Bright Arrows Read Online Free PDF Page B

until she saw him face-to-face and talked with him, and found out whether he was really the fine, upstanding boy he used to be in the days when she thought he was everything a young man should be.
    Of course, she had been much upset that he hadn't written to her as he had promised to do, but she had excused that because she knew Capsar hated to write letters. And gradually she had learned to forget the heartaches that had come at first after he went away, and told herself that she was too young to break her heart because of a schoolboy who had forgotten to write letters when he was off fighting battles. And so the days had gone by and the memory of Caspar had gently faded from her thoughts. And now suddenly, with the sound of his voice, the whole vision of his handsome, vivacious face, his fine flashing eyes, his alluring smile came over her, and in spite of all her common sense and her definite resolutions that she was done with Caspar, she couldn't help an excitement thrilling in her veins. Somehow it was great to have her old friend coming back just when she was sad and lonely over the loss of her dear father. She hurried in her dressing to be ready when he should arrive. If he had not much time, she must be ready to see him at once, and of course she must hurry down and tell Janet that he was coming and would likely stay to lunch.
    Then right in the midst of her thoughts the telephone rang again.
    "Hello, Eden, this is Cappie again. I'm sorry as the dickens, but I find I'll not be able to come this morning. I've just met some old friends, and they are determined I shall go to lunch with them. One of them is my old buddy in the army, and he's going back overseas tonight, so you see, I've simply got to stay with him and see him off."
    "Oh!" said Eden coldly. "Then I'm not to see you at all. Is that what you mean? Well, I'm sorry, but of course it's all right."
    "Oh, no, I didn't mean that," said the young man amusedly. "You didn't think I'd come all the way down from New York just to see you, and then go off without seeing you, did you?"
    "It sounded like that," said Eden with dignity.
"Well, I always was a bungler when it came to talking. Of course I'll be around as soon as he leaves. I haven't found out what train he takes yet, but I'll be seeing you. How about early this evening?"
    "But I thought you wanted to go dancing," she said sweetly. "Don't let me hinder you."
    "Oh, see here now, that's all off. Of course I wouldn't expect you to go out having fun when you had just had a death in the family. I'm not that crude. And I certainly do want to see you like the dickens. I've been thinking about you all the way home. Yes, I'm all kinds of sorry I had to meet up with this buddy of mine and be hindered in coming directly to you. But you see, I kind of felt under obligation to him on account of things he did for me when I was wounded. But say, are you going to be in this evening?"
    "Why, yes, I think I probably shall. Yes, of course, come when it's convenient to you. I'll be very glad to see you." But her tone was cool.
    "All righty, I'll be there, and I'm just crazy to see you."
    So with a hasty "So long," Caspar hung up, and Eden went back to her precious letters.
    The last letters of Mrs. Thurston were written from a hospital. They were full of tender love for her husband and anxious premonitions for her little Eden. And now Eden could read between the lines and sense that her mother knew that her health was in danger and that she might soon be taken away.
    There were only a few letters left now, and her heart was longing to read them all and get to know this mother who had gone from her so long ago that she could not remember anything about her but a vague lovely face and a gentle touch.
    Curiously enough, the last three letters were filled with a kind of exultant joy in her husband and an overwhelming longing that her little girl might grow up in such a wonderful life as hers had been. And in one letter she