A Morning Drive
: Jewel"I declare, Eloise," said Mrs. Evringham the next morning, "it is almost
worth three whole days of storm to have a spell of such heavenly weather
to follow. We're sure of several days like this now," She was standing
at the open window, having shown a surprising energy in rising soon
after breakfast.
She glanced over her shoulder at her daughter, who was picking up the
garments strewn about the room. "Now
and get yourself toned up again. Really, last evening things were very
comfortable, weren't they?"
"Yes. I thought the lump had begun to be leavened," returned the girl.
"Talk English, please," said her mother vivaciously. "Father seemed
quite human, and that is all we have ever needed to make things
tolerable here. I suppose we reaped the benefit of his relief about the
horse."
"It's all Jewel," said Eloise, smiling. "That's English, isn't it?"
"Jewel!" Mrs. Evringham exclaimed. "Why, you're all daffy about that
child. What is the attraction?"
"That's what I'm trying to find out. It's time for me to go up now and
braid her hair and read the lesson."
Mrs. Evringham regarded her daughter. "Young people are eager for
novelty, I know," she said, "and it would seem as if an interest in a
child was an innocent diversion for you at a time when you were growing
morbid, but I do think I'm the most unlucky woman in the world! To think
that the child should have to be a Christian Scientist, and that you
should take this perverse interest in her ideas just now. I haven't
spoken of your remarks about the horse last night, but it was in poor
taste, to say the least, to mention such nonsense before Dr. Ballard,
and apparently do it so seriously. I knew you had been helping Jewel
with lessons, but until last evening I didn't suspect that it might all
be on that odious subject. Is it, Eloise?"
"Yes, but it isn't odious. I like the fruit of it in her."
"You've never shown Dr. Ballard your most agreeable side, and now if
you're going to parade before him, an Episcopalian and a physician, an
interest in this--anarchism, I shan't blame him in the smallest degree
if he gives up all thought of you."
Eloise, the undemonstrative, put an arm around her mother. "Shan't you,
really?" she replied wistfully. "If I could only hope that."
"Do you want to give me nervous prostration?" rejoined Mrs. Evringham
sharply. "Eloise," her voice suddenly breaking, "do you love to torment
me?"
"Indeed I don't, poor mother, but I've been so tormented myself, and so
desirous not to--oh, not to do anything ignoble! I can't tell you all
I've endured since--" She paused, her lips unsteady.
"Since we lost your father," dismally. "Yes, I know it. I'm the most
unlucky woman in the world!"
Eloise's arm tightened about her mother as she went on, "Since I was
enchanted and thrown into Castle Discord." She looked off at the mental
picture of her cousin. "Mother," she turned back suddenly, "what a
wonderful thing it is if there really is a God."
"Why, Eloise Evringham, have you ever doubted it! That's positively
ill-bred!"
"But One that would be any good to us! Jewel's mother thinks she knows
such a One, and so does the child. I wish you'd look into this Christian
Science with me. You might find it better than getting grandfather to
pay our bills, better than marrying me to Dr. Ballard."
Mrs. Evringham raised her eyes to her deity. "What have I ever done,"
she ejaculated, "that I should have a queer child! Well, I will not
look into it," she returned decidedly; "and if Dr. Ballard were not the
broad, noble type of man that he is, he wouldn't take the trouble to
notice and entertain a child who has treated him as she has. It might
touch even you to see the lengths to which he goes to please you. I hope
you will at least have the grace to go down with Jewel to the buggy and
see them off."
"I couldn't in this wrapper," replied Eloise, releasing the speaker.
"Of course not, so put on a dress before you go up to Jewel."
"It's too late, dear. He'll be here by half-past ten. I must have her
ready."
Mrs. Evringham looked after her daughter's retreating figure, and then
her lips came together firmly. She untied the ribbons of the loose gown
of lace and silk, in which she had keyed herself up by degrees to face
the requirements of luncheon and the afternoon's diversions, and donned
a conventional dress, in which she composed herself by the window to
watch for the doctor's buggy. There was a vista in the park avenue which
afforded a fair look at equipages three minutes before they could reach
Mr. Evringham's gateway.
From the moment the doctor's office hour was over this stanch supporter
set herself to watch that gap. As soon as she saw Hector's dappled coat
and easy stride she sprang up and went downstairs, and when the shining
buggy paused at the steps and Dr. Ballard jumped out, she appeared on
the piazza to greet him.
"What an inspiring morning!" she said, as he removed his hat. "That
insane girl!" she thought. "If he had chanced to be awkward and plain,
he would have been just as important to us. His good looks are thrown
in, and yet she won't behave herself."
