Where Two Ways Met (20 page)

J
une was very happy when she received Paige’s letter. She had thought he would be polite enough to thank her, perhaps, though her first brief note did not require it, but she had not anticipated that he would write a long letter, and evidently expect her to write again. He had a lot of friends, of course, and especially that pretty, wealthy girl, who evidently liked him a lot.

And such a letter as he had written! Oh, she had been praying for him, of course, that he might find the light on the problems he had talked about with her. But somehow her faith had not been strong enough to expect
such
an answer. He had really seen the Lord in his very soul, or he would never have written her all that.

His letter greatly comforted her, for she had been through a hard day of faultfinding by Aunt Letitia, and grumbling on the part of the servants, and she was well nigh on the point of giving up and going home. She was watching every mail and hoping that there would be a word from her cousin that she would soon arrive. So Paige’s letter came like a breeze from another world, a sort of a heavenly world where real things were still going on and God was still caring for His own.

Aunt Letitia had had a bad time that day and cried out in pain, scolded her nurse, and finally sent for June to come and read to her.

June was hoping she would want some Bible reading, but no, the crotchety old person wanted a mystery story, and June must walk to the village to get some new ones, with a full list of the many her aunt had already read, so there would not be duplicates.

Back at the house, the aunt was moaning. Her pain was worse. She insisted on having the doctor at once, and he was out in the country on a critical case and could not come. And now Aunt Letitia refused to look at the books June had selected, refused to hear any reading now, and set up more complaints. She sent June to the attic to search out a soft blanket that she said was lighter than those they had put over her, but which after long searching could not be found. Then Jane remembered that her mistress had given that blanket to the missionary society to send abroad to the people who were starving and freezing, but Aunt Letitia could not remember that, declared it was not so, and sent June to look for it again. So June was tired when, after the long, futile search, she came back to her room to rest. She read Paige’s letter over again and rejoiced in it. Tonight, if there was any time at all left to herself, she would answer it.

And Paige, the same night, was thinking of her, wishing he could get up right then and write another letter to her, telling of the delightful evening he had enjoyed getting acquainted with her parents.

But of course it was too soon for him to write her again. He would have to wait and see if she would answer his other letter. Maybe she would think it had been fanciful. Though he knew in his heart she wouldn’t think that. She was too much like that sweet mother of hers to get any such idea from his letter.

When Paige got up to a new day the next morning, it came upon him heavily that he had promised to play tennis with Reva Chalmers. Well, he must put it out of mind until the time came and not let himself grow miserable over it. He had work to do, and he would take the tennis in his stride and not make so much of it. He had always enjoyed tennis, and if Reva was a tolerably good player, it ought not to bore him too much. Forget it, he told himself.

So he was in fairly good humor when he met Reva at the country club, racket in hand, arrayed in immaculate garments and trying to smile as if he were looking forward to the event with pleasure.

Reva proved to be a fairly good player and gave him stiff opposition as long as she lasted, but when they reached the end of a set, she professed to be weary and wanted to sit down and rest. What she really wanted was a chance for a good flirtation, and Paige had no mind for resting, so he sat down for five minutes and then stood up again.

“Come, we are wasting our strength. We were just getting warmed up for a good fight. Let’s get back to work again. You play a good game. You’ll soon get your second wind and won’t feel tired.”

So they went back to playing, and Reva found very little opportunity to talk.

When they had finished their two hours, Paige escorted her down to the club, declined the offer of drinks or other refreshments, and hurried away.

You know I told you I had other things to do,” he said with a farewell smile.

“Oh, just the
Bible
! That’s silly on a lovely day like this. Let the old Bible go, and have a good time with me,” she pleaded.

“Sorry, I couldn’t,” he said. “But I thank you for the game, and maybe sometime if I get time, we’ll try it again. You can bring some of your other friends along to take over when I have to stop.”

Reva sat gloomily on the club veranda and took a drink. Then she slammed into her car and whizzed off in search of a more peppy game. She wasn’t sure but this guy was just a waste of time. There were plenty of other fellows who were ready to join in with any whim she happened to have, and they didn’t have to go off and study a Bible! Well, he was intriguing of course, and stunningly handsome, and he certainly could smash the tennis ball across the net and beat her every time. She could always use him for a fill-in, any time her regular dates failed. But really, he would be worth it, if she could ever get a chance to cultivate him. Perhaps she and Dad could do something clever for a vacation and rope him in to go along.

So Reva went home to think up something devilish and plan how she could get her father to help her work it out. If Dad told Paige that he needed him for some work this summer, he would have to go along wherever they chose to go, wouldn’t he? Well, she would see what she could do about it, for she certainly didn’t intend to let a little old religious notion or two spoil her fun, and she certainly meant to win over this reluctant swain.

Meantime, Paige went home and, after a refreshing shower, went into a deep study of the Bible, specializing on the Sunday school lesson for the morrow, and then went to his knees in further preparation. This was his first opportunity for what was usually called real witnessing, and he wanted to make it count for the young souls who were to be put under his care for a time.

As he rose from his knees, he looked out the window toward the Culbertson house and gave a wistful sigh. How he would enjoy a talk with June now! He would so like to talk over that Bible lesson and see what she thought on different points. She had a wonderful way with young people. Witness that Shambley kid. She could wind him right around her finger. She would know whether Paige’s thoughts were wise. Well, that was silly thinking. She wasn’t here, and he had no right whatever to be making her the center of his thoughts, just because they had spent a couple of days in company working for the Shambleys. June probably had some intimate friends there where she had gone, perhaps some very special friend, and she would soon forget that he, Paige Madison, existed. Well, that was that. If she ever wrote again, he would know how to think of her. But at present, he knew in his heart that she was the finest girl he had ever met. The most beautiful, too. Reva wasn’t to be compared to her, and it had not taken that afternoon of tennis to show him that. Of course, he had never played tennis with June, but what difference did that make? If she did not play tennis already, he would teach her to like it, that is if he ever got the chance, or if she didn’t like it, he didn’t really care. He would certainly rather talk with June than with a brainless girl like Reva.

