“That was nice of Mr. Singer; thank you for telling me, Jeanette. I don’t know what I want to do; I’m all at loose ends in my mind, but I think, after I’ve boiled for awhile, I’ll settle down; not boil over,” said Cis.
“It takes a long time to get one’s bearings after an earthquake,” agreed Jeanette. “I’ve been wretched, unhappy, bitter, bewildered; I’m better. But, Cis, you don’t look like any of these things; you look good, sweet and good, and—well, clear is the word! It isn’t going to be a vocation, is it?”
“For a convent? Oh, no; I’m afraid not. I’m not that sort; I’m active. Do you suppose there ever was a red-haired contemplative? Even though the hair was cut off when she was professed? I doubt it! You were always so good!” cried Cis.
“I don’t know, I don’t know! I wish I might go,” cried Jeanette. “It seems mean to offer yourself to God because a man failed you.”
“It wouldn’t be that; it would be that a man showed you that only God was worth loving,” Cis corrected her with the insight that was new to her. “If God wanted you, why would you care how He got you? I can see that there are all sorts of ways.”
“My dear, my dear, you have travelled far in a short while!” said Jeanette; then sighed and smiled. “We have come to the end of our talk; there is no more after that. Come back to Miss Braithwaite and my uncle.”
“Anselm Lancaster called up, Jeanette and Cis,” Miss Braithwaite said as the girls came back into the library. “He says that Miss Gallatin was overjoyed at the suggestion of getting away from her detested business and looking after Lucases of assorted sizes. She is coming to see you, here, in the morning, Jeanette. You are to stay the night; I’ve arranged with your uncle, and I only hope that you may carry off with you that pearl of great price, Hannah Gallatin.”
Miss Gallatin and Jeanette Lucas saw each other with perceiving eyes in the morning, and Jeanette went with Miss Gallatin in Miss Braithwaite’s coupé to find Mr. Lucas in his office to arrange for the speediest winding up of Miss Gallatin’s affairs.
“You had an inspiration, Cis,” declared Miss Braithwaite when Jeanette Lucas had gone home again from Beaconhite, with all arrangements made for Miss Gallatin to follow her. “A lonely woman, and a home that needs her. Jeanette Lucas will gain much from Miss Gallatin, and Hannah Gallatin will be lonely no more.”
“I wonder—” Cis began, and stopped.