Bright Arrows (7 page)

"No!" said Eden. "I never gave her anything."

"I have not seen it yet," went on Lorrimer. "We will have it examined, of course, by an expert. Just how she would have gotten possession of it if the young man stole it during the night we have not yet figured out, but it might have been done. The list names some unmounted jewels, three emeralds, a ruby, and four sapphires, one a star sapphire. They seem to have been a part of your grandmother's dowry. We have tried to find them in the bank, but they are not there.

They are things that can be easily hidden in clothing. I suppose there will have to be a trial, I am not sure. But be assured we will do our best to keep you out of this whole matter, so please do not worry."

Eden turned away from the telephone at last with a degree of peace in her heart. At least she was assured that her affairs were in safe hands, and she could rest on that. And after all, what were jewels? She could live without them. She had been happy before she knew of their existence. Of course, she would like to have articles of value that belonged to her family, but why should she make herself miserable over their loss? She found herself exceedingly weary of the whole matter. So telling Janet she was going to take a nap, she went up to her room and, curling up on her bed, fell into a deep sleep.

 

Caspar Carvel turned up before dinner after all. He had been used to barging into their house whenever he liked to a meal, when he was a lad, and he figured that times hadn't changed even if there had been a war.

Eden was in the big living room curled up in a chair, reading a book she had found among some mail that had come to her father since his death. She had unwrapped it and sat down to find out what it was, when the door opened and Caspar walked in, just as if it were yesterday that he went away.

"Hello, lovely!" he said. "My buddy took an earlier train than he had expected; he went up to New York to get his boat, and so that let me out. I figured perhaps you'd be here anyway, so I came. Think they'll have dinner enough for me, too, or will I have to take you out to a restaurant?" He finished with his well-known grin, and suddenly it did seem only yesterday that he had gone away.

Eden looked up smiling, trying to put a note of cheer into her voice, for surely that was what he, a returned soldier, deserved. He must have seen plenty of hardships and sorrow and horror and was just trying to put it all out of his thoughts, as of course he ought to do if he was to return to living.

"Come in," she said brightly, holding out her hand to greet him. "Of course there'll be enough dinner for you. Did you ever get turned away hungry from this house?"

"No," he responded heartily. "I never did!" And he grasped the hand she held out, possessively. Before she knew what was going on he had drawn her close within his arms and kissed her most thoroughly on either cheek, her eyes, and then her mouth, as if he had all the rights in the world, as if she had been his always. He did not seem to notice that her lips did not respond to his in the kiss. He was the master of the situation and was entirely satisfied with the way he was conducting the scene.

But Eden gasped and struggled back away from him.

"Caspar! Don't! Please don't!" And she turned her head away from his attempted repetition of the kiss.

"Why, what's the matter, beautiful? Aren't you glad to see me? Don't tell me you don't like to be kissed. Every girl likes that. And I have a reputation for being good at it." His possessive hands reached out to draw her close again, but Eden in quick alarm backed off definitely from him and drew herself to her full height."

"I do not like it," she said decidedly.

"But--but baby, don't be
stuffy
! All the girls kiss the army boys, and all the army boys kiss the girls. It's custom, you know. It's a part of patriotism. Why, they all kissed us when we went away, and of course now that we're back, we kiss them and
they like it
."

"Oh," said Eden coldly, retiring from his near vicinity. "Was this supposed to be an army regulation? A sort of mass salute? Well, you see, I'm not like the rest. I do
not
like it. Won't you sit down and be yourself, Caspar? Where have you been, and what have you been doing?"

"Oh, for gosh's sake, Eden, do I have to recite my exploits to you? Wait till next week and hear me over the radio. That'll be enough. And now suppose we talk about you. You certainly haven't wasted any time growing up. I doubt if I would have really known you if I had met you in New York, say. You're quite sophisticated, too. You're not a dowdy little kid the way you used to be. You're
gorgeous
. You really are more than pretty. I never dreamed you'd get to be so good looking. Of course, I missed you a lot when I first went away, but they kept us so darned busy out there I didn't have much time to think about you, and then in between we used to have a lotta fun. The girls everywhere we went had dances for us. I've learned to dance, you know, and I'm pretty swell at it, they tell me. You and I will have to try it the next time I come back. How long do you have to stay cooped up here before you can go out again and get around among 'em? I'd like to take you up to New York and show you around. See life, you know."

