Stranger within the Gates

  Copyright

  © 2016 by Grace Livingston Hill

  eBook Editions:

  Adobe Digital Edition (.epub) 978-1-63409-939-4

  Kindle and MobiPocket Edition (.prc) 978-1-63409-940-0

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted for commercial purposes, except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without written permission of the publisher.

  All scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any similarity to actual people, organizations, and/or events is purely coincidental.

  Published by Barbour Books, an imprint of Barbour Publishing, Inc., P.O. Box 719, Uhrichsville, Ohio 44683, www.barbourbooks.com

  Our mission is to publish and distribute inspirational products offering exceptional value and biblical encouragement to the masses.

  Chapter 1

  They were sitting at the breakfast table when the mail was brought in, Mary Garland and her children.

  It was three years since Paul Garland had died, and his children had begun to feel it was an event of the dim past. For things went on in much the same gentle, pleasant way that they had when he was alive. But they still missed his bright smile, his keen eyes upon them, and his eager interest in all that they did. He was still a part of themselves, and when any important event occurred, they still in their thoughts turned their eyes to his to get his calm, sane reaction.

  Young Paul had been in college a year when his father died so suddenly. And the fortune made out of inherited capital had been sufficient to keep things going just as the father had planned for his young family. Not that they ever thought of themselves as wealthy, just comfortably off. They still lived in the old house their father had inherited from his father. It wasn't the last word in architecture, but it was substantial and handsome and large enough for them all. They loved it.

  Young Paul would graduate in the spring. Rex, the second son, two years later. Both boys were attending their father's college, a hundred miles away from home. Sylvia, the oldest daughter, was attending the university in the nearby city, and Fae and Stan were still in high school.

  It was Fae who sprang to take the bundle of mail from the housemaid who brought it in.

  "Oh, shoot!" she said, twisting her pretty young face into a grimace. "I thought my picture puzzle would come this morning. I sent for it a week ago."

  "You did not!" said Stan gravely. "I carried your letter to the mailbox, and it was only last Saturday morning you sent for it."

  "Oh, well, that's plenty of time for it to have got here by now," said the positive young sister. "Mother, here's a letter from Rex. He must be sick or something. His letters are scarce as hen's teeth."

  She plumped it down beside her mother's plate and went on around distributing the mail.

  Sylvia sat with a book propped open beside her plate. She was studying for an examination. She cast only a casual glance at the letter her sister laid beside her plate. Her brother gave her a mocking look. "Remove the debris, Fae," he said, "it must be from the wrong fella. Look at Syl's face."

  "It's only a notice of a class meeting," said Sylvia, looking up from her book with a withering glance.

  Then there was an exclamation from their mother, who had opened her son's letter and was reading it. They all looked up and saw that her face was white and drawn. Suddenly she bowed her head over the letter and sat there with her shoulders quivering.

  Sylvia sprang to her feet and went over by her mother, her searching eyes spying the letter.

  "What's the matter, Mother? Is Rex sick?"

  One week before Christmas! Was something like that coming to them to spoil Christmas?

  Her eyes searched Fae's face.

  "Was that letter from Rex, Fae?" she asked under her breath.

  Though the question had not been asked of Mary Garland, it was her anguished voice that gasped out, "Yes." Then as Sylvia stooped and gathered her mother's head into her arms and lifted her face from the table, Mary Garland fumbled at the letter and motioned Sylvia to read it.

  The letter was brief and to the point:

  Dear Mom:

  This is just a short note to tell you I was married last week, and I would like to bring my wife home for Christmas! She is a nice girl, and I know you will love her. She hasn't any home, and I'm sure she'll enjoy our Christmas.

  Your loving son,

  Rex

  P. S. I haven't told Paul yet; he is so busy getting ready to graduate in the spring. You can do as you like about telling him.

  Stan and Fae had come quickly around the table and were reading over their sister's shoulder to see what had upset Mother. Mother simply never cried, not since their father died. And Mother was crying! Still, slow tears. And something like a suppressed groan whispered from her pale lips.

  "Gosh! Can you believe that!" said Stan in a grown-up tone, still staring at the letter. "I thought he had some sense!"

  "Oh, I hate him!" uttered Fae between her teeth. "He----he--he's wicked! Doing that to Mother!" And Fae broke into violent sobs and went to the dining room couch, burying her face in the cushions.

  "Be still, can't you, children!" said Sylvia, gathering her mother closer in her arms and looking at her brother and sister with angry, stricken eyes. "Get up, Fae, and let Mother lie down!" Her strong arms drew her mother to the couch.

  It was only a moment that Mary Garland succumbed to her grief, as the three children sat silently, angrily dismayed, trying to wink the tears back and find some solution for this awful problem suddenly thrust upon them to solve. They were not used to solving problems. Their mother had usually done that for them. And now she quickly roused to her responsibility and sat up in spite of Sylvia's strong, detaining hand.

  "No, dear! I'm all right," she said in a hurt, kind voice that was so familiar to their ears. "It--just--got--me--for a minute! But----to think it should have been Rex! Rex, who isn't all grown up yet. Oh, I thought the fact that Paul was there would have restrained him from doing anything--foolish!"