"Glorious indeed!" he replied heartily. "Where's my young lady?"
Mrs. Evringham had plenty of worldly experience, and not even her
enemies called her stupid, but at this moment there was but one young
lady in the world to her, as she believed there was to him.
"She is upstairs braiding Jewel's hair," she replied before she realized
her own insanity. Then she hastened on, coloring under the odd look in
his eyes, "But you mean Jewel, of course. She will be down at once, I'm
sure. It's so kind of you to take her."
"Not at all. She's an original worth cultivating."
Mrs. Evringham shrugged her shoulders. "I suppose she must be, since you
all say so. Eloise gives up a surprising amount of time to her, but I
can't judge much from that, because Eloise is so unselfish. For my part,
the child's ideas are so strange, and my little girl is still so young
and impressionable, I object to having them much together. It may seem
very absurd, when Jewel is so young."
"No; I saw last evening how interested Miss Eloise already is."
"Oh," hastily, "she pretends to be, and I assure you I object. Eloise
has a good mind, and I hope you will offer a little antidote now
and then to the stuff she has begun to read. A word to the wise, Dr.
Ballard. I need say no more."
It was true. Mrs. Evringham had no need to say more. Her ideas, and
especially those which related to himself, had always been inscribed in
large characters and words of one syllable for her present companion,
who was a young man of considerable perception and discrimination.
He had not time to reply before Jewel, radiant of face, appeared in the
doorway, where she hesitated, her doll in her arms.
"I brought Anna Belle," she said doubtfully, "but I can leave her under
the stairs if there isn't room."
"Anna Belle under the stairs on a morning like this! And in such a
toilet? Talk about error!" The doctor's tone was tragic as he lifted the
happy child into the buggy.
Mrs. Evringham nodded a reply to their smiling farewells as Hector
sprang forward, and she looked after them in some perplexity.
"Why should he take the trouble?" she reflected. "It would have been
such a splendid morning for them to have gone riding if he had this
leisure. Of course it must have been just one of his indirect and lovely
ways of trying to please Eloise."
Just as she was solacing herself with the latter reflection, her
daughter stepped out on the piazza, a little black book in her hand.
"Warm enough to sit out, isn't it?" she remarked.
Her mother looked at her critically. She had not seen this care-free
look on her child's face since Lawrence died.
"Why didn't you come out a little sooner?"
"I wasn't presentable. How delicious the air is!"
"Yes. Let us sit here and finish that novel."
"All right."
"What have you there?"
"Mrs. Eddy's book,--'Science and Health.'"
Mrs. Evringham made a grimace. "I read part of it once. That was enough
for me. Think of the price they charge for it, too. Think of pretending
it is such a good thing for everybody to have, and then putting a price
on it that prohibits the average pocketbook." Eloise's smile annoyed her
mother. "Weren't you with me the day Nat Bonnell's mother said so much
about it?"
"How foolish she was not to try it," said Eloise. "Such a hopeless,
monotonous invalid."
"Well, some of her friends worked hard enough to induce her to, but when
she found out the mercenary side of it, she saw at once that it couldn't
be trustworthy."
"I suppose even Christian Scientists must have a roof and food and
clothes," returned Eloise coolly; "but I've thought a good deal the last
few days about the criticisms I've heard on the price of the book. The
fuss over that three dollars is certainly very funny, when the
average pocketbook goes to the theatre sometimes, has flowers for its
entertainments, and rejoices to find lace reduced from a dollar and a
quarter to ninety-five cents a yard for its gowns. It eagerly hoards and
spends three dollars for some passing pleasure or effect, but winces and
ponders over paying the same sum for a book that will last a lifetime,
and which, if it is worth anything, furnishes the key to every problem
in life."
"But why isn't it as cheap as the Bible if it is so beneficial?"
"It will be, probably, when it is generally respected. For the present
it wouldn't be wise to cast it about like pearls before swine." Eloise
smiled at herself. "You see I'm talking as if I knew it all. My wisdom
comes partially from what I have extracted from Jewel, and partly from
what is obvious. I haven't reached the place yet where I am convinced,
but this book is wonderfully interesting. It came to me in the darkest
hour I have ever known, and it has--it has seemed to feed me when I was
starving. I don't know how else to put it. I can't think of anything
else. Mother, why haven't we a Bible? I was ashamed when Jewel asked
me."
Mrs. Evringham, astonished and dismayed by her daughter's earnestness,
drew herself up. "We have a Bible, certainly. What an idea!"