Eden smiled distantly. "Thank you, but I've been to New York, you know, quite a good many times," she said. "I used to go up with Father every time he had business up there, and we always had wonderful times together."

"Oh, yes, I suppose you did," said Caspar contemptuously. "Symphony concerts and lectures and stuffy things like that. But I mean see
real life
. I'm crazy to take you to nightclubs and shows."

"Oh," she reminded him with dignity, "nightclubs are not at all my style. I wouldn't care for them."

"Oh, but you don't know. You've never been out and seen real life. You don't know what you're missing. Wait till I get you to a few places I know, you'll be crazy about it. Don't be stuffy, Eden."

"Thank you," said Eden in a really cold voice now. "I do not care for that kind of life, and I do not want to see it. I like
real
things."

"Aw, ye gods! If I ever saw such puritanical notions. Anybody would think you were an old woman in your dotage. Be your age and have a good time. I thought, of course, you'd get over those silly notions when you get away from your puritanical father."

"Well, I haven't, Caspar," she said with flashing eyes. "I'd rather not talk any more about it. I certainly don't think you have improved when you talk like that. You always
used
to be respectful to my father."

"Oh, sure, he was a good guy, and all that. But he's gone now, and it can't hurt to have a little good time."

"That isn't my idea of a good time," said Eden quietly. "Suppose you tell me some of your experiences abroad. What countries were you in? Italy? Oh, you saw the Forum and all those wonderful buildings. I've always been fascinated by Rome. And were you in Switzerland at all? Tell me about it."

"Oh, that!" said the young man contemptuously. "Mountains, of course, and wonderful sunsets and castles and all like that. But I'm not keen on scenery, and I was glad to get back to city life. I enjoyed Paris most."

He rattled off into a description of a few merry gatherings and told some jokes he thought were funny that Eden didn't appreciate. She was glad when Tabor came and announced dinner and they could go out to the table.

Caspar was talking in a lively stream of reminiscence as he drew back Eden's chair for her and then sat down, but Eden waited quietly till he came to the end of a sentence and then she said shyly, "Caspar, you used to ask the blessing when we were children. Will you ask it now?"
Caspar grinned, looked at her as if she were joking, and then grew red.

"No, I don't believe I remember any of those little old prayers," he said. "You get away from all that sort of thing when you go to war, you know."

But Eden did not smile. She quietly bowed her head and said quite simply as she had been taught to do in childhood: "Lord, we thank Thee for this food, and we ask Thy blessing upon us tonight. Amen."

The two servants stood at their places for serving with bowed heads, just as Caspar remembered they did whenever he came over to dinner, only it was usually Mr. Thurston who asked the blessing in recent years. Nevertheless, there was something impressive in the whole little ceremony, something distinctly admirable and quaint in the young girl who had taken her place in life even as she had been trained to do. The annoyed young soldier bowed his head reluctantly. Maybe it wasn't so ridiculous as the world would think it was. It was rather sweet in a way, and Eden was awfully pretty, with all her quaintness. Besides, she must have a mint of money. People with money could get away with oddities. He had never thought of money very much before. But getting back from war and seeing all this quiet elegance made him feel that it wouldn't be bad to have a part in a life like this. He must take care not to antagonize his old friend. And, of course, it would be easy to
train
Eden and get her away from her religious fancies when he had her under his control. He had always been able to influence her, he flattered himself.

Then the excellent dinner was served, further strengthening his faith in money and its powers. Caspar roused himself to be agreeable and fall in with her "prejudices," as he called them.

Janet from her humble position as servant was in and out, bringing dishes and messages to Tabor from the cook; and Caspar chatted on, asking questions about their old school friends, exhibiting a wider knowledge of some of their moves than even were known by Eden, who had lived near them while he was away.

