Speaker 1: Chapter twenty five of Cloudy Jewel. This is a LibriVox recording.
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Speaker 1: by Terra Mendoza. Cloudy Jewel by Grace Livingston Hill, Chapter
Speaker 1: twenty five. It was out on a lonely road in
Speaker 1: the car that they had chosen to go for their conference,
Speaker 1: where there was no chance of their being interrupted. And
Speaker 1: they whirled away through the town and out to the
Speaker 1: long stretch of whiteness and glum silence, the tears willing
Speaker 1: to overflow in Leslie's eyes. At last they were past
Speaker 1: the bounds where they were likely to meet acquaintances, and
Speaker 1: Leslie broke forth. Do you really think it's true that
Speaker 1: we've got to give her up? Are you sure has
Speaker 1: come to that, Allison? It seems perfectly preposterous. Well, you know,
Speaker 1: if she cares for him, said Alison gravely, we've no
Speaker 1: right to hold on to her and spoil her life.
Speaker 1: You know it was different when it was old pill Bowman.
Speaker 1: This is a real man care for him? How could
Speaker 1: she possibly care for him? Snapped Leslie? Why he has
Speaker 1: a wart on his nose and he snuffs. I never
Speaker 1: thought of it before till last night, but he does.
Speaker 1: He snuffs every little while. Ugh. Why I thought you
Speaker 1: liked him, Leslie? So I did until I thought he
Speaker 1: wanted Cloudy. But I can't see that I hate him.
Speaker 1: I always thought he was about the nicest man in
Speaker 1: the faculty except the dean, and he's married. But since
Speaker 1: I got on to the idea that he wants Cloudy,
Speaker 1: I can't bear the sight of him. I went way
Speaker 1: round the block to day to keep from meeting him.
Speaker 1: He isn't nice enough for Cloudy, Allison. What's the matter
Speaker 1: with him? Warts and snuffy don't count if you love
Speaker 1: a person. I like him. I like him ever so much,
Speaker 1: and I think he's lonesome. He'd appreciate a home like ours.
Speaker 1: You know what a wonderful wife Cloudy would make. Leslie
Speaker 1: fairly screamed, Oh Allison, to think you've come to it
Speaker 1: that you're willing to give up our lovely home and
Speaker 1: have Cloudy go off an an we go. The dear
Speaker 1: knows where an have to board at the college or something.
Speaker 1: Some day we'll be getting married too, I suppose, said
Speaker 1: Allison speculatively. His sister flashed a wise, curious look up
Speaker 1: at him and steadied his face a minute. Then a
Speaker 1: shade came over her own once more. Yes, I s'pose
Speaker 1: you will pretty soon you're almost done with college. But
Speaker 1: poor me, I'll have to board for two whole years more,
Speaker 1: and I'm not sure i'll ever get married. The man
Speaker 1: I like might not like me, and you may be
Speaker 1: very sure. I'm not going to live on any sister
Speaker 1: in law, no matter how much I love her. So there,
Speaker 1: Allison smiled and put his arm protectingly around his sister. There, kid,
Speaker 1: you needn't get excited yet. Awhile it's me an Bee always,
Speaker 1: no matter how many wives I have, and you won't
Speaker 1: ever have to board. But kid, I'm not willing to
Speaker 1: give up our house and Cloudy at all. I'm just
Speaker 1: thinkin that maybe we ought to, you know. I guess
Speaker 1: we're not pigs, are we. Cloudy has had a mighty
Speaker 1: hard life and missed a lot of things out of it. Well,
Speaker 1: isn't she having him? Now? I'd like to know. I
Speaker 1: think Cloudy likes us and wants to stay with us.
Speaker 1: I think she'd just loved the house and everything about it. Yes,
Speaker 1: I think so too, But this is something bigger than
Speaker 1: anything else in the world. If she really cares, don't
Speaker 1: you think we ought to give her the chance? I
Speaker 1: s'pose so if she really wants it, But how can
Speaker 1: we find out that's it? Just give her the chance.
Speaker 1: When Armitage comes in, just sneak out and stay away
Speaker 1: and let her have a little time alone with him.
Speaker 1: It isn't right us kids always sticking around. We ought
Speaker 1: to go out or upstairs or something. Leslie was still
Speaker 1: for a long time, and then she heaved a big
Speaker 1: sigh and said all right in a very small voice.