"Where is it?" eagerly.
"In the storage warehouse with the other books."
Eloise's laugh nettled her mother.
"The prayer books are upstairs on my table. What more do you want if you
are going to take an interest in such things? I wish you would, dear,
and embroider an altar cloth while you are here. I'm sure father would
gladly contribute the materials and feel a pride in it."
"Oh mother," Eloise still smiled, "you know he never goes to church."
"But he contributes largely."
"Well, I haven't time to embroider altar cloths. Shall I get the story?"
"Yes, do. We'll go around the corner, out of the wind."
Meanwhile Dr. Ballard's buggy was covering the ground rapidly. Through
the avenues of the park sped Hector, and joy! Dr. Ballard allowed Jewel
to drive as long as they remained within its precincts. Slipping his
hand through the reins above where she grasped them, he held Anna Belle
on his knee. Jewel had not suspected the size of the park. One could
almost see the watered leaves increase in the sunshine, and the birds
were swelling their little throats to the utmost. The roses in her
cheeks deepened in her happy excitement. She allowed the doctor to do
most of the talking, while she kept her eyes on the horse's ears. Just
once she ventured to turn enough to glance at him.
"I've had dreams of driving horses," she said.
"Is this the first time you've done it waking?"
"No, the second. Father took me once in Washington Park just before
he came away, but the horse didn't pull like this." She smiled
seraphically.
"So, boy, steady," said the doctor soothingly, and Hector obeyed the
voice.
"Did you play in the Ravine of Happiness when you were a little boy?"
"Where's that?"
"Where the brook is."
"Oh yes. Are you planning to take me to that brook and wet my feet,
Jewel?"
"We've gone long past it. Don't you know?"
"I think my education has been neglected. I don't remember it."
"We can go," returned Jewel suggestively.
"Very well, we will; but first I have a couple of visits I must make."
The horse was now trotting toward the park gate. As they reached it Dr.
Ballard returned Anna Belle and took the lines.
Jewel gave an unconscious sigh of rapture. "Trolleys and so on, you
know," explained Dr. Ballard. "When you come back ten years from now you
shall drive outside too. How was Essex Maid this morning?"
"She was all right, but grandpa took only a short ride. I guess he was a
little--bit--afraid."
"She's the apple of his eye, or he wouldn't have been so nervous over a
trifle last evening," remarked the doctor.
"Well, she made a great fuss," replied Jewel. "She fell down in her
stall, and everything like that."
"Did she really?"
"Yes. Zeke said his knees were shaking."
"But she was all right by the time Dr. Busby arrived?"
"Yes."
Dr. Ballard looked at his small companion, a quizzical smile curving his
mustache.
"I've never thought of taking a partner, Jewel, but I might consider
a mascot. What do you say to sharing my office and being my mascot?
Special high chair for Anna Belle, be it well understood."
The little girl eyed him, her head on one side. It was her experience
that all men were jokers. "I don't know what a mascot is," she replied.
"It's something or somebody that brings one good luck."
"Do you think I could bring you good luck?"
"It looks that way. Of course there are certain rules you would have to
observe. It wouldn't do for you to talk against materia medica to the
patients in the anteroom."
"What is an anteroom?"
"The place where my patients wait until I can see them in my office."
Jewel lifted her shoulders and smiled. "I might read them 'Science and
Health' while they waited, and then they wouldn't have to go in."
Dr. Ballard's laugh rang heartily along the leafy street. "Is that your
idea of mascoting a poor young physician?" he inquired.
Jewel laughed in sympathy. She didn't quite understand him, but she knew
that they were having a very good time.
Pretty soon her companion drove in at the gate of an imposing old
residence, set back from the street where the trolley ran with an air of
withdrawing from the intrusion of these modern tracks.
"I thought it wouldn't injure your conscience to wait for me while I
made a couple of professional visits, Jewel, eh?" he asked, as he jumped
out and fastened Hector to the ring in the hand of a bronze boy. "I
won't be any longer than I can help, and don't you go to hoodooing me,
now, while I'm upstairs." The doctor returned to the buggy and took the
black case, frowning warningly at the child. "I have troubles enough
here without that. This old lady used to trot me on her knee, and she
wants to spend half an hour every morning proving that doctors don't
know anything before she'll let me get to business."
"It must be hard for doctors," returned Jewel, "going to sorry people
all the time, and nothing to give them except something on their
tongues."
Dr. Ballard gave his small companion a quick glance. If he secretly
considered her beliefs as too richly absurd to excite aught but
amusement, she evidently as honestly compassionated the poverty of ideas
in his learned profession.
