Beauty for Ashes (31 page)

“Oh, no, Father dear!” said Gloria with a shiver. “Never! I’ll tell you what I will do with my house—sell it and give you the money. I couldn’t keep a cent while you were in debt.”

“Nor I,” said Vanna quickly. “It all goes back to you, for debts or living or whatever you say. And we’ll make Mother love Afton. We love it, Father dear, and she must learn to. She will, you’ll see. We’ll go up there and have a grand time! And now, you’re not to say another word about business today!”

“You precious children!” the father said with a smile. “Well, we’ll see about it when I get up. It’s wonderful of you to take things this way!”

During the days that followed, both the girls had sweet converse with their father. And because of the intimate talks they had had on their trip to Afton, Gloria found she could speak more and more freely to him about her experiences after he left her, shyly telling him of the preacher who came to his old church and gave such a thrilling gospel that she had taken to studying the Bible.

He listened to her thoughtfully always and let her bring her Bible and read it when she suggested that. He even asked her questions about what she had learned, until there came to be a lovely fellowship between them, an understanding of the change in her life.

And one morning when there was no chance of anybody coming to interrupt, she told him that she had found a young man with standards such as he approved, and that they loved each other.

“Do you think it is wrong, Daddy,” she said shyly, “for me to love someone so soon after Stan’s death?”

“Certainly not!” said her father heartily. “I’d be glad for you to be happy. There is no virtue in mourning, especially after a man who was never meant to be your mate. But who is this young man? I’d like to meet him before I pass judgment. I don’t intend to have you make two mistakes of the same sort. I’ll have to look him over before I’ll give my consent. You’re too precious! What’s his name?”

“His name is Murray MacRae,” said Gloria, her cheeks in a lovely glow of color,” and he’s the man who taught me to read the Bible!”

“Oh!” said her father with a look of relief. “But, MacRae! I wonder—There was a Lawrence MacRae! A most unusual young man. They lived across the road!”

“Murray is Lawrence’s younger brother,” said Gloria, “and from what he tells me of Lawrence, I think he is a good deal like him.”

“I want to see him!” said the father. “I can’t be easy until I see him! Has Mother seen him? Does she know?”

“No,” said Gloria, “I wanted you to know first. I suppose Mother will object. He isn’t exactly what you would call rich, though he’s got a good business position.”

“Poor Mother!” said the sick man. “I’m afraid life has been rather disappointing for her!”

“I’d like to know why,” said Vanna, coming softly in. “Mother’s had
you
all these years, and this gorgeous house for a long time, and everything she’s wanted. It will be hard for her to stop having it, of course, but life is that way, and she must know it.”

“Well, I’d like not to have disappointed her,” said the man, drawing a deep sigh, “but maybe we can weather it back again somehow if things brighten up.”

“I’ve just been telling Dad about Murray,” Gloria said to her sister, hoping to turn her father’s attention and take that hurt look out of his eyes.

“Oh, have you? And shall I tell about my man, too? Dad, I’m going to marry a farmer! Will you like that? He’s a peach. You can’t help liking him.”

“You, too, Vanna!” said her father, turning loving eyes to his other daughter. “And you think you can be a farmer’s wife? You think you have any idea what that means? Your grandmother—”

“Yes, I know about my grandmother, and I’m going to try to be just like her. So is Glory. We’ve learned to cook, Dad. We can make johnnycake and ham and apple pie, and on a pinch we can help in the fields. We’ve planted corn!”

Their father grinned. “And you think that constitutes a farmer’s wife? Well, you’re all right, but first show me the man.
He’s
got to be all right, or he can’t have you.”

“He’s Robert Carroll,” said Vanna proudly. “He belongs to the old Carroll family circle. Charles Carroll of Carrollton was one of his ancestors.”

“That sounds good,” said the father, “but I repeat, I’d like to see the young man before I give my decision. The young
men
, I should say,” he added, smiling at Vanna. “I have all respect for your selections, of course, but I’m not trusting too much to your judgment. This time I’m going to see for myself.”