Speaker 1: As they sped on their way toward home. There was
Speaker 1: hardly a word more between them. It was after supper
Speaker 1: that very night that Leslie, having almost frightened Julia Cloud
Speaker 1: out of her happy calm by refusing to eat much supper,
Speaker 1: went off to bed with a headache. As soon as
Speaker 1: the professor came in. Allison too said he had to
Speaker 1: go up to the college for a book he had forgotten,
Speaker 1: and for the first time since his advent, the Professor
Speaker 1: had a clear evening ahead of him with Julia Cloud
Speaker 1: without anybody else by. But Julia Cloud was distraught and
Speaker 1: gave him little attention at first, with an attitude of
Speaker 1: listening directed toward the floor above. Finally, she gently excused
Speaker 1: herself for a moment and hurried up to Leslie's room,
Speaker 1: where she found a very damp and tearful Leslie, attempting
Speaker 1: to appear wonderfully calm. What is it, dear child, Has
Speaker 1: something happened? She begged. I know you must be sick,
Speaker 1: or you wouldn't have gone to bed, so erely, please
Speaker 1: tell me what is the matter. I shall send for
Speaker 1: the doctor at once if you don't, then Leslie, knowing
Speaker 1: that her brother would blame her if she spoiled the test,
Speaker 1: sat up bravely and tried to laugh, assuring her aunt
Speaker 1: that she was only tired from studying and a little
Speaker 1: stiff from playing hockey too long, and she thought it
Speaker 1: would be better to rest to night so she could
Speaker 1: be all right in the morning. Julia Cloud, only half
Speaker 1: reassured by this unprecedented carefulness for her health on the
Speaker 1: part of the usually careless Leslie, went down abstractedly to
Speaker 1: her professor and wished he would go home. He was
Speaker 1: well into the midst of a most heartfelt and touching
Speaker 1: proposal of marriage before she realized what was coming. His
Speaker 1: voice was low and pleading, and Leslie, lying breathless above,
Speaker 1: not deigning to try to listen, yet painfully aware of
Speaker 1: the change of tones, was in tortures. Then Julia Cloud's pained,
Speaker 1: gentle tones, firmly replying and more entity with brief, simple answers,
Speaker 1: most unexpectedly. Before an hour passed, Leslie heard the front
Speaker 1: door open and the professor go out and pass slowly
Speaker 1: down the walk. Her heart was in her throat, beating painfully.
Speaker 1: What had happened? A quick intuition presented a possible solution.
Speaker 1: Cloudy would not leave them while they were in college,
Speaker 1: and had bid him wait, or perhaps turned him down altogether,
Speaker 1: how dear of her, And yet with quick revulsion of spirit,
Speaker 1: she began to pity the poor, lonely man who could
Speaker 1: not have Cloudy when he loved her. A moment later,
Speaker 1: Julia Cloud came softly up the stairs and tiptoed into
Speaker 1: her room, and horror of horrors, Leslie could hear her
Speaker 1: catch her breath like soft sobbing. Did Cloudy care then?
Speaker 1: And had she turned down a man she loved in
Speaker 1: order to stick to them and keep her promise to
Speaker 1: their guardian? Quick as a flash, she was out of
Speaker 1: bed and pattering barefoot into Julia Cloud's room. Cloudy, Cloudy,
Speaker 1: you are crying. What is the matter? Quick? Tell me, please?
Speaker 1: Julia Cloud drew the girl down beside her on the
Speaker 1: bed and nestled her lovingly close. It's nothing, dear, It's
Speaker 1: only that I had to hurt a good man. It
Speaker 1: always makes me sorry to have to hurt any one.
Speaker 1: Leslie nestled closer, smoothed her aunt's hair, and tried to
Speaker 1: think what to say, but nothing came. She felt shy
Speaker 1: about it. Finally, she put her lips up and touched
Speaker 1: her aunt's cheek and whispered, don't cry, cloudy, dear. And
Speaker 1: just then she heard Allison's key in the lock. She
Speaker 1: sprang up, drew her bathrobe about her, and ran down
Speaker 1: to whisper to him on the stairs. What had happened? Well,
Speaker 1: it's plain, she cares, whispered Allison sadly, gravely, turning his
Speaker 1: face away from the light. I say less. We ought
Speaker 1: to do something. We ought to tell her it's all
Speaker 1: right for her to go ahead. I can't, Allison. I'd
Speaker 1: break down and cry. I know I would. I tried
Speaker 1: up there just now, but the words wouldn't come. Well,
Speaker 1: then let's write her a letter and we'll both sign it.