"Well, I'll hurry," he said, and vanished within the house. Time would
not have dragged for Jewel had he stayed all the morning. To sit in the
shining buggy in close proximity to the dappled gray Hector, and with
Anna Belle for a sympathizer, caused the minutes to be winged.
When the doctor returned, a radiant face welcomed him.
"I thought I should never get away," he sighed, "but you don't look
bored."
He untied the horse, jumped into the buggy, and they were off again,
Hector striding along as if to make up for lost time. "Now only one more
call, Jewel, and then we'll get back out of the dust again," said the
doctor cheerily.
"I haven't noticed any dust, Dr. Ballard. I'm having the most fun!"
"Well now, I'm glad of that. It's a great thing to be eight years old,
Jewel."
"That's what cousin Eloise says. She says she'd like to be."
"Indeed? How is the enchanting--excuse me--I mean the enchanted maiden
this morning?"
"She's well. She ties my bows now, so grandpa doesn't have to."
"Ties your--" The doctor looked at the speaker, mystified.
Jewel put her hand up to the small billows of silk behind her ear. "My
hair bows. They were real hard for grandpa to do."
Dr. Ballard repressed a guffaw, and then turned solemn. "Do you mean to
say that Mr. Evringham tied your hair ribbons?"
"Why yes."
"That settles it, Jewel. You must go into partnership with me and wave
wands and things. Setting Essex Maid on her legs wasn't a patch on
that."
Jewel regarded him questioningly a moment and then repeated, "But it was
real hard for grandpa."
"I can believe it!"
"And cousin Eloise is the kindest girl. She's like grandpa about that.
Her kindness is inside, too."
"Is it indeed? You don't know how much I thank you for telling me where
to look for it."
"Oh, she must be kind to you, Dr. Ballard!"
"Once in a while, once in a while," he replied cautiously, but Jewel
couldn't get a look into his eyes, though she tried, he was so busily
engaged poking an invisible fly from Hector's side with the point of the
whip. "If you'll find a way to make her kind to me all the time, Jewel,
then you will be my mascot indeed."
"All you have to do is to know she is," replied the child earnestly.
"I felt the way you do, at first, but now I've found out just because I
stopped being afraid."
"Ah, that's the recipe, eh? All I've to do is to stop being afraid."
"That's all!" cried Jewel, beaming at his ready comprehension. "You'll
find out there isn't a thing to be afraid of with Cousin Eloise, and
oh, Dr. Ballard," the child smiled at him wistfully, "she's getting
so--so--unenchanted."
"You just waved your wand, I suppose, and said 'Presto change,'"
returned the young man.
He turned Hector down a side street and drew rein under a large elm.
"Here's my rheumatic gentleman," he added, as he jumped from the buggy
and fastened the horse. "He won't keep me waiting while he abuses
doctors, so I shan't be quite so long this time." The speaker seized his
case and went up a garden path to the house, and Jewel, with a luxurious
sigh, set Anna Belle in the place he had vacated.
More
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The next day was the 9th of November. I awoke after a long sleep of twelve hours. Conseil came, according to custom, to know "how I passed the night," and to offer his services. He had left his friend the Canadian sleeping like a man who had neve... A Novel Proposal Of Captain Nemo's
On the 28th of February, when at noon the Nautilus came to the surface of the sea, in 9 deg. 4' N. lat., there was land in sight about eight miles to westward. The first thing I noticed was a range of mountains about two thousand feet high, the sha... A Parley
I TURNED again and went on down towards the sea. I found the hot stream broadened out to a shallow, weedy sand, in which an abundance of crabs and long-bodied, many-legged creatures started from my footfall. I walked to the very edge of the salt ... A Parley At Aldershot
Lord Kitchener had probably never had so bitter an experience as he had when the Auriole began to slow down over the plain of Aldershot. Never could he, or any other British soldier, have dreamt six months ago that the German, Austrian, French and... A Pearl Of Ten Millions
The next morning at four o'clock I was awakened by the steward whom Captain Nemo had placed at my service. I rose hurriedly, dressed, and went into the saloon. Captain Nemo was awaiting me. "M. Aronnax," said he, "are you ready to start?" "... A Pendent World
The Mahars set me free as they had promised, but with strict injunctions never to approach Phutra or any other Mahar city. They also made it perfectly plain that they considered me a dangerous creature, and that having wiped the slate clean in so f... A Place In The Sun
Mayhem, the man of many bodies, had been given some weird assignments in his time, but saving The Glory of the Galaxy wasn't difficult--it was downright impossible! The SOS crackled and hummed through subspace at a speed whic... A Plagiarist Of Dreams
