Part 24 (1/2)

”Oh, everybody knows that I belong to Nolan when the time comes,” said Eveley, laughing.

Nolan, urgently warned by Eveley, met Marie with friendly ease and asked no questions. He took her hand cordially and said in his pleasant voice.

”Well, if you are Eveley's sister, I have a half-way claim upon you myself, and you must count me in.” And then he promptly began mas.h.i.+ng potatoes for their dinner, and Marie did not mind him at all.

When Amos Hiltze came to the Cloud Cote she joined serenely with them, very easy and comfortable, always careful to go to her room before he left, that he might have a little while alone with Eveley. For she saw plainly that while he interested Eveley only in his enthusiasm for Americanization, for him Eveley had a deeper and sweeter charm.

One Sat.u.r.day afternoon when Nolan was busy, the two girls went out for a picnic on the beach, a well-filled basket in the car for their dinner. On a sudden impulse, Eveley turned to Marie and cried:

”Oh, little sister, how would you like to learn to drive? Then you can take me to the office and have the car yourself to play with while I am busy.”

”Eveley,” came the ecstatic gasp, ”would you--let me?”

”Would I let you?” laughed Eveley. ”Should you like it? Why, you have been wanting to, haven't you? Why didn't you ask me, Marie?”

”Oh, I couldn't.”

”Yes, you should have,” said Eveley gravely. ”I would have told you honestly if I did not wish it. I said you must feel free to ask me for anything, didn't I. And don't I always mean what I say--to you, at least?”

”Does your love for Americanization carry you so far?” asked Marie curiously.

Eveley was silent a moment. ”I can not exactly count you Americanization,”

she said honestly. ”I do not believe Americanizing you could add anything to your sweetness, anyhow. You are just fun, and--You may not believe it, Marie,” she added rather shyly, for she was not a demonstrative girl, ”but I--really I love you.”

Quick tears leaped to Marie's dark eyes, and she placed her head softly against Eveley's shoulder, though she did not speak. Almost instantly Eveley brushed away the wave of sentiment and gave her quick bright laugh.

”Now listen, sweetness,” she said. ”It is like this. This is the clutch that controls the gears. When it wabbles like this it is in neutral and the car will not run. When you shove down with your left foot, and pull the clutch to the left and backward, it is in low gear, and the car will go forward when you let your foot back. You must do it very slowly, so there will be no pull nor jerk. Like this.”

So the afternoon wore away, the two girls laughing gaily as Marie made her first bungling attempts to drive; but later, Marie was aglow with exultation and Eveley with deep pride, because the little foreigner showed real apt.i.tude for handling the car.

Then in a lovely quiet part of the beach a little beyond La Jolla, they had an early supper and drove home, Eveley at the wheel, singing love songs, Marie humming softly with her.

”This is almost like sweethearting, isn't it?” asked Eveley turning to look into the dark eyes fixed adoringly upon her. ”Next to Nolan you satisfy me more than anything else in the world. But don't tell Nolan. He is jealous of you,--he thinks I like you better than I do him.”

”You say you love me, Eveley. But do you? Is it the kind of love that can understand and sympathize and forgive--yes, and keep on loving even when--things are wrong?”

”Nothing could change my feeling for you, Marie,” said Eveley positively.

”But if things were wrong?” came the insistent query.

”Well, I am no angel myself,” answered Eveley, laughing again. ”If you are a naughty girl, I shall say, 'I will forgive you if you will forgive me,' and there you are.” She stopped again, to laugh. ”But I can't think of any wrong you could do, Marie. You just naturally do not a.s.sociate with wrong things.”

”And you will always remember, won't you, what you have said about love of one's country? That it excuses and glorifies everything in the world?”

But Eveley was singing again.

Eveley had made an arrangement to call for Nolan at the office at eight, as they were going to Kitty's for a late supper with her and Arnold Bender, so she kissed Marie good night when they reached home, and said:

”Will you be lonesome without your big sister, and boss?”

”I think I shall go down and watch the dark shadows in your beautiful canyon,” said Marie, clinging to Eveley's hand, and looking deeply into her eyes.