Ariel Custer Read Online Free PDF Page A

meet me at Broad Street Station at half past twelve. My train was late—”
    “Oh, are
you
the one—?” The girl eyed her intently with a kind of indifferent interest. “But she wrote you the very next day. I saw the letter. She was very sorry, but she told you not to come. You see, her mother was taken very sick and her father had just died and she had to go home and stay. She wrote that letter a whole week ago, just as soon as the telegram came.”
    Ariel suddenly looked around for a chair and sat weakly down, looking at the other girl with big, appealing eyes.
    “I’m sorry,” said the girl. “But didn’t you get her letter?”
    “No, I didn’t get the letter,” said Ariel with white, trembling lips. “I—No, I didn’t get any letter.”
    “You look tired. Can I get you a drink of water?” asked the girl. She hurried away with a glass and in a moment was back.
    Ariel sat staring ahead, but she took the glass and sipped a few drops. The Custer courage was coming to the front.
    “Can I do anything for you?” asked the girl. “It must be annoying to have misunderstood.”
    “Thank you,” said Ariel, handing back the glass and rising. “I think I shall have to go now. Could you tell me where I could find the new librarian?”
    “No,” said the other. “She hasn’t reached the city yet. She’s coming down from New York tomorrow, but it won’t be any use for you to see her. She’s bringing her daughter with her to assist her. She’s a relative of one of the board of directors, and they really made this place for her and her daughter, I suppose, though you needn’t say I said so. I’m not to stay either. I’m only here till they arrive. It’s really tough on you, but you’ll probably find another job soon. It really isn’t Miss Larrabee’s fault, for as I told you I saw her writing the letter. It must be in the mail. Things often get lost in the mail. Or perhaps in her hurry she forgot to mail it—”
    But Ariel with a wan smile had thanked her and was walking away, her little head held high, her sunny eyes clouded with trouble, but her lips brave as ever.
    The other girl looked after her anxiously, but there seemed nothing she could do, so she went back to the novel she was reading.
    Out in the broad, strange street, Ariel attempted to find a car back to the station. There at least she would have a right to sit down and think, and recover from the blow she had received. Here she felt that she could not quite take it in, it was so sudden and so sharp a reversal of things.
    During the long car ride back to the station, she found herself saying softly in her heart,
Dear Lord, are You there? Dear Lord, are You there? You said You’d go with me; are You surely there?
“
    She got out of the trolley too soon, it appeared, and must walk a block and cross an awful street, so much worse than when she was there before because of the lateness of the hour. There were throngs everywhere, jostling, and trolleys and automobiles. She stood a long time uncertain, trying to make out which way traffic signs read and whether the policeman in the middle of the road really meant her to come when he held up his hand, and then she made a wild dash. It was not that she was stupid, only tired and dazed, and out of her sheltered life, she had never experienced the noise and crush of the hour and place.
    It was only a man on a bicycle who knocked her down. The big truck had stopped, and two automobiles had stopped when they saw her coming, for somehow there was something delicate and lovely and appealing about Ariel, something alien to the city in her plain country garb, that made people take care of her. The man on the bicycle was head down, going like a rocket, and Ariel didn’t see him till he was upon her. Then he only grazed her slightly, just enough to throw her off her balance and down upon her knees, and himself full length upon the road.
    The traffic officer roared at everybody, swung his sign around to S