Beauty for Ashes (21 page)

“I know,” said Murray, “but I believe that if we’re really willing to follow our Master all the way at any cost, that responsibility of working it all out is up to Him. I can’t see how He can do it, but I believe He will!” Murray’s voice rang with confidence.

“Yes, of course He will,” responded Robert instantly.

“How little faith we have after all, trying to think out God’s plans for Him! But out part is to be abiding so closely that we’ll hear His lightest whisper, so that we won’t hinder the working out of His plans. And may I look to you, friend, to check me up if you see me going on in my stubborn self-will? What is fellowship in Christ for if not for that?”

“Yes, but don’t forget it works both ways,” answered Murray earnestly. And so the two young men set out on the way of the cross with bleeding hearts yet full of trust in the love and wisdom of Him who called them to follow Him.

A dozen times that afternoon Gloria went to the window and stared off at the loveliness of the hills, almost hoping to see the big cream-colored car returning. But it was lost in the distance, and it wasn’t half past four yet anyway. Gloria at last convinced herself that there wasn’t a thing she could do about it except to worry, so she sought out a book she had been reading and tried to drown her thoughts in that. But the thoughts ran on in an undertone and distracted her mind, and again she would get up and go to the window.

At last half past four arrived, and no Vanna! She gave up reading entirely and went and plastered herself at the window, her anxious eyes searching up and down the road, her heart in a quiver. What should she say to the boys if Vanna didn’t turn up at five? But of course she would! She had promised, and Vanna always did what she promised. Of course she might have miscalculated the time a little, but she would surely be here by five.

But five o’clock came and no Vanna, and Gloria, distracted beyond measure, went slowly downstairs and out across the road alone. She would come in a minute. She would surely be there very shortly, she told herself, as she opened the MacRae gate and stepped inside. And then Murray came smiling out to meet her and gave her a warm handclasp and a pleasant searching of the eyes.

“Come, let’s sit down here on the porch a minute before the rest come,” he said. “We’ll look up the verses you were asking about last night. Bob just phoned he would be a few minutes late.”

So Gloria, glad to get a few minutes’ reprieve from her worry, feeling sure that Vanna would be there before long, sat absorbed in Murray’s explanation of what was fast becoming a deeply interesting study to her.

Murray opened the little book to the third chapter of John.

“This was it, wasn’t it?” he asked. “ ‘The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the spirit.’ ”

“Yes, I wondered if that was the reason I couldn’t ‘get’ you at first. You were so different from anyone I ever knew.”

Murray smiled tenderly. “Anyone who is born again, born of the spirit,” he said “has a new life, a supernatural life that defies human explanation.”

“I would like to be born again,” said Gloria wistfully, lifting serious eyes to his. “I heard those young people talk about being saved. I wish I could know that I was saved!”

“You may,” he said quickly, a look of surprise and unutterable gladness coming into his eyes. “That’s what I have been praying for since I first knew you. But you know there is only one class of people who can be saved,” he said gently, to test her.

“Oh!” Gloria’s face clouded with disappointment. “I thought the verse said ‘whosoever.’”

Murray’s face held a glory light as she said that. “Our Lord said that He came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance,” he said, watching her keenly.

Gloria turned now and looked Murray full in the face, and suddenly his meaning flashed over her.

“Oh,” she said awesomely, “but
I am
a sinner—a very great sinner!” Her eyes filled with tears. “I never knew it till I met you and heard you talk about
Him!”

Then did Murray, his voice breaking with joy and earnestness, lead his beloved from one precious statement to another in the little book until at last, her own face alight, she said, “I see it now! I
am
born again! ‘He that believeth on Me
hath
everlasting life.’ ”

But the arrival of Robert Carroll cut short their thanksgiving celebration for the time, and still there was no sign of Vanna.

“I can’t understand why she isn’t here,” said Gloria with troubled eyes. “She was so sure she would be back. She didn’t really want to go, but an acquaintance from home drove through to see her and insisted she should go to ride for a little while.”