  "But he said Paul didn't know it! Maybe it's all right, only he just hasn't got around to telling Paul yet," eagerly suggested fourteen-year-old Fae.

  "It couldn't be all right, not at his age!" said Stan in a superior tone. "He's nothing but a kid! He's only three years older than I am. Getting married! Gee! Why, even I would have had better sense than that, no matter how nice the girl was! And she couldn't be nice, not a girl that would marry a fella who wasn't halfway through college yet, could she? No nice girl would do that. Not when she knew his folks didn't know her yet. Not when she must have known they wouldn't like it! Gee! Our Rex!"

  "Hush!" said Sylvia sternly. "Can't you see you're making it terribly hard for Mother?"

  "Well, but, Syl," urged Fae earnestly, "haven't we got to help Mother decide what to do? Haven't we got to do something about it right away?" Just as if the whole responsibility rested on herself.

  "Hush!" said Sylvia. "That's for Mother to decide. You wait till you're asked."

  "You dears!" said the mother tenderly and gave them a loving, anguished look.

  "Well, there's just one thing, Mother," said Fae. "The rest of us aren't married, and I think this'll be a good lesson for us. I don't think we'll any of us do a fool thing like this. I for one shall never marry!" And Fae suddenly beat a hasty retreat into the wide hall and crumpled down on the old-fashioned haircloth ancestral sofa, hard and uncompromising, pouring her tears down its shiny old covering, weeping her young heart out over the catastrophe that had without warning come upon the house
of Garland.

  "Aw, heck!" said Stan. Diving his hands deep down into his pockets, he strode over to the window, blinking and gazing out with unseeing eyes.

  Suddenly the dining room clock chimed out the hour. One! Two! Three! Four! Five! Six! Seven! Eight! Sharply, like an old familiar voice calling them to order. They all looked up and gave attention. Even Fae slid back to the dining room door and looked at the clock in startled meekness, as if it were something that had a right to reprimand them.

  For the clock had been almost the last thing that the head of the house of Garland had bought and brought home before he lay down in his final illness and went away from them altogether. And in a way it had come to symbolize to them all the voice of authority, the voice of their dead father yet speaking.

  When he had started that clock and they all stood about listening to its solemn ticking, its mellow chiming, Paul Garland had given them a bright little talk about it that they would always remember:

  "When you hear that chime, you must always give attention! Always about-face and look up at the first stroke, and ask yourself what duty it is calling to remind you of. It is like a big musical conscience to remind you to work, or to tell you it is a time you may rest or relax, or go to your night's sleep. When it strikes eight on weekdays, it will be reminding you that it is time you started to school. . . ."

  His words came back to them all now, and suddenly their several schools took form before their eyes. Their long habit of hurrying away to be on time asserted itself.

  They gave one another startled looks, and then their glances melted into consternation as the new catastrophe thrust its memory in ahead of precedent.

  "Oh!" quivered Fae. "We don't havta go ta school today, do we, Muvver?"

  "Heck! No!" said Stan, whirling about and facing his mother almost defiantly. "Not me! To heck with school! We got other business to attend to. Good night, Moms, what we gonta do?"

  Mary Garland lifted startled eyes, eyes that came back suddenly from gazing into the open door to despair, and went swiftly to the clock. For the clock had come to be a monitor to her also, a kind of religious obligation, representing her husband's loving authority.

  Slowly--as her eyes took in the hour and her ears recalled its chiming from the faraway seconds since it had struck--that wild, desperate look faded from her eyes and sane common sense took its place. Then her voice quavered forth, growing clearer and more firm with each breath.

  "Why, yes, you're going to school! Certainly!" she said decidedly. "What possible good could you do staying at home from school? This is something that has happened! There is nothing you can do to prevent it. It's just a fact that we have to face, and you can't make it any easier to face by sitting around here at home and glooming over it. Especially when you would be leaving duties undone. You know what your father would say. And this is an important day. Every one of you has tests or examinations to be passed, and you must get such good control over your nerves that you will pass them all better than you ever passed a test before. That will help you keep your minds off of the happening that troubles you."

  "Happening?" echoed Sylvia in an appalled voice. "I should call it a tragedy!"

  "Yes," said the mother, wincing but nevertheless taking a deep breath and going on, "it does look like a tragedy at first sight. There's no point in leaving necessary things undone to make more trouble for ourselves afterward. You know what it will mean to all of you if you don't pass your examinations."

  "Afterward!" said Sylvia dejectedly. "It doesn't seem as if there could be any afterward."

  "Oh, yes," said Mary Garland with a sad look passing over her face, "there is always an afterward! Now, finish your breakfast, all of you, and then get away to school!"

  "I don't want any breakfast," said Sylvia, "and I'm not going to school. I couldn't think of leaving you alone with this thing to face!"

  "Nonsense!" said her mother sharply. "I'll be quite all right! At least drink a glass of milk. I can't let you go without eating something. It's a cold morning!"

  "But, Mother, you almost fainted away just now. I'd be seeing you that way all the morning," pleaded Sylvia.

