All Through the Night (Musaicum Romance Classics). Grace Livingston Hill
you good if he got mad enough."
"Oh, get out, you bad boy! You know perfectly well he wouldn't dare!"
"Wouldn't he, though?" mimicked the loving brother. "Wait and see! Just you wait till I tell Mother what you said about those flowers. Now she's seen the dame that furnished 'em she wouldn't let you get by with an act like that!"
So the bickering went on out on the porch, with rising angry voices floating around the neighborhood.
"Isn't that perfectly awful!" said little Mrs. Bolton next door, peering out behind the curtains and then pulling her window down sharply with a bang to let the young people understand she was hearing them.
But upstairs Lieutenant David Kenyon and Dale Huntley were standing quietly before the sweet dead face among the flowers. The sun was slowly sinking behind the distant hill and made a soft rosy light on the quiet, lovely face of the old lady, lighting up her silver hair and giving a glory that was not of earth, as if God's sun would touch her brow with a hint of the heavenly glory that her clear soul was wearing now.
"Why, she's beautiful!" said the young officer in surprise. "I've seen a lot of death lately, but I never saw a face glorified like that. I didn't imagine death could be beautiful!"
"She is beautiful, isn't she?" said Dale softly. "She was like that in life, lovely of expression. Only there's something different about it now. Something not of earth. Something heavenly. Doesn't it seem that way to you?"
"It does," said the young man reverently. "It seems—" he hesitated, and then went on, "it almost seems as if she were standing right in the Presence of God and had just looked at Him for the first time. Only I suppose she must have known Him well before she went away."
"She did!" said Dale, brushing the quick tears away. "Only I suppose it is different when one gets there and really sees Him in His beauty. ‘The King in His beauty.' She used to say that sometimes, smiling to herself, those last few days. ‘The King in His beauty!' I wonder what it will be like when we first see Him."
"Well, she's seen Him now," said the young man with conviction.
"Yes, there's no doubt about that!" said Dale, with a smile like a rainbow through her tears. "Oh, I'm so glad you stopped by! It's good to have someone who understands. A great many loved her, but very few knew her as she really was. She was reserved and quiet, just a touch of fun and a twinkle in her eyes. She had a great sense of humor, too, but they didn't all understand how real Christ was to her. But you are a Christian then, aren't you? I didn't know."
"One could scarcely be anything else where I've been for the last two years," he said gravely, "unless one turned into a devil and grew hard. Coming near to death every day puts a different light on life and what it means. You find out that you need a Savior when you are surrounded by death. But somehow I never realized that death could look like this."
They talked a few minutes while Dale opened the box and took out the lovely flowers he had brought.
"Lilies of the valley!" she said. "How lovely! And Grandmother was so fond of them. But I thought it was too late for them."
"I guess it is late," said the officer, "but somehow they seemed the fitting thing for a grandmother gone home. I could not send flowers to my own grandmother's funeral because I did not know in time, so I thought I would like to bring them to this one."
"Oh, that is so kind of you!" said Dale, lifting a lovely smile to his eyes. "It seems the most beautiful thing that anyone could do. We'll put them in her hands. I can imagine just how she would have held them in her lifetime."
Dale lifted the white hands that were folded across the breast and put the mass of delicate little blossoms in them, just as the dear old lady might have picked them up and held them to her to smell their exquisite perfume, and then the two stood back a little, looking at the sweet picture it made.
"It seems," said the young man, "as if there must have been somebody else's flowers that should have priority over mine; as if I were stealing in where I have no right to be, so very close to her. I am only a stranger to her, you know."
"No," said Dale quickly, "you are not a stranger. You are someone whom God has sent, and it comforts me to see your flowers there, because you understand. And there are no flowers she loved as much as those lilies of the valley."
"Thank you," he said. "I'm glad I could help a little."
And then there were sounds from downstairs of more people coming, and the young man drew back, feeling that their quiet time together was over.
"When is the service?" he asked wistfully.
"to-morrow afternoon at two o'clock," said Dale. "I wish you could be here. Grandmother arranged it all. She wanted the service to tell the story of salvation, if there should be somebody here who did not know the way."
"I shall be glad to be here," said the young man, "if I won't be intruding. I am afraid this may be my last leave before I go back overseas, but I have till midnight to-morrow night. I was hoping I might have another word or two with you before I leave, but I suppose you will be very busy."
"Not too busy to talk to you. I shall be so glad if you will come to the service, and I can give you time afterward. You will help to tide me over the first hard hours knowing that she is gone."
He looked down at her tenderly and smiled. "Thank you," he said quietly.
And then they could hear those other people coming up the stairs with Aunt Blanche's clarion voice leading them on self-consciously, as if it were entirely her funeral, glory and all, although she had not as yet come upstairs to see the grandmother.
David Kenyon put his strong, warm hand on Dale's with a quick clasp like a benediction.
"Thank you, and good-bye till to-morrow. I'll be praying for you all through the night, for I know it will be a hard one for you."
Then with a smile like a blessing he was gone, down the stairs alone, out the door, and into the street before Corliss realized that he was coming. He vanished so quickly that she looked down the darkening street in vain to see a stalwart officer, whom she had fully intended to accompany on his way to get a little better acquainted with him.
"What happened with that navy guy, Cor?" asked her brother, looking up from the funnies over which he had been straining his eyes in the fading light.
"That's what I'm wondering," answered Corliss surlily. "I thought I was watching him every minute. I was going out to speak to him, but he just came down from the porch, swung out that gate, and disappeared before I could tell he was even there. He must wear seven-leagued boots. I never saw anybody go into nothing as quick in my life. It certainly wasn't very flattering to the family, when he must have seen us all sitting here on the porch."
"Mebbe he had to catch a train," said the boy. "Say, how long is this line gonna last? I'm about fed up with it. Why can't we go to the movies somewhere?"
"No," said his mother sharply. "We've got to wait till Dale comes down and arranges for us to go to the hotel. She'll have to send for a taxi, and I do wish she'd hurry up. All these fool neighbors coming in and staying so long! I can't see any sense in it."
"Well, why can't we go and find a taxi ourselves? Can't you phone for a taxi? Ask that servant out in the kitchen. She'll know where to get a taxi."
"No," said their mother. "It's better to stay right here till I can have it out with Dale. I've got to find out about that funeral, what time it is set and when I can have the man here to see the house. I'm afraid she's going to be hard to handle about this. She seems to think the house is hers, and it isn't, I'm quite sure. I'll have to find that lawyer our Mr. Hawkins told me about and look into things to-morrow."
"When are we going home, Mom?" asked the bored boy. "I'm fed up with his funeral business, and if you are going to hang around here any longer, I'm going home by myself."
"No!" said the mother firmly. "You are not going home alone. You are not going until the rest of us go. I may need you here to carry these things through. You aren't of age of course, but there is