“Maybe they had tire trouble or something,” suggested Murray. “Suppose you play for us till she gets here. Then we’ll surprise her by being able to sing much better than she expected. She doesn’t really need the practice anyway. We’re the ones who need it. It doesn’t matter to her if she has never seen the music before of course.”

So Gloria sat down at the piano, and the singing went on— lovely music, lovely words, enunciated like a message—but her fingers found the notes automatically and her ears scarcely took in the beautiful melody, so wrought up was her mind. A cold, deadly fear seemed clutching at her thoughts, gripping her by the throat. She must not give way to it, for if she did, she had a superstitious feeling that her fear might come true. She must be calm and not let these two see how troubled she was. Oh, if Vanna would only come!

Every time a car went by on the highway, she turned her worried eyes toward the window, but still Vanna did not come, and at last she had to scurry over to get her supper or she would be late for the evening. Oh, wouldn’t Vanna come before the evening? Surely, surely she would not miss this appointment in which she had seemed to be so deeply interested!

“Don’t you worry,” said Murray as he left her at the Sutherland gate, “something has likely come up that she could not help. Maybe engine trouble—that’s serious off in the hills away from a mechanic or a telephone. If she doesn’t get here, we’ll carry it through all right. It isn’t that we’ll miss her so at the piano, but it will necessarily cut out your violin if you have to accompany us. However, there’ll be other times. And perhaps she’ll come yet. Maybe there is a message from her in the house now. But I won’t stop to see. I promised to do something for Mother before I go out this evening, and I must be getting back to it.”

But there was no message in the house from Vanna, and Gloria’s heart went down, down, her fears in a wild tumult that she dared not try to analyze.

“I wouldn’t worry so,” said Emily. “The audience won’t know what they’re missing, you know, and your sister likely has been detained in some perfectly reasonable way. Besides, an old friend, how could she help going when he had come all this way to see her? And as for accidents, if there had been an accident, we should likely have heard of it by this time. Cars like that aren’t very thick in these parts, and there would be plenty about them to identify them, even if they were unconscious and couldn’t tell who they were.”

But Emily’s calm suggestions did not serve to quiet Gloria’s troubled heart. Then eight o’clock hurried on, it was time to go to the meeting, and still Vanna had not come! There was nothing to do but go without her.

Gloria noticed that Robert Carroll was exceedingly grave as they talked it over just before leaving the house and took no part in the conversation. Later during the singing, it seemed to her that his voice bore a quality that had not been there before, an exceeding sweetness and delicacy like the white burning of a soul that has been and is going through the fire. She sensed that he felt it keenly that Vanna had not come back for her engagement, and then wondered if that was purely imagination. Oh, surely, surely Vanna would not do this to him willingly! She had seemed so friendly, so wholly interested in what they were all doing, so happy in the company of Carroll and the rest! She could not be going to turn from them to that viper Zane! Could it be that she did not see how much finer these men were than he? Could it be that she would really weight him against them even for a moment? Was it possible that Vanna was still considering marrying Zane?

Her mind in a tumult, hovering between indignation and fear, she went through her part or rather Vanna’s part, of the evening’s program, somehow got through the smiles and appreciation after the meeting, and went out under the quiet stars with the two young men.

She said very little on the way home, letting Murray do most of the talking, with a word now and then from Carroll, who was driving them in his own car this evening.

It was when they reached the house that Murray turned to her and said in a low tone, “You are worried, more worried than you are letting us know.”

“Oh, yes!” said Gloria with a deep, drawn breath that sounded almost like a sob. “I am terribly worried. If she isn’t home yet, I don’t know what I shall do! You see, I don’t trust the man she went with! I didn’t want her to go. I don’t think she quite trusts him either! But she thought she had to go for a little while because he had come so far! But—I seemed to know it was going to turn out this way! Only Vanna was so sure she could make him bring her back in time. She
wanted
to get back. I’m very sure she did!”

Her tone was excited, and her words reached the front seat where Carroll sat seeming not to listen.

“Well,” said Murray, “we’ll come in and see if there is any word or we can be of service. How about it, Bob?”

“Yes, you go in,” said Robert Carroll solemnly. “I’ll just sit here.”