Then suddenly he came to himself. What was he doing? Thinking about a girl he scarcely knew as if he were going to have an opportunity to spend his life having a good time with her, when in reality he wasn’t sure of even seeing her again. He must get his mind off girls of all kinds and get this school lesson ready to hold the attention of those new boys, boys that he didn’t know at all, and who very likely might not have any use for him.

So back he went to his study and finally again to his knees.

“Something else, dear Lord, that You need to take over. Just my wandering thoughts and hopes. Help me to lay them all at Thy disposal.”

A little later in the evening, Paige got into his car and took a turn up to the Shambleys just to have a few minutes’ talk with Mr. Shambley and make sure he would take a thorough rest on Sunday, because Monday he was starting to work. There wasn’t any need of it, of course, but Paige was restless and wanted to get his mind away from himself and his various problems. So he talked with Mr. Shambley and gained his confidence still more than before. During the talk more information concerning Harris Chalmers and Company came to the surface, and the impression of them that he had had from the first grew more unsettling than before. Of course, Mr. Shambley was not a good judge of character and was in position to be prejudiced against the firm that had made life so hard for him of late, but after all, it could not be denied that the firm he now worked for was
hard
. They might not be dishonest, they might not overstep the law, but they certainly were
hard
. Did a business firm have to be hard, unfeeling, and unkind in order to be successful? It suddenly came to him that he wished he could be in some kind of business for himself and try it out.

There had to be business in the world, of course, and it had to have success or it could not be carried on, but did it have to be
hard
?

And did a Christian have any right to be hard? He had to be wise and use judgment of course, but when a man got into a tight corner, did he have to be treated with cruelty? If he only had some money, he certainly would like to go into business and try out some of his theories that were being developed.

He drove slowly, taking quite a detour while he thought out these matters, and when he finally reached home, his mother called to him from upstairs. For once she had not sat up for him. At least she had started to bed.

“Paige, Miss Chalmers called up twice and said it was very important.”

“Yes, I was afraid of that,” said Paige. “I’m sure it was not important. Don’t worry.”

“And Paige, there’s a letter for you, special delivery airmail. It came just a few minutes ago.”

“A letter! Where is it?”

“Right there on the hall table. Do you find it, dear?”

“Yes, I have it, thank you, Mother, and good night!”

Paige came leaping up the stairs with the letter in his hand and a shine on his face. His precious letter. It had come, and she had sent it special delivery! That showed, didn’t it, that she knew how much he needed a word from her?

It was sometime afterward that that thought came to him again, and he wondered at himself for having dared to think it. Yet it had given him a very welcome assurance. This was a matter of his Christian experience, and he had asked her a serious question about whether it could possibly be real or whether he was letting his imagination run wild. And he needed to know what she thought before he went to teach that new Sunday school class. So he need not condemn himself for thinking too much about June. She was a Christian friend, and there was nothing foolish about his feeling for her. They were merely new friends who had discovered they thought in the same way about spiritual things.

Then he turned on the light and sat down to read his letter.

And about that time Reva Chalmers was accosting her father, who had just come into the house.

“Dad, I played tennis with your handsome assistant manager today, and do you know, I think he’s sweet, and it really would be quite easy to humanize him. I got a start on him this afternoon, and I think he already likes me a lot. If you’ll give me the job of educating him, I believe I could make him quite easy for you to manage. You know, all he needs is to get rid of some of his sentimentality, and he’d be a fine businessman, ready for the hardest proposition you could hand him.”

Oh, Reva was clever, and she knew exactly what her father wanted of Paige Madison, and just how he had failed in her father’s scheme of business matters. She knew also how to get around her father so that he would eventually listen to her and see that her suggestion was not only wise but altogether interesting from more than one point of view.

“Oh? You don’t say! And how could you bring all that about?” asked her father. His tone was sarcastic, amused. He often humored his daughter’s suggestions for the time being, and on occasion he found them to be worth trying.

“Well, come on and sit down in your big chair, Daddy, and I’ll tell you all about it. This is a real plan, Daddy, and I’m sure it will work, if you’ll just back me up in it. And I have a nice cold drink in here for you. Come on, Daddy.”

So she cajoled her father into his big easy chair, put a cool little kiss on his forehead and a cold frosty glass into his hand, and then she settled down on a low footstool in front of him.

“Now, let’s hear what your proposition is!” said the father, with an amiable smile.

So Reva began her story.

“Why you see, Dad, I’ve been getting quite a line on Paige Madison since you let me take that membership card for the University Club to him. He took me to lunch the next day, and he really was not half bad! He can talk, Daddy; that guy can talk when he wants to! And I believe all he needs is to get a different point of view. You see, he hasn’t been brought up the way we were. He doesn’t know the ways of good society, and he needs to be taught. I think I could teach him if I had half a chance to be with him enough. And that’s where you come in, Dad. You’ve got to give me a chance.”

Her father grinned.

“I should think that was up to you, Reva. You seem to be able to get enough other young fellows around you without my assistance. I never heard you call for my help in that direction.”

“Yes, but Dad, he’s very special, you know, and he thinks he’s so awfully wise and grown up. And when you practically have to make a man over before you can do anything with him, you certainly do need help. Besides, Dad, he’s all hemmed around with ideas.”

“Ideas? What kinds of ideas?”