The two found themselves smiling at each other. The atmosphere was
lightened, and the brougham drew up at the clubhouse.
Mr. Evringham handed out the girl, gave Zeke the order to return for
them, and they went up the steps.
“I would drive back with him, grandfather, only that mother would
wonder, and ask questions,” said Eloise. “Don't let me detain you in any
way. I'll just sit here on the piazza.”
“Not play? Nonsense!” returned Mr. Evringham brusquely.
“Please don't feel obliged”--Eloise began humbly.
“But I can't help being obliged if you'll play with me,” interrupted her
companion.
Some men observed the confidential attitude of the broker and the
beautiful girl. “What's doing over there?” asked one. “Is Evringham
beginning to take notice?”
“Why, don't you know?” returned the other. “That's his granddaughter.”
“His daughter, do you mean? Didn't know he had one.”
“Not a bit of it. She's Lawrence's stepdaughter.”
The other shook his head. “That's too involved for me. She's a queen,
anyway.”
“Going to marry Ballard, they say.”
“That so? Then I won't go up and fall on Evringham's neck. My bank book
isn't in Ballard's class. She can play, too,” as he observed Eloise
make a drive while she waited the reappearance of her companion from
the clubhouse. “Isn't that a bird!--and say, there's young Lochinvar
himself!” for here a light automobile whizzed briskly up to the
clubhouse.
Dr. Ballard sprang out, for he had recognized the figure at the first
teeing ground.
“You gave me the slip!” he cried as he approached.
“Oh, I just went with a handsomer man,” returned Eloise, smiling, as
they shook hands.
“I didn't know I could come until the last minute, then I went to the
house for you and found I had missed you.”
Mr. Evringham and the caddy approached. “I cut you out for once,
Ballard,” he said. “Well, we're off, Eloise. I saw you drive. I doubt if
he catches us.”
Jewel's eyes questioned Eloise that evening when she reached home,
and she received the smiling, significant nod her cousin gave her with
satisfaction.
It was an apparently united family party that gathered about the
dinner table. Mr. Evringham and Eloise discussed their game, while Mrs.
Evringham fairly rustled with complacence.
As Jewel clung to her grandfather's neck that evening in bidding him
good-night, she whispered:--
“How happy we all are!”
“Are we, really? Well now, that's very gratifying, I'm sure. Good-night,
Jewel.”
CHAPTER XXII
IN THE HARNESS ROOM
“Mother, can I have three dollars?” asked Eloise the next morning.
“Were you thinking of a new riding hat, dear? I do wish you had it to
wear this afternoon. Yours is shabby, certainly, but you can't get it
for that, child.”
“No; I was thinking of a copy of 'Science and Health.' I don't like to
take Jewel's any longer, and I'm convinced.”
“What of--sin?” asked Mrs. Evringham in dismay.
“No, just the opposite--that there needn't be any. The book teaches the
truth. I know it.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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