So two voices lilted over the telephone to two happy young men, summoning them to inspection, and that night they started driving down in Murray’s new car and stopping on the way in New York for a bit of business.

Two days later they were admitted to audience in the sickroom where Mr. Sutherland waited anxiously to greet them. After a few minutes, Gloria and Vanna slipped out of the room and left them together.

A little while later, as the girls hovered around the halls, too excited to sit still, awaiting a summons from their father, they saw their mother come out of her room dressed impressively in black satin.

Mrs. Sutherland had been told of the arrival of the two young men, although nobody had as yet dared to tell her that one of them belonged to Gloria. Twice before when they had come, being described as the two neighbors who had driven them home the first time, she had declined to see them, and she had made no remark that day when Vanna had informed her that her fiancé was coming. But here she was dressed up and obviously heading toward their father’s door.

Precipitately they scuttled ahead of her and opened the door before she should get there, having a vague idea of thus preventing trouble.

“Had we better get them down to the library before she comes?” whispered Vanna with her hand on the doorknob, looking back to be sure her mother was coming. “It may be hard on Dad.”

“No, just let’s leave it to work out,” said Gloria serenely.

“That sounds like Murray,” murmured Vanna as she swung the door quietly open and stepped inside, noticing with another backward look that her mother had paused in the hall to adjust her collar.

“Well, I like them both!” announced the father as Vanna closed the door carefully. “I can’t tell which I like the most! I’m just wondering if you girls are good enough, that’s all! I never hoped to find such sensible sons-in-law in this wicked world!” There was a broad smile on his face and a happy light in his eyes, and it was just at this instant that Mrs. Sutherland chose to open the door noiselessly and sweep in.

The girls were so happy over their father’s wholehearted approval that they had for the instant forgotten her approach, and they stood startled for an instant, scarcely knowing what to do.

It was Murray who filled in the silence by stepping forward to Gloria’s side and saying, “And this is your mother, isn’t it, Gloria? I have wanted so much to know her!”

Mrs. Sutherland turned an astonished look at the good-looking young man and forgot to impress him with her jeweled lorgnette as she had planned. She suddenly became all graciousness, spoke to each of them, looked from one to the other a moment, and said, “Which is the
one?”

“Both of us are the one, dear madam, if you please,” said Murray, bowing low. “I belong to Gloria, and Robert here is Vanna’s property!” He swept a twinkle at Gloria’s frightened eyes. Hadn’t she told him that her mother didn’t know about her yet?

But beyond a catch of her breath, the good lady was a sport. She never by so much as the flicker of an eyelash let it be known that this was news. Her husband was watching her, and his eyes grew bright as they used to be in days long gone by, and he thought how attractive Adelaide still was. Maybe she wouldn’t take it so hard after all.

There was a pleasant little stir getting them all seated, and then Mrs. Sutherland, taking command, looked toward her husband. “I asked the nurse if we might have tea up here with you,” she said. “She said we might if we didn’t stay too long. Does that suit you?”

“It certainly does,” said the father heartily. “I feel more like myself than I have for months! These two new sons of mine are a great tonic, and it’s so good to think we are getting these girls so nicely off our hands, isn’t it Mother?”

The two girls gasped and then gazed at their men in a daze of happiness, and gazed at their mother in speechless astonishment.

“Didn’t I tell you the Lord would work it all out?” whispered Gloria to her sister under cover of the talk.

“You’re getting more like Murray every day,” answered Vanna. “I hope I can be like Robert some day, but I doubt if I’ll ever be good enough.”

It was a happy time with nothing to mar it and not one reference to lost fortunes. Mother was a thoroughbred when it came to a public appearance.

Afterward, when the boys had gone, promising to come down again in a week or so, Mrs. Sutherland turned from the window where she had watched Murray’s new car drive away, and said to the girls with a new kind of satisfaction in her tone, “Well, for country people they certainly have good manners, and that is more than can be said of a great many young people today!” And she opened a note they had brought her from Brandon and read it with a smile. The daughters perceived that Mother was in process of transformation of standards to suit the inevitable.