Speaker 1: All right, You write it, choked, Leslie, I'll sign it.
Speaker 1: They slipped over to the desk in the porch room
Speaker 1: and Leslie cuddled into a big willow cushioned chair and
Speaker 1: shivered and sniffed while Allison scratched away at a sheet
Speaker 1: of paper for a few minutes. Then he handed it
Speaker 1: to her to read and sign. This was what he
Speaker 1: had written, Dear Cloudy, we see just how it is,
Speaker 1: and we want you to know that we are willing.
Speaker 1: Of course, it'll be awfully hard to lose you, but
Speaker 1: it's all all right, and we wouldn't be happy not
Speaker 1: to have you be happy, and we want you to
Speaker 1: go ahead and not think of us. We'll manage all
Speaker 1: right somehow, and we love you and want to see
Speaker 1: you happy. Leslie dropped a great tear on the page
Speaker 1: when she signed it, but she took the soft embroidered
Speaker 1: sleeve of her nightgown and dabbed it dry so that
Speaker 1: it didn't blur the writing, and then together they slipped upstairs.
Speaker 1: Leslie went into her aunt's room in the dark, and
Speaker 1: in a queer little voice said, Cloudy, dear, here's a
Speaker 1: note for you, laying it in her hand. Leslie hurried
Speaker 1: into her room, shut her door softly, and hid in
Speaker 1: her closet so that Julia Cloud would not hear her sob.
Speaker 1: A moment later, Julia Cloud came into the hall with
Speaker 1: a dear glad ring in her voice and called, children,
Speaker 1: where are you come here? Quick, you darlings, and they
Speaker 1: flocked into her arms like lost ducklings, You blessed darlings,
Speaker 1: She said, laughing and crying at the same time. Did
Speaker 1: you think I wanted to get married and go away
Speaker 1: from you forever? Well, you're all wrong, and I'll never
Speaker 1: do that. You may get married and go away from me,
Speaker 1: but I'll never go away from you till you send me,
Speaker 1: and I won't ever get married to any one on
Speaker 1: this earth at any time. Do you understand I don't
Speaker 1: want to get married ever. They all went into Julia
Speaker 1: Cloud's room then and sat down with her on the couch,
Speaker 1: one on either side of her. Do you really mean it,
Speaker 1: cloudy Jewel, asked Leslie, happily, you don't want to get married,
Speaker 1: not even to that nice professor Armitage. Look here, Leslie,
Speaker 1: you said he had a wart put in her brother.
Speaker 1: Now keep still, Allison. He was nice all the time.
Speaker 1: Only I didn't like him to want our Cloudy. He
Speaker 1: didn't seem to be quite nice enough for her. He
Speaker 1: didn't quite fit her. But if she wanted him, but
Speaker 1: I don't, Leslie, cried Julia, in distress. I never did.
Speaker 1: Are you really cloudy, Dear, you're such a dear, unselfish cloudy.
Speaker 1: How shall we ever quite be sure she isn't giving
Speaker 1: him up? Jest for us, Allison, children, listen, said Julia
Speaker 1: cloud suddenly, putting a quieting hand on each young hand
Speaker 1: in her lap. I'll tell you something I never told
Speaker 1: to a living soul. There was that in her voice
Speaker 1: that thrilled them into silence. It was as if she
Speaker 1: suddenly opened the door of her soul and let them
Speaker 1: look in on her real self, as only God saw her.
Speaker 1: Their fingers tightened in sympathy as she went on a
Speaker 1: long time ago, a great many years ago. Perhaps you
Speaker 1: would laugh and think me foolish if you knew how many.
Speaker 1: Oh No, Cloudy never, said Leslie softly, and Allison growled
Speaker 1: a dissenting note. Well, there was some one whom I
Speaker 1: loved who died. That is all only. I never could
Speaker 1: love anybody that way again. Marriage without a love like
Speaker 1: that is a desecration. Oh Cloudy, we never knew, murmured Leslie.
Speaker 1: No one ever knew, dear. He was very young. We
Speaker 1: were both scarcely more than children. I was only fourteen,
Speaker 1: Oh Cloudy, how beautiful. And you've kept it all these years.
