The Flower Brides (17 page)

Marigold looked up at him in surprise. He certainly had no look of conceit about him now.

He went on: “And then, something suddenly went wrong while I was standing up there, looking up at my almost-completed job. A piece of machinery weighing tons crashed down beside me, carrying with it scaffold and stonework and flying masonry and leaving me standing there on just the slender board that was left, wavering out over an abyss, nothing to hold to, no way apparently to get back to anything tangible at all. It didn’t matter then whose fault it was. I found out incidentally it had been partly mine, away back in the beginning of the job. I hadn’t been as careful as I should. But that didn’t concern me then. All I saw was that I was standing in an awful space between heaven and earth with no possible hope for my life, no way ever to get back to earth again, and only a few minutes, perhaps seconds, left before I, too, should crash down into the horror of debris below. All my pride, my ambition, my attainment was in ruins below me, and I dared not look down at it. I dared not look away and try to forget it, I dared not look up, and I could not plan any way to save myself! And then a man risked his life and crept out on the tottering masonry of the arch above me and let down a rope. He let it down carefully in front of my hands where I could grasp it. It had a loop in it that I could hold on to. And I stood there holding to that little loop of rope, knowing the masonry from which it hung might soon come crashing down, too, and carry me with it. Yet I had the rope, and how I clung to it! After what seemed eons more, they made a way to get down to me, and strong arms pulled me up and into safety. I won’t trouble you with the details. I came out of that terrible situation knowing that one man had risked his life to save me.

“For days I lay in a dark room trying to steady my senses, knowing that I was ruined—body, mind, and soul—if I could not get away from the horror that possessed me. I never could go on a job site again. I would always have death staring me in the face if I climbed to any high place.

“Then one night as I lay tossing, unable to sleep, the Lord came to me across great space to that terrible pinnacle upon which I always seemed to be standing alone whenever I tried to sleep, came down, and, as easily as I picked you up that day, took me in His arms. He looked Me in the eyes, and He said to me, ‘Ethan, you belong to Me! Don’t you know it? Don’t you remember that day long ago when you told your Sunday school teacher you would accept Me as your Savior? You were only a boy then, but you meant what you said, and I accepted you. You haven’t thought much about Me since. You’ve been wandering strange paths where I can’t go, and you haven’t listened for My voice when I called you. But now you’ve found out where they lead and that they end in ruin, those paths you thought were so bright when you started out, those paths of ambition that you thought would lead you to fame.

“‘And now you think you are done, that your career is ended. But you are mistaken. You are
Mine
. You have been Mine all the time, even when you wandered so far you could not hear My voice. And I never lose my own. I’ve come after you, and I’m going to bring you back and let you go on in your profession, but you must walk with
Me
! It is the only safe way. No, you needn’t be afraid of this horror anymore, because you are going to remember that from now on I am with you, and wherever duty calls you, I will be there and have My arm around you. I gave My life for you once, and I’m never going to let you fall. Now get up, Ethan, and go on with your work, for you and I have died together once, and we’re going on to live together now and show men what the power of the resurrection in a life can do.’”

Ethan was still a minute, and then he looked down at Marigold and smiled.

“That’s all,” he said. “That’s how it came about! I know He’ll do that for you, too, if you will let Him!”

“Oh, I’d like Him to,” breathed Marigold softly.

Just then they came within the city traffic, and there was no more opportunity to talk.

T
hat very afternoon Irene Trescott had stopped in at her sister-in-law’s home to talk over the party. Knowing her sister-in-law as well as she did, she hadn’t thought it wise to go sooner lest the reaction to the affair would not be over yet. Adele Trescott always had a lengthy spell after any social event, during which she tormented herself with all the petty details that had, to her way of thinking, gone wrong. Irene wanted to give her time to get over this before she appeared.

But she had reckoned without knowledge. Mrs. Trescott had not yet recovered.

She was sitting up in bed attired in a costly nightgown, beribboned and belaced to the utmost degree, her heavy form lolling against many pillows, a large box of sweets on the bedside stand within reach, and a couple of novels on the bed beside her.