Gloria hurried in, but there was no word from Vanna, though Emily Hastings said she had sat close to the telephone all the evening. There hadn’t been a call.

Murray suggested that they call up the chief operator and get the wire tested out to be sure it was working all right, and they did this, showing that it was in perfect order.

“All right, now,” said Murray, giving Gloria a compassionate look, “suppose Bob and I scout around and see if we can get any trace of them? Would you like to come along, or will you stay here? She might return at any minute now of course.”

“I’ll stay here, I think. If anything has happened, I may be needed,” said Gloria, shutting her white teeth sharply into her lower lip to keep it from trembling as she followed Murray to the front door.

Murray gave her a quick glance and laid his hand briefly on hers.

“Poor child!” he said softly, with an accent that almost sounded like “Dear” child! Then quickly added, “We have a great God! Remember He’s your Father, too, now. I’ll be praying.”

She looked at him through a glitter of tears.

Just then Emily swung open the sitting room door and came out to the hall, and there was no more opportunity to talk. He gave her hand another quick grasp and hurried away, calling back, “We’ll telephone if we find out anything. In any case, we’ll telephone occasionally to see if you have had word.” Then he was gone, and Gloria went up to her room to struggle with her wild fears and try to learn how to trust her heavenly Father, till at last she dropped on her knees beside her bed.

R
obert Carroll started the car into the darkness. “I wonder if this is the best direction to take,” said Murray, looking at his silent companion with a troubled frown. “Perhaps we should have gotten a better description of the car before we started.”

“We don’t need it,” said Carroll briefly. “I saw the car, and this is the way they went.”

“You saw the car!” exclaimed Murray. “Why didn’t you say something about it, old fellow?”

“Well, I didn’t see any point in doing so,” answered the tall fellow gravely. “I saw it. I’d know what to look for. It’s cream-colored, low, streamlined, and fairly screaming with chromium, the most expensive piece of machinery that could be bought, I imagine,” and he named its make.

Murray gave a low exclamation and sat thoughtful for a minute, and then he asked, “Where were you, Bob? How did you happen to see them?”

“I was just coming out of the meadow lot down at my place. Sam had left the bars down when he drove in, and I came over that way to put them up again. I was in overalls!”

Murray gave a whistle and grinned through the darkness. “Man! That was tough luck! But I don’t imagine that would make any difference with her. Perhaps she didn’t see you.”

“Yes, she saw me,” said Carroll grimly. “She waved her hand and called out something. The only word I thought I got was ‘back,’ but they were gone almost before they were there. Boy! I hope that man can drive! He was going at a cruel pace if anything got in the way!”

Murray was silent a long time, watching the outline of his friend’s face in the dim starlight. At last he spoke. “I had a wonderful talk with Gloria just before you came this afternoon, Bob. She said she knew she was a sinner and she wanted to be born again!”

“Praise the Lord!” cried Robert, although his heart winced even as he said it.

“I tried purposely to make it hard for her,” said Murray, “but I’m sure she understands and is saved.”

“Oh, I’m so glad!” said Robert. “Glad most of all for the joy that it brings to our Father and our Savior in the presence of the angels. But I’m glad for her sake, and for yours, too, old man!”

His voice was husky. “I guess it means happiness for you, and you know I rejoice in that! Even if—Vanna—!”

He broke off, not daring to put into words the possibility that came to him.

After a thoughtful silence, Murray spoke again. “You don’t know yet for sure that Vanna deliberately chose not to turn up tonight, Bob. At any rate, the path doesn’t seem to lead you away from her just yet. You certainly couldn’t drop her now when she’s lost! Has it struck you, Bob, that it is the Lord now who is throwing us back with the girls? This search tonight was not of our seeking nor planning.”

“I guess you’re right, Murray,” answered Robert slowly. “If my own cup is too bitter—and I guess it is—it’s no more than my Master had.” He spoke reverently, with deep feeling. “And, if that’s the case, let’s sing hallelujah! We oughtn’t to be downhearted if we are where the Lord wants us. Now, here’s the crossroads. Which way would you say a man like that would have taken?”