Speaker 1: Won't you tell us just a little about it? I
Speaker 1: think it is wonderful, don't you, Allison? Yes, wonderful, said Allison,
Speaker 1: in that deep, full tone of his that revealed a
Speaker 1: man's soul growing in the boy's heart. There is very
Speaker 1: little to tell, dear. He was a neighbor's son. We
Speaker 1: went to school together and sometimes took walks on Saturdays.
Speaker 1: He rode me on his sledge and helped me fasten
Speaker 1: on my skates, and carried my books, and we played
Speaker 1: together when we had time to play. Then his people
Speaker 1: moved away out west, and he kissed me good bye
Speaker 1: and told me he was coming back for me some day.
Speaker 1: That was all there was to it, except a few
Speaker 1: little letters. Then they stopped, and one day his grandmother
Speaker 1: wrote that he had been drowned, saving the life of
Speaker 1: a little child. Can you understand why I want to
Speaker 1: wait and be ready for him over there where he
Speaker 1: is gone. I keep feeling God will let him come
Speaker 1: for me when my life down here is over. There
Speaker 1: was a long silence, during which the young hands gripped
Speaker 1: hers closely, and the young thoughts grew strangely wise with
Speaker 1: insight into human life and all its joys and sorrows.
Speaker 1: They were thinking out in detail just what their aunt
Speaker 1: had missed, the sweet things that every woman hopes for
Speaker 1: and thinks about alone with God of love, strong care,
Speaker 1: little children, and a home. She had missed it all,
Speaker 1: and yet she had its image in her heart, and
Speaker 1: had been true to her first thought of it all
Speaker 1: the years. Now, when it was offered her again, she
Speaker 1: would not give up the old love for anew, would
Speaker 1: not take what was left of life. She would wait
Speaker 1: till the morning broke and her boy met her on
Speaker 1: the other shore. Suddenly, as they thought, strong young arms
Speaker 1: encircled her and held her close in a dear embrace.
Speaker 1: Then your hours, cloudy, all ours for the rest of
Speaker 1: down here, aren't you, half whispered Leslie, Yes, dear, As
Speaker 1: long as you need me, want me, she finished, we
Speaker 1: shall want you always Cloudy, said Allison, in a clear
Speaker 1: man's voice of decision. Put that down forever, Cloudy Jewel.
Speaker 1: You are our mother from now on, and we want
Speaker 1: you always. That is dear, said Julia Cloud, but a
Speaker 1: resignation in her voice. Some day you will marry, and
Speaker 1: then you will not need me any more, and I
Speaker 1: shall find something to do somewhere. Two fierce young things
Speaker 1: rose up in arms at once. Put that right out
Speaker 1: of your head, Cloudy Jewel, cried, Leslie, you shan't say
Speaker 1: it again. If I thought any man could be mean
Speaker 1: enough not to feel as I do about you, I
Speaker 1: would never marry him. So there, I would never marry anybody.
Speaker 1: My wife will love you as much as I do,
Speaker 1: said Allison, with conviction. I shall never love anybody that doesn't,
Speaker 1: you'll see. And so, with loving arms about her and
Speaker 1: tender words of fierce assertion, they convinced her at last,
Speaker 1: and the bond that held them was only strengthened by
Speaker 1: the little tension it had sustained. Professor Armitage came no
Speaker 1: more to the little pink and white house. But Julia
Speaker 1: Cloud was happy with her children, and they were content together.
