Part 25 (2/2)

It hurt to hear the sound of his steady step growing fainter and fainter. O Bob, you might have turned around and waved!

I went upstairs. ”h.e.l.lo,” said Esther. ”Where have you been?” and I told her to dinner with a man from home. A little later I announced to her that I had resigned my position as private secretary to Mrs. Sewall.

She asked no questions but she made her own slow deductions.

I must have impressed her as restless and not very happy that night. I caught her looking at me suspiciously, once or twice, over her gold-bowed reading-gla.s.ses. Once she inquired if I was ill, or felt feverish. My cheeks did burn.

”Oh, no,” I said, ”but I guess I'll go to bed. It's almost midnight.”

Esther took off her gla.s.ses and rubbed her eyes.

”One gets tired, sometimes, climbing,” she observed. I waited. ”The trail up the mountain of Self-discovery is not an easy one. One's unaccustomed feet get sore, and one's courage wavers when the trail sometimes creeps along precipices or shoots steeply up over rocks. But I think the greatest test comes when the little hamlets appear--quiet, peaceful little spots, with smoke curling out of the chimneys of nestling houses. They offer such peace and comfort for weary feet. It's then one is tempted to throw away the mountain-staff and accept the invitation of the open door and welcoming hearth.”

”Oh, Esther,” I exclaimed, ”were you afraid I was going to throw away my mountain-staff?”

”Oh, no, no. I was simply speaking figuratively.” She would not be personal.

”I'm not such a poor climber as all that,” I went on. ”I am a bit discouraged tonight. You've guessed it, but I am not for giving up.”

”If one ever gets near the top of the mountain of Self-discovery,”

Esther pursued dreamily, ”he becomes master not only of his own little peak, but commands a panorama of hundreds of other peaks. He not only conquers his own difficult trail, but wins, as reward for himself, vision, far-reaching.”

I loved Esther when she talked like this.

”Well,” I a.s.sured her, ”I am going to get to the top of my peak, if it takes a life-time. No hamlets by the wayside for me,” I laughed.

”Oh, no,” she corrected. ”Never to the top, Ruth--not _here_. The top of the mountain of Self-discovery is hidden in the clouds of eternity. We can simply approach it. So then,” she broke off, ”you aren't deserting me?”

”Of course I'm not, Esther,” I a.s.sured her.

”What do you mean to do next, then--if you're leaving Mrs. Sewall?”

”I don't know. Don't ask. I'm new at mountain-climbing, and when my trail crawls along precipices, I refuse to look over the edge and get dizzy. Something will turn up.”

The next morning's mail brought a letter from Mrs. Sewall. My services would not be needed any longer. Enclosed was a check which paid me up to the day of my departure. In view of the circ.u.mstances, it would be wiser to sever our connections immediately. Owing to the unexpected return of her son, they were both starting within a few days for the Pacific coast. Therefore, she would suggest that I return immediately by express all papers and other property of hers which chanced to be in my possession. It was a regret that her confidence had been so misplaced.

I read Mrs. Sewall's displeasure in every sentence of that curt little note. If I had been nursing the hope for understanding from my old employer, it was dead within me now. The letter cut me like a whip.

My feeling for Mrs. Sewall had developed into real affection. Her years, her reserve, her remoteness had simply added romance to the peculiar friends.h.i.+p. I had thrilled beneath the touch of her cold fingertips.

There had been moments lately when at the kindness in her eyes as they dwelt upon me, I had longed to put my arms around her and tell her how happy and proud I was to have entered even a little way into the warm region near her heart. I loved to please her. I would do anything for her except marry Breck, and she could write to me like this! She could misunderstand! She could all but call me traitor!

Very well. With bitterness, and with grim determination never to plead or to explain, I sent back by the next express the check-books and papers I was working on evenings in my room, and also by registered mail returned the bar of pearls she had once playfully removed from her own dress and pinned at my throat. ”Wear it for me,” she had said. ”If I had had a daughter I would have spoiled her with pretty things, I fear.

Allow an old lady occasionally to indulge her whims on you, my dear.”

I lay awake a long time that night, preparing myself for the struggle that awaited me. I had as little chance now to obtain steady employment as when I made my first attempt. I was still untrained, and, stripped of Mrs. Sewall's favor, still unable to provide the necessary letters of reference. I hadn't succeeded in making any tracks into which, on being pushed to the bottom again, I could stick my toes, and mount the way a second time more easily. Lying awake there, flat on my back, I was reminded of a little insect I once watched climbing the slippery surface of a window-pane. It was a stormy day, and he was on the outside of the window, buffeted by winds. I saw that little creature successfully cover more than half his journey four successive times, only to fall wriggling on his back at the bottom again. When he fell the fourth time, righted himself, and, dauntless and determined, began his journey again, I picked him up bodily and placed him at the top. Possibly--how could such a small atom of the universe as I know--possibly my poor attempts were being watched too!

However, I didn't wait to find out. At least I didn't wait to be picked up. The very next day I set forth for employment agencies.

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