. He didn’t really want to make mistakes that would affect his whole life, as his family seemed to think he was in danger of doing.
But Evadne was very lovely in her way. He had thought that perhaps his mother was only overanxious. Also he had hoped that Evadne might change after they were married. But now after the interval of her absence he wondered. Would she? Could she? Did she want to be molded to go his way, or was she determined to go her own?
Looking sharply thus into his inner consciousness he was almost afraid to meet her. He knew her subtleties. She would wind him around her finger again the way she used to do. Just one smile of her red lips, one glance from her topaz eyes and he would be in her toils. Did he want that?
He was practically free from her influence now. They had parted because he had taken a stand against some of her decisions and wishes. He wouldn’t go her way in everything.
It had been frightfully hard at first, but he had held out and plunged into his law work, and now he was really interested in it. He wanted to get on and attain great things. And if she came into his life again he knew it would at once mean late hours and frivolous living, not the steady, quiet life to which he had been brought up. She laughed at that. It would mean a constant struggle to hold his own in his work if he were trying to please her. He could not serve two masters.
Well, whatever he was going to do later in the evening, he was working now. He had to contact Jane Scarlett and put her in touch with his law firm. That was his business. And he had been learning these last few months since Evadne went away that business must come first, pleasure afterward. And Evadne had to learn that, too, if she was going to be around him. If she did not like it, let her go away a
gain. He was getting on well enough without her. Of course he knew that Evadne would not understand why he had to stay in a Bible class and watch one girl, one plain, poorly dressed girl who sold buttons in a store, but he was convinced that what he was doing now was his business and it was important. He was quite sure that whatever Evadne was using as an excuse for getting him to come and see her, it could not be important.
How long this session of study would last he couldn’t tell, and it was impossible to forecast how long it would take him after this was over, before he was free to go. Better let it rest at that. If he got away from this duty at any reasonable hour he would go to Evadne and have it out with her, find out whether she cared enough for him to go his way or not. If he didn’t get away early enough he would just take it that he wasn’t meant to contact Evadne tonight, and let it go at that. It was like tossing a penny up, or leaving it to a higher power to choose.
“There is eternal life to be lived here and now. But you will never find it if you try to live for this world also!”
The teacher’s words were projected into his thoughts again and seemed almost as if she were answering what he was thinking. “ ‘And this is life eternal,’ ” went on the sweet, strong voice, “ ‘that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou has sent.’ Do you want to begin to live this eternal life now, tonight?”
Something stirred in Kent Havenner’s heart. Impulsively he wanted to accept that invitation. But how?
And then the class was breaking up. They were stirring all about him, rising to go. How short it had been!
He rose and looked toward Jane Scarlett, and she was looking straight at him, but with unseeing eyes alight with earnest thought. There was no recognition in her glance. She was obviously thinking of what she had been hearing.
He came a little nearer and stood at the end of her aisle as she waited for the girl ahead of her to pass. Then as she approached he spoke in a low, friendly, courteous voice.
“Miss Scarlett?”
Jane started and looked up. This was not young Gaylord. Neither was it Mr. Clark. Yet she knew the voice. But she had no acquaintances who came to this class. Because of her extreme shyness the few girls who had spoken to her did not know her name. And none of the young men had so much as looked at her, nor she at them.
Then recognition dawned.
“Oh, Mr. Havenner! I did not expect to see you here.”
“Well, no, it’s scarcely one of my haunts”—he smiled. “I have you to thank for the discovery. But I think I’ll come again. It’s very unusual, isn’t it?”
A blaze of light suddenly shone in her face, making her almost lovely.
“It is wonderful!” she admitted. “But I don’t see how I was the means of bringing you here. I only just found it myself a few days ago.”
“Well, you see, it happens that you are very much wanted at our office, and I’ve been keeping an eye out for you for the past two weeks. I even went to your boardinghouse to search for you, and when I was told that you had left there I tried the store again, but was told you were on vacation. As nobody knew where you had gone there was nothing else to do but wait. But I’ve been more or less alert for you ever since, for I knew the office was annoyed about my not being able to produce you after having had an interview with you. So when I spied you entering this hall tonight, and failed to be able to attract your attention, I followed you in. I hope you don’t mind.”
But a sudden troubled look had come into Jane’s face.
“Why, of course not,” she said, “but I don’t understand what anybody would want me for. Is something the matter somewhere?”
The young man smiled disarmingly.
“Nothing to be alarmed about,” he said. “It was just that the office wrote you a letter, and it came back to them with a stamp that you were unknown at that address. As I was responsible for the address they used, the matter naturally was brought to my notice.”
“A letter?” said Jane. “But what would they be writing to me about?”
