Part 21 (1/2)
”Have you found out too?” she asked softly. She looked up into his eyes with wistful longing. She wanted this thing so very much. It had been in her prayers for so long.
He could not withdraw his own glance. He did not wish to. He longed to be able to answer what she wished.
”A little, perhaps,” he said doubtfully. ”Not so much as I would like to.
Will you help me?”
”_He_ will help you. You will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart,” she said earnestly. ”It says so in His book.”
Then came more music, wistful, searching, tender. Did it speak of the things of heaven to other souls there than those two?
He stooped down, and said in a low tone that somehow seemed to blend with the music like the words that fitted it,
”I will try with all my heart if you will help me.”
She smiled her answer, br.i.m.m.i.n.g back with deep delight.
Into the final lingering notes of an andante from one of Beethoven's sublime symphonies clashed the loud voice of Lizzie:
”O Bess! Bess! B-es-see! I say, Bessie! Ma says we'll have to go over by the cars now if we want to get a seat. The concert's most out, and there'll be a fierce rush. Come on! And grandma says, bring your friend along with you if you want.” This last with a smirking recognition of the man, who had turned around wonderingly to see who was speaking.
With a quick, searching glance that took in bedraggled organdie, rose hat, and pink parasol, and set them aside for what they were worth, George Benedict observed and cla.s.sified Lizzie.
”Will you excuse yourself, and let me take you home a little later?” he asked in a low tone. ”The crowd will be very great, and I have my automobile here.”
She looked at him gratefully, and a.s.sented. She had much to tell him. She leaned across the seats, and spoke in a clear tone to her cousin.
”I will come a little later,” she said, smiling with her Rittenhouse Square look that always made Lizzie a little afraid of her. ”Tell grandmother I have found an old friend I have not seen for a long time. I will be there almost as soon as you are.”
They waited while Lizzie explained, and the grandmother and aunt nodded a reluctant a.s.sent. Aunt Nan frowned. Elizabeth might have brought her friend along, and introduced him to Lizzie. Did Elizabeth think Lizzie wasn't good enough to be introduced?
He wrapped her in a great soft rug that was in the automobile, and tucked her in beside him; and she felt as if the long, hard days that had pa.s.sed since they had met were all forgotten and obliterated in this night of delight. Not all the attentions of all the fine men she had met in society had ever been like his, so gentle, so perfect. She had forgotten the lady as completely as if she had never heard of her. She wanted now to tell her friend about her heavenly Friend.
He let her talk, and watched her glowing, earnest face by the dim light of the sky; for the moon had come out to crown the night with beauty, and the unnatural brilliance of electric blaze, with all the glitter and noise of Willow Grove, died into the dim, sweet night as those two sped onward toward the city. The heart of the man kept singing, singing, singing: ”I have found her at last! She is safe!”
”I have prayed for you always,” he said in one of the pauses. It was just as they were coming into Flora Street. The urchins were all out on the sidewalk yet, for the night was hot; and they gathered about, and ran hooting after the car as it slowed up at the door. ”I am sure He did hide you safely, and I shall thank Him for answering my prayer. And now I am coming to see you. May I come to-morrow?”
There was a great gladness in her eyes. ”Yes,” she said.
The Bradys had arrived from the corner trolley, and were hovering about the door self-a.s.sertively. It was most apparent to an onlooker that this was a good opportunity for an introduction, but the two young people were entirely oblivious. The man touched his hat gravely, a look of great admiration in his eyes, and said, ”Good night” like a benediction. Then the girl turned and went into the plain little home and to her belligerent relatives with a light in her eyes and a joy in her steps that had not been there earlier in the day. The dreams that visited her hard pillow that night were heavenly and sweet.
CHAPTER XVI
ALONE AGAIN
”Now we're goin' to see ef the paper says anythin' about our Bessie,” said Grandmother Brady the next morning, settling her spectacles over her nose comfortably and crossing one fat gingham knee over the other. ”I always read the society notes, Bess.”
Elizabeth smiled, and her grandmother read down, the column:
”Mr. George Trescott Benedict and his mother, Mrs. Vincent Benedict, have arrived home after an extended tower of Europe,” read Mrs. Brady. ”Mrs.