But she was not reading. When her sister-in-law entered the room, she looked up with eyes that were swollen with weeping and dabbed futilely at her sagging cheeks and heavy lips that for once were guiltless of rouge and lipstick.

“Oh, my dear! Is it you?” she sighed heavily, her words ending in a half sob. “I wondered why you didn’t come. I didn’t think you would desert me in a time like this!”

Irene sat down heavily, after having helped herself to a handful of chocolates selected carefully, and settled to a siege.

“For heaven’s sake, Adele! What’s the matter? Haven’t you recovered from the party yet? I thought you would be up and planning for another by this time,” said Irene, carefully biting a fat chocolate peppermint in half and surveying the portion still in her fingers speculatively. “What’s the matter now? Was the caterer’s bill larger than you expected, or did Mrs. Osterman’s little stepdaughter have a more expensive dress than some of your favorites?”

Adele gave her a withering look. “How can you be so trivial when you were there and know perfectly well what happened. You saw how Laurie behaved. You know he was positively under the influence of drink the whole last half of the evening. It was the most mortifying thing I ever went through. You saw what he did, went out in the street and brought in that unspeakable girl and danced with her. You don’t mean to tell me that you didn’t see that, Irene?”

“Well, what did you expect, Adele? You furnished the liquor, didn’t you? And you were down on the girls he wanted you to invite for him, weren’t you?”

“Irene! Of course, you would take up for him and go against me,” whimpered the mother, putting the lace-bordered, soppy little handkerchief to her swollen eyes again. “Blaming
me
! When I did all I could. I invited the little nobody he wanted me to, and I—tried to humor him—in every way—”

“Oh certainly, you always humor him,” said Irene dryly. “You can’t reproach yourself about that. You humored him—in your way. But you despised the girl he was in love with, and you probably have been so cold to her in the past that she didn’t care to accept your invitation when it came.”

“There you go, taking Laurie’s part against me! I haven’t been cold to her! I haven’t had anything at all to do with her! I haven’t had occasion to.”

“Exactly!” said Irene, licking the peppermint off her fingers. “You’ve been cold to her. You’ve ignored her. You
meant
to ignore her and freeze her out. You can’t blame Laurie for his attitude last night.”

“My dear! You don’t know what Laurie did last night. You don’t know what he said to me. His own mother!” whimpered Adele, her body shaking with her sobs.

Irene got up and went and stood at the window, looking out, where she wouldn’t have to watch her sister-in-law weep. “Yes, I know. I was standing right behind him. I know what he said. He told you you had fixed it so his girl wouldn’t come to the party. You hadn’t been friendly and she wouldn’t come, and now he was going out and get a girl from the street, any girl he could find, and bring her in and dance with her.”

“He was drunk, of course,” sobbed Laurie’s mother. “He wouldn’t have said that if he had been sober. At least he wouldn’t have said it
right before people
! That was what hurt so, having people hear him say that to me. To
me
!”

“Well, you got the liquor, and you never brought him up not to drink—” reminded Irene again. “I never thought it was a good thing to drink—at least not to drink too much—and Laurie always does everything just as hard as he can.”

“You’re hard, Irene! You’re very hard! I never
taught
Laurie to drink, and I always told him a gentleman knew how to carry his liquor. That’s what my good old father used to say. He was a real Southern gentleman, and he always said a true gentleman knew how to carry his liquor! My father never was
drunk
!”

“Well, it’s evident Laurie can’t carry liquor. Perhaps your father’s drinking is coming out in Laurie now, in his not being able to carry it. I wouldn’t blame Laurie altogether!” said Irene contemptuously.

“I suppose it’s
his
father coming out in him,” said the indignant mother, “not
my
father!”

“Well, it really doesn’t matter, does it? What I was thinking was that if you had let Laurie have that girl that you despised so, he wouldn’t have been drunk. She would have kept him from it. I happen to know she doesn’t drink.”

“Oh, I suppose she never had a chance, being a minister’s daughter! But she would have learned quick enough. Those are the worst ones, when they’ve never been taught self-control.”

“No, she wouldn’t have touched it. She doesn’t believe in it. She’s that kind of a girl.”