Speaker 1: The happy days moved on. I don't see how you
Speaker 1: get time for that Christian endeavor society of years cloud,
Speaker 1: said one of the professors to Allison. I hear you're
Speaker 1: the moving spirit in it, yet you never fall down
Speaker 1: on your class work. How do you manage it? I'd
Speaker 1: like to put some of my other students onto your
Speaker 1: ways of planning. Well, there's all of Sunday, you know,
Speaker 1: professor answered Allison promptly. I don't give so very much
Speaker 1: more time except a half hour here and there to
Speaker 1: a committee meeting or now, and then a social on
Speaker 1: Friday night, when i'd otherwise be fooling. Anyway, my sister
Speaker 1: and I cut out the dances and put these social
Speaker 1: parties in their place. But don't you have to study
Speaker 1: on Sundays? Never do, was the quick reply. Made it
Speaker 1: a rule when I started in here at this college
Speaker 1: and haven't broken at once, not even for examinations. I
Speaker 1: find I'm fresher for my work Monday morning when I
Speaker 1: make the Sabbath reel. The professor eyed em curiously. Well,
Speaker 1: that certainly is interesting, he said. I'll have to try it,
Speaker 1: though I don't see how I'd quite manage it. I
Speaker 1: usually have to spend the whole Sunday correcting papers, save
Speaker 1: em up till early Monday morning, and come over to
Speaker 1: our Christian Endeavor meeting. See if it isn't worth while,
Speaker 1: and then see how much more you can do Monday
Speaker 1: morning at five o'clock, when you're really rested. Then you
Speaker 1: could all day Sunday hacken at the same old job
Speaker 1: you've had all the week. I'll look for you next
Speaker 1: Sunday night. So long, and with a courteous wave, he
Speaker 1: was off with a lacrosstick, gliding down the campus like
Speaker 1: a wild thing. The professor stood and watched him a moment,
Speaker 1: and then turned thoughtfully up the asphalt path, pondering, they
Speaker 1: are a power in the college and in the community
Speaker 1: that sister and brother, he said, I wonder why Down
Speaker 1: at the church they wandered also as they came in
Speaker 1: crowds to the live Christian Endeavor meetings and listened to
Speaker 1: the clear, ringing words of the young man who had
Speaker 1: been president before him, as their praises sounded by his
Speaker 1: admiring friends, especially the young man who had been president
Speaker 1: before him, as they saw the earnest spirit that went
Speaker 1: out to save and had no social distinctions or classes
Speaker 1: to hinder the fraternal interest the pastor wondered most of all,
Speaker 1: and thanked God and told his wife that the Endeavor
Speaker 1: Society was making his church all over. He didn't know it,
Speaker 1: but it had converted him again too. The session wondered
Speaker 1: as it listened to the earnest, simple gospel sermons that
Speaker 1: the pastor now preached, and saw his zeal for bringing
Speaker 1: men to the service of Christ. Oh they pointed out
Speaker 1: the four young people, the Clouds, Jane Bristol and Howard Letchworth,
Speaker 1: as the moving spirits in the work, and they admitted
Speaker 1: some of them that prayer had made the transformation. But
Speaker 1: there were not many of the original bunch of young people,
Speaker 1: who by this time had not been fully trained to
Speaker 1: understand that if you wanted anything in the spiritual world,
Speaker 1: you must take time and give energy to getting acquainted
Speaker 1: with God. But if they could have gone with some
Speaker 1: spirit guide to find out the true secret of all
Speaker 1: the wonderful spiritual growth and power of that young people's society,
Speaker 1: they must have looked in about Julia Cloud's fireplace on
Speaker 1: Sabbath afternoon and seen the four earnest young people with
Speaker 1: their Bibles and Julia Cloud in the miss spending the
Speaker 1: long beautiful hours in actual spiritual study of God's word,
Speaker 1: and then kneeling and communing with God for a little while,
Speaker 1: all of them on intimate terms with God. They were
Speaker 1: actually learning to delight themselves in the Lord. It was
Speaker 1: no wonder that other people, even outside the Church and
Speaker 1: the Christian Endeavor Society, were beginning to notice the difference
Speaker 1: in the four just as they noticed the shining of
Speaker 1: Moses's face when he came down from the mountain after
Speaker 1: communing with God. Julia Cloud stood at the window of
Speaker 1: her Rose and Gray room one Sabbath evening after such
Speaker 1: an afternoon, watching the four children walk out into the
Speaker 1: sunset to their Christian Endeavor meeting, and smiled with the
Speaker 1: tender light in her eyes. She had come to call
Speaker 1: them her four children in her heart now, for they
Speaker 1: all seemed to love and need her alike, and for
Speaker 1: many a month, though they seemed not yet openly aware
Speaker 1: of it, they had been growing more and more, all
Speaker 1: in all to one another, and she was glad. She
Speaker 1: watched them as they walked, Alice in ahead with Jane
Speaker 1: earnestly discussing something, Jane's sweet, serious eyes looking up so
Speaker 1: trustfully to Allison and he's so tall and fine. Beside her,
Speaker 1: Leslie tripping along like a bird behind with Howard and
Speaker 1: pointing out the colors in the sunset, which he watched
Speaker 1: only as they were reflected in her eyes. End of
Speaker 1: Chapter twenty five. Recording by Terra Mendoza, Phoenix, Arizona, April
Speaker 1: two thousand eleven,