Being unable to sleep, I arose early to get the refreshment of a morning walk. I passed quietly through the next room, where the doctor was still sleeping soundly, out into the courtyard. I was scarcely outside when I heard a familiar, excited bar... A Play To The Death
Clear and sweet a trumpet spoke across The Fields of Jetan. From The High Tower its cool voice floated across the city of Manator and above the babel of human discords rising from the crowded mass that filled the seats of the stadium below. It calle... A Prisoner
We had gone perhaps ten miles when the ground began to rise very rapidly. We were, as I was later to learn, nearing the edge of one of Mars' long-dead seas, in the bottom of which my encounter with the Martians had taken place. In a short time... A Prisoner With Power
As I entered and saluted, Lorquas Ptomel signaled me to advance, and, fixing his great, hideous eyes upon me, addressed me thus: "You have been with us a few days, yet during that time you have by your prowess won a high position among us. Be t... A Prize For Edie
The Committee had, unquestionably, made a mistake. There was no doubt that Edie had achieved the long-sought cancer cure ... but awarding the Nobel Prize was, nonetheless, a mistake ... The letter from America arrived too late... A Prophet Of Evil
Standing at Dom Gillian's side Quinton Edge bent down and whispered a few words in his ear, inaudible even to those who stood nearest. And yet the people knew that woe had fallen upon Doom. Like flame upon flax the voiceless signal leaped from hea... A Question Of Courage
I smelled the trouble the moment I stepped on the lift and took the long ride up the side of the "Lachesis." There was something wrong. I couldn't put my finger on it but five years in the Navy gives a man a feeling for these things. From... A Rainy Morning
The next morning it rained so heavily that Mr. Evringham was obliged to forego his ride. Wet weather was an unmixed ill to him. It not only made riding and golf miserable, but it reminded him that rheumatism was getting a grip on one of his shoulder... A Rapid Recovery
When I returned to the consciousness of existence, I found myself surrounded by a kind of semiobscurity, lying on some thick and soft coverlets. My uncle was watching his eyes fixed intently on my countenance, a grave expression on his face, a tea... A Realized Hope
One afternoon Mr. Evringham did not return from the city at the usual time. Jewel, watching for him, was surprised after a while to see him walking up from the gate. "Why, what's happened?" she asked. "Zeke went for you." "Yes; but he found he ... A Repellent Sight
The cruiser Vanator careened through the tempest. That she had not been dashed to the ground, or twisted by the force of the elements into tangled wreckage, was due entirely to the caprice of Nature. For all the duration of the storm she rode, a hel... A Revelation
To the general population of the colony the arrival of the stranger was a matter of small interest. The Spaniards were naturally too indolent to be affected in any way by an incident that concerned themselves so remotely; while the Russians felt t... A Revised Calendar
All previous hypotheses, then, were now forgotten in the presence of the one great fact that Gallia was a comet and gravitating through remote solar regions. Captain Servadac became aware that the huge disc that had been looming through the clouds... A Risk For Love
"Ey, ey, he is a craven and he called me 'doddering fool'!" The speaker was I-Gos and he addressed a knot of chieftains in one of the chambers of the palace of O-Tar, Jeddak of Manator: "If A-Kor was alive there were a jeddak for us!" "Who says t... A Romance!
IT is a curious story, full of exciting adventures, extraordinary discoveries, and mysteries amazing. Strange, too, that I, Richard Scarsmere, who, when at school hated geography as bitterly as I did algebraic problems, should even now, while j... A Royal Salute
"Then I take your bishop, major," said Colonel Murphy, as he made a move that he had taken since the previous evening to consider. "I was afraid you would," replied Major Oliphant, looking intently at the chess-board. Such was the way in whic... A Russian Comrade
Hermann Heideck lived in a dak bungalow, one of those hotels kept going by the Government, which afford travellers shelter, but neither bed nor food. On returning home from the camp he found his servant, Morar Gopal, standing at the door ready to ... A Salute Of Bullets
THE low booming was, however, not repeated, and by this my companion apparently became reassured, for shortly afterwards he threw himself down near me to snatch a few hours' repose before dawn. I suppose I, too, must have slept for some time, unti... A Scientist Rises
"The face of the giant was indeed that of a god...." On that summer day the sky over New York was unflecked by clouds, and the air hung motionless, the waves of heat undisturbed. The city was a vast oven where even the sounds of the coil...