Brand’s letter was characteristic:

Mr. Sutherland got well quickly after that. Every morning saw marked improvement.

“It’s my new sons-in-law,” he said when the girls told him how well he looked, and his wife, standing in the doorway seconding the congratulations, smiled complacently. After all, she reflected, it wasn’t every day you could get two such good-looking young men for your daughters when you were in a depression and your money was all gone.

After that, things moved rapidly. Men came to see Mr. Sutherland from the office, and he learned the worst, including the tragic death of his partner. That set him back a little but not for long. He was eager to get things wound up and adjusted. The attitude of both girls about their money, and also of the two young men who were to marry them, materially assisted in the final adjustments.

Gloria’s house was snapped up by a young couple who were soon to marry, and it brought a good sum. There were several bids for the big mansion, for there were a few who had envied afar and still had money to spend.

The packing was not a lengthy matter. Mrs. Sutherland was at last made to understand that a house and its furnishings meant a house
and its furnishings
and not just a few old things left behind that one didn’t care to take along. Only her own personal belongings she was to take. And she took the medicine bravely, even surrendering most of her jewels, keeping only those her husband had bought her when he first began to have money, which touched him very much when he discovered it.

“What made her do it?” he asked Vanna wonderingly when they were discussing it. “She didn’t have to, you know. They were hers.”

“Well, I think she’s trying to go the whole length,” said Vanna. “She wants everything to be in keeping. She was mourning because Glory and I wouldn’t have a lot of jewels as she had, and I told her that it would not be good taste up in the country to wear jewels, and I think she saw. She always wants to be in harmony with her surroundings.”

“If you ask me,” said Gloria, having come in without their seeing her, “I think Mother is falling in love with Dad all over again, and I think she wants to please him. She says the money from her jewels and laces is to live on up in the country.”

For answer, the father smiled a slow, sweet smile, and a light came in his eyes that reminded the girls of the lights in their own men’s eyes.

A few days later, in the middle of the confusion of packing, Mrs. Sutherland paused as her daughters entered the room, radiant as they always were nowadays.

“It’s such a pity,” she said, “if you two girls are really going to get married, that you can’t do it before we leave this lovely house. It is so adapted to a wedding, and a double wedding especially. It would be something to remember. We could have movies taken of it, and there’s the lily pond and the outdoor garden—it would be so lovely!”

“But, Mother, we couldn’t afford to have movies taken, and we haven’t any money for a wedding such as there would have to be in this house. You know that!”

“Of course! I forgot!” sighed the parent tearfully. “But I don’t see how you’re going to get together a trousseau up there in the country. You’d have to keep running down to New York continually, and that would be expensive. The wedding dress and all. Of course Gloria wouldn’t want to use the same wedding dress even if I hadn’t sold it.”

“But, Mother, we’re not going to have a trousseau,” said Vanna quickly, with a troubled glance toward her sister, “and we aren’t going to buy any wedding dresses. We couldn’t; we haven’t the money!”

“But Vanna! You
have
to have a wedding dress! What would you be married in?”

“We both have white organdies,” said Vanna, “that we haven’t had on yet. And Gloria is going to wear Great-Grandmother Sutherland’s wedding veil for hers. I’m counting on borrowing yours for myself!” Vanna grinned.

“Of course. But
white organdy?”

“It’s being done,” said Vanna briskly.

“But where would we get a caterer?” wailed the poor woman as her last trouble.

“Why, they don’t use caterers up in the country.” It was Vanna again, talking eagerly. “Mother, we’re having only a few friends, and we’re making our own refreshments, Glory and I. Homemade ice cream, coffee, darling little rolled sandwiches with chicken filling, and little frosted cakes. Anyway, we’re not going to be married until next spring; we arranged that the last time the boys were here. We want to get you settled and feeling at home in the ancestral house before we fly away, even though it’s only down the street and across the road at first. But we’re going to have a long winter to learn how to cook and run our houses. We’re going to practice on you and Dad. And at Christmas we’re going to have the most gorgeous time! Now, Mother, do smile! Father is just coming up to the house, and he mustn’t see you look gloomy!”