"Cassie Howard got married and then got herself divorced, didn't she?"

"Oh," said Eden thoughtfully, "did she? I didn't know. I never knew Cassie very well, you know."

"Oh, well, you didn't miss much, I guess. You see, her first husband was in my regiment, and he had all kinds of tales to tell me, including some pretty rotten facts about the fellow she married next. You know, he was a bomber and was killed in a crash. Nobody knows what Cassie will do next. She's pretty thick now with a married man. Rich, he is, too, and not much reputation."

"Oh," said Eden with a shiver. "What terrible things are happening!"

"Well," said Caspar with a careless shrug, "that's war for you. When you see people getting killed on every side you think, 'To heck with right living! Tomorrow we die! Why not have a good time while we're at it?' It really has that effect on you a lot."

Eden gave him a troubled searching look.

"I know people it has not affected in that way," she said shyly.

"Then they were softies, I'll bet!" said the young soldier.

"No," said Eden, "they weren't softies. One was a man with all kinds of wonderful citations to his credit. Another had completed a long list of missions and wore a silver star and a medal for special bravery. He told me himself that the whole thing gave him a different view of life, and he felt life was more serious than he had ever thought."

Caspar's lips went up in a sneer, and for a moment he forgot that he had planned to agree with her.

"Not
me
!" he said, shaking his head. "You'll find all that talk some of those would-be heroes give you is just a line they see is popular with some of their home folks, so they are working it for all they are worth. I say they are softies when they talk that way. I say live like a sport and die like a hero. That's all there is to it."

Eden looked at him aghast.

"Why, Caspar! You talk like an unbeliever. Didn't you join the church when I did? You believe in God and Christian standards, don't you?"

"Oh, yes, I joined church. But it's all a lot of poppycock. Kid stuff, you know. Nobody believes that line today. We've wised up. Science has taught us a lot. We've worked out a better line of behavior today, more fitted to the times. We've left the days of self-sacrifice behind and have come to the time when it's every man for himself, and the best man wins the race. How else would you think they would have got us fellows to go out and fight if it hadn't been for that? I tell you times have changed, Edie, and you'd better get wise to it, or you'll be good and left behind. It's time for you to get busy and have some fun before you get old. You've got a good complexion and a pretty face, and if you'll just drop your traditions, put on some makeup, and get into things, we could team up and have a great life. How about it, girl? I'm for it if you are!"

He had almost finished his dessert now and was about to ask if he might have another piece of pie, as he would have done in the days that were gone. But Eden was not eating hers. She had scarcely taken a bite. She was watching her former playmate in consternation. And as he finished his extraordinary proposal she stiffened in a kind of fury.

"Stop!" she said. "Don't speak another word like that. If you feel that way, you are no friend of mine. You are despising all our beliefs of the past. You are trampling on God! I am ashamed of you. God who has brought you through the war unscathed."

"Not on yer life, He didn't," said Caspar with a sneer. "I brought myself through. What did God have to do with it? If I hadn't been courageous and gone out to kill and not to be killed, if I hadn't studied out ways to find easy street when I was sent on a mission, and let the other fellow take the raps, do you think I'd have been here today? How about all those others that got
killed
? What did God do for them?"

"
Stop!
" said Eden, rising excitedly. "You shall not talk that way about God in this house. If my father were here, he would put you out for that, and I will not hear another word. Go away! I don't want ever to see you again, not unless you find out how terrible you are and go to God and apologize. Get down on your knees and tell God you are ashamed and sorry. I don't see how I can ever forget what you have said, or count you as my friend. I think you are
awful
!"

Eden was very beautiful as she stood there in her righteous anger and flashed her lovely eyes at her former friend. And Caspar was suddenly realizing what a fool he had been to let her see what he felt so early in the game. He rose with a wistful look toward his empty pie plate and realized that he must placate this angry girl, or his plans for the evening would be all upset. So he put on a wheedling tone, the tone by which he always used to be able to coax her to do anything for him.