“Well, you talk as if
I
kept her away. I sent her a perfectly good invitation, didn’t I? I told you about it, and I showed you her acceptance. And then she sent word she couldn’t come after all—an awfully rude thing to do,
I
think, after she had once accepted.
I
think it was because she found out what kind of a party it was going to be, and she simply knew she couldn’t dress up to the occasion, and so she didn’t dare come.”

“You’re mistaken there!” said Irene in a superior tone. “I happen to know she had her dress all ready, a gorgeous dress, all bought and paid for.”

“You happen to know? How could you possibly know a thing like that?” said Laurie’s mother, lifting her tear-streaked face in astonishment. “Did she tell you so herself? Probably she was lying, then. Of course, she couldn’t possibly afford the kind of dress one ought to wear to such a party as we had Saturday night.”

“No, she wasn’t lying,” said Irene with satisfaction. “She didn’t tell me herself, either. She isn’t the kind of girl who would lie or who would speak to me about such a thing. She’s
refined
, I tell you, Adele. She wouldn’t consider it was my affair.”

“Well then, how in the world could you possibly find out whether she had a dress fit to wear? Where would she get money to buy a proper dress?”

“Well, I’m sure I don’t know where she got the money, but she had it. I don’t think she stole it. I’ve always heard she was perfectly honest. But she bought the dress and paid a hundred and fifty dollars for it! And then when she found she couldn’t come, she took it back and exchanged it for some other dresses just as handsome. In fact, she spent
more
than the hundred and fifty!”

Irene was enjoying herself heartily as she watched her sister-in-law’s face filled with incredulity.

“And you say she didn’t tell that extraordinary tale to you herself?” Laurie’s mother had utmost contempt in her voice.

“Oh no, she didn’t tell me. I haven’t even seen her. No, I got my information from Rena Brownell. You remember Rena? I’m sure you do. She always used to head your list for parties till her father lost all his money and then died and left them penniless. She’s working in François’s gown shop, a model there. You know she has such a lovely figure.”

“You don’t say! Well, that explains who that model was! She tried to recognize me, but I only stared at her. I thought she looked somehow familiar. But, of course, I wasn’t expecting to see anybody I knew
serving
in François’s. You see, I was there last week with Robena to get a dress for Saturday night. You saw it, didn’t you? That gorgeous white taffeta with the stunning scarlet velvet sash? I thought that was the most stunning dress we had present.”

“Yes, I saw it,” said Irene with a sardonic grin. “The irony of it all was that that was the very dress that Marigold Brooke bought and then took back because her mother didn’t approve of the low back.”

“You don’t
mean
it, Irene!”

“Yes, I do. Rena Brownell told me all about it. She said Madame made Robena pay two hundred for it because she knew she wanted it so much.”

“And she dared do that to a friend of mine!”

“Good gracious, Adele, don’t be so snobbish. Robena
bought
the dress, didn’t she? She telephoned and asked for just such a dress, white with a crimson sash. I heard her myself when you were at the telephone with her. You were as sweet as honey to Madame yourself, said you’d do all sorts of things for her if she would try to get a dress like that for a friend of yours. You didn’t expect Madame to do it for nothing, did you? And now you are making a fuss because you know Marigold didn’t want it.”

“Well, but—daring to pass off a secondhand dress on
us
!”

“Secondhand nothing! Marigold exchanged it. She only had it out of the shop a few hours. You were grateful as could be that Madame found the kind of dress you wanted. Don’t be a silly fool, Adele. You know that dress was the sensation of the whole evening. If you don’t believe it, go and read the society notes over again and refresh your memory. And what’s more, I can tell you it would have been a still greater sensation if it had been on Marigold Brooke, instead of that stiff, awkward Robena, and you wouldn’t have had half so much to regret if it had, either.”

“Irene! I will not listen to any more of your ranting. You are just saying these things to make me suffer, and you know I have practically been in tears all day over this thing. My darling boy Laurie acting that way at the party, bringing in that unspeakable girl from the street and insisting on dancing with her, and letting Robena go without a partner! My darling Laurie, telling me
in front of people
that I had kept his girl away and now I could take my medicine!” And the distressed mother wept into her handkerchief again, though it already was saturated with tears and only made her whole face sloppy and desolate-looking.