The Beloved Stranger (15 page)

The big tears rolled out now, and down her round cheek, and Lutie caught a corner of her apron and brushed them hastily away.

“Excuse me, Miss Sherrill,” she said huskily. “It just sometimes gets me—”

“You poor dear child!” said Sherrill, putting down her hairbrush and coming over toward her. “Why, you poor kid, you! I never dreamed you could have all that to bear! And
yet
you could sing a song like that!” She regarded the girl earnestly. “You certainly are brave! But Lutie, you know a boyfriend that would do a thing like that isn’t worth crying after.” Sherrill said it and suddenly knew she was speaking out of her own experience.

“I know it!” gulped Lutie. “I know he ain’t, but sometimes it all just comes over me. You see, I was right fond of him.”

Then she flashed a smile like a rainbow through her tears and brightened.

“But I don’t feel like that much now since I got Jesus in my heart like the song says. He really drives the sorrow away, and I’m mostly glad just to let Him have His way with me. If it wasn’t fer Him, I couldn’t stand it. He really does take the sorrow away, you know. I guess you likely know that yourself, Miss Sherrill, don’t you? But you see, I haven’t known Jesus so long, so I just have to talk about Him and sing about Him most all the time to keep myself reminded what a wonderful Savior I’ve got.”

Sherrill turned a searching, hungry look upon the little serving maid.

“Where did you get all that, Lutie?”

“Down at our Bible class, Miss Sherrill. I been going there about a year now. We got a wonderful teacher down there. We study the Bible, and it’s just wonderful what he makes us see in it. I just wish you’d come down sometime and visit, Miss Sherrill, and see what it’s like.”

“Maybe I will—sometime,” said Sherrill slowly, still studying the girl as if there were some strange mystery about her.

“It ain’t a very grand place,” said Lutie apologetically. “Maybe you might not like it. It’s just a plain board floor, and the walls are cracked and the seats are hard. It ain’t like your church. The windows are painted white because they look into an alley. Maybe you wouldn’t think it was good enough for you. But I’d like you to come once and see. The singing’s just heavenly, and the teacher’s grand! Everybody loves it so, they just can’t bear to go home.”

“Why, I wouldn’t mind things like that!” said Sherrill earnestly. “Indeed I wouldn’t. I’ll come sometime; I really will. I’d like to see what it’s like. When do you meet?”

“Monday evenings!” said Lutie with dancing eyes. “Oh, Miss Sherrill, if you’d come I’d be that proud!”

“Why, of course I’ll come!” said Sherrill heartily, relieved that she could do anything to make Lutie’s eyes shine like that, half curious, too, to see what it was that had made this simple girl happy in the face of such terrible troubles.

Sherrill carried the memory of the girl’s face with her as she went back to her room to finish her dressing. What a light had come into her eyes when she said what a wonderful Savior she had! Savior! Savior from what? Her sorrow? Her fear? Her sin? Lutie couldn’t be such a great sinner. It was probably just a lot of phrases she had picked up in some evangelistic meeting, poor thing, but if she thought she was comforted by it, there must be some good in it. Anyway, Sherrill decided she would go and find out. If there was any cure for sorrow, surely she herself needed it. And she drew a heavy sigh and went downstairs to face the morning after her own wedding day without a bridegroom.

She tried as she walked down the broad front stairs to forget how that other bride had looked, smiling and proud, holding her head high. And how Carter had looked, haughty, handsome, carrying it all off just as if it had been planned that way.

Carter! What had he thought? How had he taken it? Strange that he had not shown a sign, nor spoken a word to her. Did she fancy it, or had there been a furtive look of fear in his eyes? Anyhow, it was plain enough that he had avoided looking straight at her. Not once had he looked her in the eyes. Not once attempted to draw her aside and speak to her. She did not know from his looks whether he was very angry or only relieved to have had things work out this way.

Her heart was very heavy as she thought of this. It seemed to blot out the happy days of the past, to make Carter into an utter stranger. Yet of course it was better so. That was what she wanted; only somehow the awfulness of his attitude overcame her anew as she came down to the setting of the last act of that tragedy that had ended her high hopes. How was she going to bear the future?