  "No, you wouldn't. You'd have your mind too full with your examinations. And besides, I've done my fainting, whatever I'm going to do of it, at the first shock. Come, quickly. I want to get a chance to sit down and think this over."

  "But, Moms, what are we going to say to people?" asked Stan with a troubled look.

  "Say?" said the mother sharply. "Why should you say anything? Just keep your mouths shut about home affairs. There isn't anything to say."

  "But suppose someone should ask us?"

  "Why would anyone ask you?"

  Stan stood perplexed.

  "Well, they might ask when the boys were coming home, or if they were coming home," he explained lamely.

  "No one would be likely to do that, but if they did, you'd easily say they hadn't written what train. Now go! I don't want to talk any more about it. And don't put on such a hangdog look. You don't want people to ask you what's the matter, do you? For pity's sake, can't you have a little fortitude? Put on a smile and go bravely off."

  "Aw gee, Moms, but it's our Rex!"

  "Haven't you any sense at all?" said the older sister with an angry glance, and then looking down at the stricken eyes of her mother, she said, "Now, Mother dear, you are going up to lie down and rest. Come. I'm taking you and putting you in bed. That's the only consideration under which I would think of going to my class."

  Mary Garland arose and faced her fiery young daughter.

  "Sylvia, that'll be quite enough! I'm not yet in my old age! Drink that glass of milk, and then put on your coat and hat and go!"

  She finished by giving the table bell a sharp tap, which brought the maid at once. "Hettie, bring the toast and eggs. The children ought to hurry. Now, Fae, go put on your boots, and then come back and eat something."

  Hettie brought the eggs, and they were soon all back at the table, well shod for the snowy streets. And though they protested they could not eat, their healthy appetites soon asserted themselves and they ate at least a sketchy breakfast before they left, their minds now turned toward the duties next in hand. For the time being they were diverted from the catastrophe that had come upon them.

  Mary Garland watched them off from her window, her face as bright as she could force it to be until they were out of sight. Then she turned with swift steps and went up to her room with her letters in her hand, and locking her door, she sat down to read Rex's missive again. This time the tears fell thick and fast upon the page as she tried to think how her loving Rex could ever have been willing to do this to her and the rest of the children. Rex!

  Had she spoiled him? Of course, he was extraordinarily handsome, and they all adored him. Jovial, bright Rex! Always full of fun! But generous and loving. Still, he did like to have his own way.

  And he had so longed to go to college, when she had wanted him to wait a year. He was so young, a year younger than Paul had been when he went. Even Paul had been dubious about it. He had felt that Rex should stay at home with her another year. But Rex had been so eager to go. The thought of those days wrung her heart. If she only had him back, just an eager boy of seventeen. He could just as well have waited another year at least and entered college at eighteen. If she only had kept him back, maybe this wouldn't have happened!

  Rex had always had more of a social nature than Paul. Paul was graver, more serious, more intent on having a career and getting ready for it.

  But she must not waste time in vain regrets. There in her lap was the letter, staring at her with bald, startling facts. Rex was married! Married at eighteen. Poor foolish Rex! She had not thought he could be so weak as to do a thing like that!

  She could almost see his handsome eyes looking at her from the hastily scrawled page, the appeal in his eyes, as if he were pleading with her to forgive, to excuse somehow this perfectly inexcusable thing that he had done. That appeal, that me
mory of the boy's eyes in times past when he had done wrong and had come to her for forgiveness, made it impossible for her to harden her heart now. She had never turned away from an appeal in the eyes of any of her children. Sometimes she had had to deny them, of course, but always they knew that behind that denial there was her warmest sympathy in their desire, even if she felt it was wrong or unwise. There was still a sympathy with the children's desire.

  Oh, had it been that quality in herself that had helped to spoil Rex, given him confidence that he could get away with anything if he looked at her with that warmth of appeal? Was she to blame for this? Probably, though she hadn't suspected it till now.

  But now what was she to do?

  There had never been anything like this before. Always the troubles had been things that could in some way be paid for by money, or an apology, or by some small self-denial required of him, and the would-be crisis averted.

  But here was something that could not be paid for by money. She couldn't by paying even a large sum undo this thing and wipe out the memory of it from his life. Not even his most humble self-abnegation could put him where he had been before this happened, with the future still unchanged before him. Of course, the world today might think of divorce in such a situation, but not their family. Not quiet, respectable, Christian people like themselves. Not that they ever made a great point of their Christianity, but they had been fairly regular in church attendance, and such a thing as divorce was scarcely considered decent in their family traditions. With a weight like iron upon her heart, she flung the thought aside and stared at the hopelessness for the situation. Of course, even if the girl was fairly nice, she would feel the same about it. And a girl who would marry a boy not yet out of the teens, not through with his college course, what could she be? No nice girl would do a thing like that. Or would she? Nowadays? Young people did such very different things now, from what they used to do when she was young. But she hadn't yet reached the point of considering the girl, whether or not she was a right girl for Rex. It seemed to be equally terrible for her son, whatever the girl was. Rex! Married at eighteen!