“Well, I wasn’t shown the letter, but I understood it had to do with the settlement of an estate, some papers that had to be signed. Nothing to worry you, I’m sure.”
Jane’s brows puckered in perplexity.
“Oh, they surely must have got me mixed with someone else. I wouldn’t be having anything to do with the settlement of an estate. I couldn’t even be a witness, I’m sure. I’ve never really had much to do with any of the relatives.” She gave a little nervous laugh.
“Well, you’ll soon have opportunity to know exactly what it is, Miss Scarlett, for I am quite sure the letter will be delivered to you tomorrow morning if you will be good enough to tell me where to deliver it.”
“Oh!” she said a bit breathlessly, for she could not yet fathom the why of the letter. “Why, my vacation is over tomorrow morning. I shall be back in the store.”
“And back at your same boardinghouse? I understood the lady to say that you were done with her, or she was done with you.”
Jane laughed at the twinkle in his eyes.
“No, I shall not be there. I’ve found a new room.”
“Will it be all right to deliver the letter to you at the store?” he asked respectfully. “I want to make sure it reaches its destination this time.”
“Oh, yes, quite all right.”
“Then I’ll be there. Please don’t evade me this time.”
They had reached the outside door now, and began walking down the steps, Jane evidently expecting him to leave her. She had that attitude. But Kent did not intend to leave her yet.
“You don’t mind if I walk with you a little way, will you?” he asked. “I want to ask you a little about that class tonight. What is it? How did you find out about it? I’ve never heard of a class like that before, that is, outside of a church. I suppose they have such things in churches, though I don’t know much about it from experience. Or perhaps that is a church affair. Is it? I was very much interested.”
“I don’t think so,” said Jane, instant interest in her face and a quick light in her fine eyes that made them lovely once more. “It seems to be just a class. I don’t know who sponsors it, or even whether it is sponsored. I just happened to hear it announced on the radio the other night in such a unique way that I determined I would go and see what it was all about, and I liked it so much that I kept coming.”
“Well, I liked it, too,” said Kent with surprising candor. “I wouldn’t have expected to like it, but now I’m so interested to see if they can bear out what they said that I’ve a mind to go again myself. It sort of hit me home right where I live.”
“Oh, did you feel that way, too? That was the way the announcement made me feel. They said ‘If you are sad and weary and questioning what life is all about, if you want to find an answer that will satisfy, and help you go on amid hardships and loneliness, come to Mrs. Brooke’s class and get help and comfort.’ Well, I went and I’m finding it.”
He looked down at her questioningly, searched her earnest young face deeply, and said at last: “Then perhaps I shall find what I need there, too. I’ve half a mind to try it.”
“Well,” said Jane with a timid little smile, “you wouldn’t of course have the same trials and disappointments that I have, but I believe, or I’m coming to believe, that there is a remedy in that book for any need one could have.”
“I wonder!” said the young man, and walked on by her side thoughtfully.
Presently Jane came to the apartment where she had been staying, and hesitated at the door.
“I have to go in here now,” she said shyly. “I’ll be expecting the letter in the morning.”
Kent cast a glance up at the building. Quite a different affair from the place he had gone to seek her two weeks ago.
“Oh,” he said looking at her and the opulent entrance again. “Are you living here? I don’t blame you for leaving that other place.”
“No,” said Jane with a sad little twist to her
voice. “Oh, no, nothing so nice as this. I’ve just been staying here with a canary and some goldfish while their owner was away. I made it my vacation. But it’s over tonight. The owner is returning at ten o’clock and I’m leaving for quarters more suited to my pocketbook. I’m sorry of course to go, but it’s been a lovely vacation and rested me a lot.”
“Oh,” said Kent Havenner, giving his watch a quick glance. “Then you’ve almost an hour to wait before you move. Have you anything to do in the interval? Because I’ve been noticing the notebook you are carrying with you and wondering if there isn’t some spot where we could sit down for a few minutes and you could tell me about the other lessons in this little red book. I have a great curiosity to know just what the preliminary line of study was. I’m sure I saw you taking notes. Isn’t that right? Well, then, would you have time, or are there still some duties awaiting you upstairs?”
Jane hesitated.
“No,” she said honestly, “I’m all packed. I’ve only to go up a minute or two and give an account of my stewardship, and then I’m moving on to my new home. I’ll be glad to give you an idea of what I’ve gleaned from the meetings so far. Or you could take my notebook with you? Though I’m not sure the notes would be very clear. I had to take them down so briefly.”
“Thank you,” said Kent with alacrity. “Why couldn’t we sit down on that bench I see in there across from the elevators? There seems to be a good light. Would you be able to see your friend from there when she arrives, or is there some better place?”