And then, suddenly, just at the foot of the stairs she remembered the emeralds! The emeralds and the stranger! And down upon her like some gigantic bird of prey swept her fear of the night before!

Chapter 10

M
iss Catherwood was already at the breakfast table looking as fresh and chipper as if she had gone to bed at nine o’clock the night before. She was opening her mail, and there was a smile of satisfaction on her face. She gave Sherrill a keen look as she came into the room.

“Well, I’m glad to see you’re still a good sport!” she said with her funny twisted grin. “But you didn’t sleep very well, did you? There are dark circles under your eyes. Sit down and eat a good breakfast. Oh, I know you think you don’t want a thing but a cup of coffee, but that’s not the way to act. You’ve got a few hard days before you, and you’ve got to keep your looks through them or people will say you are mourning after that sap-head, and you don’t want that. Come, set to work. We’ve got to get at sending back those presents. You’ll feel better when they are out of the house.”

Sherrill gave a little moan and dropped her face into her hands.

“Oh!” she groaned. “How impossible it all seems! But if I could only find the necklace, I wouldn’t mind any of the rest!”

Aunt Pat flung a wise glance at Sherrill’s bowed head.

“That’ll turn up all right,” she said. “Come, child, perk up. I’ve been wondering. Can you think back and be sure when you last had it?”

Sherrill shook her head.

“No. I’ve been trying, but I can’t be sure. If I only could, it would take a big load from my mind.”

“Well,
I
can!” said Aunt Pat. “You had the necklace on when you sat in the dining room eating your supper after you came in from outside. I know, for I sat and watched the lights in those stones, and I remember thinking how well they became you, and how they brought out the color in your cheeks and the gold in your hair.”

Sherrill’s head came up suddenly with a light of hope in her eyes and a soft flush on her cheeks.

“Are you
sure
you saw them on me at the table, Aunt Pat? Perfectly sure?”

“Perfectly sure,” said Aunt Pat steadily, studying the girl quietly.

“Well, that’s something!” said Sherrill with a sigh of relief. “At least I didn’t lose it—in the garden!”

“No, you didn’t lose it in the garden,” said Aunt Pat with a wicked little grin. “Now don’t think anything more about it. Let’s get at those presents. First you sit down and work out a little model note sweet and gracious that will fit all the presents and not tell a thing you don’t want known.”

Sherrill presently brought it to her aunt for her approval.

My dear—

The sudden change in our plans for the wedding has left me in an embarrassing situation, having in my possession a lot of lovely gifts that do not by right belong either to me or to Mrs. McArthur. I am therefore of course returning all the gifts and apologizing for having been the unintentional cause of so much trouble to the donors.

But I do want to add just a little word of my appreciation for your beautiful gift, and to thank you for your delightful intention for my pleasure. It is so wonderful to see such gracious evidence of friendship.

Very sincerely,
Sherrill Cameron

“I think that is quite a nice bit of English!” said Aunt Pat with satisfaction when she had read it. “It says all that needs to be said and tells nothing. It ought to be published. It would be so helpful to other girls caught in like predicaments.”

Sherrill broke into hysterical laughter.

“Oh, Aunt Pat! You’re a scream! As if there were ever another girl caught in such a predicament!” she said.

“I don’t know,” said the old lady dryly. “You can’t tell how many girls have had a situation like yours; only most of them likely didn’t have the nerve to handle it the way you did yours. There must have been some girls who were too great cowards to back down from a church full of wedding guests, and the wedding march just on the tiptoe to begin. They probably paid afterward, and paid double, too. Surely, Sherrill, you aren’t the only one who ever found at the last minute that her lover was made of coarse clay. Don’t ever fancy, no matter how hard a thing you have to go through, that your experience is unique. This old world has been going on a good many hundred years, and there are precious few situations that haven’t happened over and over again. Cheer up, child; that’s a model letter, and you’re a good little sport!”

Miss Catherwood handled the return of the presents in a masterly manner. Her secretary and Sherrill wrote the notes while Gemmie and the butler under her supervision repacked the gifts. It was amazing how quickly the things were marshaled from the tables into their neat original packages, each with its dainty note attached. Sherrill grew so interested in seeing how much she could accomplish that she almost forgot her anxiety about the emeralds.

It comforted her greatly that the necklace had not been lost while she was out with Copeland. But later in the day something occurred which brought back her uneasiness and that nameless fear again. Oh, to know certainly, who if anyone was connected with the disappearance of the jewels!

It was late in the afternoon and Miss Catherwood had just said they had done enough for today and must stop and rest. Just then the hall door opened timidly and Lutie showed a deprecating face.

“Please, Miss Catherwood, might I come in and speak to you a moment?” she asked shyly.

“Why, of course, Lutie. Come right in,” said the old maid cheerily. “What is it?”

“Why, Miss Catherwood, I found something,” she said earnestly, holding her two hands cupped, the one in the other. “Maybe it isn’t much account, but it looked to me as if it might be something real. It’s only a little thing, and I thought if I gave it to any of the other servants they might laugh, but I knew you would know whether it was valuable or not.”

Lutie dropped a delicate bit of brightness into the old lady’s hand and stood back waiting shyly.

Aunt Pat held the bit of jewelry in her delicate old hand for an instant and examined it carefully. Then she looked up at the girl.

“Where did you find this, Lutie, and when?”

“Just now, ma’am, in the little back room off the servants’ hall. It was on the floor just under the edge of the little writing table, and I almost swept it up, but then I saw it glittering, and it first looked like a bit of Christmas-tree tinsel, but when I looked closer it seemed like something real.”

“Hmm!” said Aunt Pat significantly and, looking up at Sherrill, added: “It’s from the emerald necklace, Sherry, a whole inch of chain and part of the clasp!”

Sherrill gave a startled exclamation, and the old lady turned to Lutie again.

“Thank you, Lutie, for bringing it straight to me. Did you speak to any of the other servants about it?”

“No,” said Lutie. “I was afraid they’d laugh at me. They tell me I’m fussy about little things.”

“Well, that’s a good trait sometimes,” said the old lady. “I’m glad you brought it straight to me. Yes, it’s valuable. It’s part of something we had lost. You might keep your eye out while you’re cleaning to see if you find any more of it. Now, suppose you come and show us just where you found this.” They followed Lutie to the little room in the servants’ hall.

“Thank you, Lutie,” said Miss Catherwood when she had showed them the exact spot. “I shan’t forget this!”

“Oh, that’s all right, ma’am. I’m glad you weren’t angry at my bothering you.”

Lutie withdrew with a shy flame blazing in her cheeks.

Aunt Pat turned to Sherrill, who was searching the room over, vainly hoping to find more of the necklace.

“Now, Sherrill,” said Aunt Pat, “tell me just who was in this room and where each one stood. What were they here for, anyway, in this back room?”

“They came to get the license fixed up with the right names,” said Sherrill, half shivering at the memory. “We sent for the clerk and he sat right there in that chair all the time he was here.”

“And where did you stand?”

“Most of the time over there by the door. Once I stepped over to the table while I was explaining to him that I had changed my mind about marrying Carter.”

The old lady gave her a swift look.

“Where was Carter at the time?”

“He stood just back of me.”

“Hmm! How did he look when you explained that you had changed your mind about marrying him?”

“I didn’t look at him. I was trying to keep my voice from trembling.”

“Did he say anything or make any motion that seemed like a protest?”

“He cleared his throat in a nervous kind of way. I had a fancy that he was afraid I was going to tell more than I did. He stirred uneasily.”

“And didn’t he speak at all?”

“Only to answer the questions that were put to him by the clerk. Of course Mr. Copeland had explained the situation to the clerk in a general way, and the questions that were put were mere form. He just assented to everything. Mr. Copeland had really made it very easy for us all.”

“Hmm!” said Aunt Pat thoughtfully and then reverted to the bridegroom.