But tears and laughter did not entirely banish the trouble from Eden's thoughts. She kept going over and over what Caspar had said. Did he really mean all those terrible things? And how had she answered him? Was it right to send him away like that, never to return?
But, of course, it was enough to raise her righteous wrath, just the way he had spoken of her father. Her wonderful father! Even if Mr. Thurston had been old-fashioned, which he wasn't in the least, Caspar had no right, just after death had taken her father away, to come into the home where he had always been welcomed and bring him into scorn before his own daughter. She was right to feel it was outrageous. She was right to rebuke him for that. But when he not only did that but brought her father's God into contempt also, what could she do but strike? Send him away?
And now there came to her the memory of other days. Why? Caspar had been as earnest as any of the others in their young people's meeting that they all attended. He even made good speeches and sometimes led in prayer. She always used to be so proud of him for he had a way about him when he was president of their society and said so many good things, so fitting to the subject. Was it possible that he had so utterly changed? It almost seemed to her that he must have been drinking, or he never would have talked like that, though the Caspar of old never drank. Had he learned to do that, too, as well as to despise holy things?
Not that Eden herself had ever been particularly spiritual, but she had been regular in her church attendance, conforming always to the lines laid down by their church and the requests of their nice old pastor, being most active in all the activities of the church. But now it suddenly occurred to her that here was something more than mere church activity required to meet a situation in which God Himself had been challenged, and somehow she felt she didn't have it. At least, she didn't know how to answer one who talked as Caspar had done. Somehow she must find out what to say if anybody ever talked like that again in her presence. She just couldn't stand it. There must be an answer to such blasphemies, or her father, her good, wise father, would never have believed. It wasn't thinkable that such triflers as Caspar could actually dare to flout the tenets of the Christian religion. Oh, she had of course heard of unbelief before, but she had always thought of unbelievers as low-down, vicious people who had not culture or education.
So carefully her father had guarded her that she had been sent to schools that did not spend their time in breaking down respectable religious beliefs that had carried generations of good people along in a placid faith and trust. So now Eden was bewildered that her old playmate, who had been brought up in what she had always thought was a respectable way, had gone back on basic doctrines and beliefs. Somewhere she would have to find a way to answer this if he ever came back to discuss the matter with her--or if anybody else from such a war experience as Caspar had had should come her way. Probably her father knew ways to answer such things and bring unbelievers to see the right, but she couldn't recall that he had ever given her proofs to store in her mind. Yet she was sure beyond the shadow of a doubt that her father had believed in God and had gone to heaven, trusting in the blood of Christ. She was sure he was expecting to go straight to God in heaven when he said good-bye to her and that her dear mother would be there also. She knew from her mother's letters that her father and mother had often talked these things over and agreed and were expecting to be together for all eternity in the presence of God. That wasn't enough to help her tell other people about it. She had to know why wise Christian ministers and saints believed these things. It had never troubled her before. It was the accepted belief of her family, her church, her Christian friends.
But now a new group had come to her knowledge. Not just unbelievers in far foreign lands, nor even gangsters who had never wanted to be good, but a group of whom Caspar, at present, was a representative--a group of young fellows, who, before they went to war, worked in churches, made speeches, and prayed in meetings. And now that they had come back from facing death, they had come to the belief that there was no God, no salvation, no right; that it was all a line of talk. She hadn't talked with others who said so, but Caspar seemed to take it for granted that she knew that all who were not softies felt that way about religion now, and she had to know. She had to know for sure how to prove that God was still God and could save, and heaven was real, or else she could not go on even for herself. And how else could she help others to find the way back to right living? How could she ever help Caspar, supposing he never came back again after the way she had treated him? There must be a way to find out why reasonable people believed all that.
She decided finally that she would go to church next Sunday and see if anything was said that would bring her light on the problem. And if she couldn't get anything out of the church, she would go to the minister and ask him questions.
It was not that her own faith in God was shaken. She believed in her father's God too much to be troubled on her own account, but now that the question had been brought up, she felt she must understand it. It was doubtless true that her father had talked about such things long ago, when she was very young, and had merely supposed that she had understood it and so said nothing more. Just as a teacher would not be continually harping on the alphabet after one had learned to read.
So thinking it out, Eden went back to the book she had been idly looking through, the book that had come to her father since his death, evidently ordered by him from the publisher.
And now she noticed for the first time the subject of this book, whose perusal Caspar's entrance had interrupted; it was religious. Ah, perhaps this was just what she was looking for. Perhaps this would give proofs and arguments that there was a God, arguments that she could use if she ever had to talk again with Caspar. Eagerly she began to read and was amazed at the simplicity of the wording and the startling truths that were set down as facts. For the first time in her life, although she had gone to Sunday school since she was a little child and to church every Sunday--sometimes twice or three times a day--she began to take it in that God considered everyone a sinner. Of course, she had heard about sinners, but she had never realized that people like her father classed in such a category. For the first time she took in the great thought that ever since Adam's sin, everybody was born with a dead spiritual nature. That all of Adam's children had inherited a tendency to sin and that Satan was using that sinful tendency of mankind to turn men, even Christians, against the Son, Jesus Christ. And where he failed to turn them actually against Christ, he was engaged in trying to make it appear that he was doing Christ's work, or more subtle still, trying to make the world believe there was no devil and no sin.
Eden read on, fascinated, because the book was written most simply and originally, yet it touched on themes she had never before heard discussed, or if she had, she had never taken any notice of them. There was "original sin" that seemed to belong to everybody. She had never thought of herself as a sinner. She had always tried to do right, to please her father and mother, and do the things that were expected of her, yet here was this strange book saying "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God." Emphasizing it, as if this not only was meant for gangsters and low-down people, but as if it might have some kind of meaning for good, right-living people. And another phrase, "Ye must be born again." But surely that did not mean church members! Strange! What was this doctrine, anyway? Why did her father send for this book? Or was it just sent to him to advertise it? Yet she couldn't lay it down, and kept on reading till, little by little, she began to wonder if all this could be true.
What was being "born again," anyway? There had been a Sunday school lesson long ago in her childhood about a man who came to Jesus and wanted to know how to be saved, and He had told him that he must be born again. But she had always supposed that the man had been a very wicked person, so wicked that Jesus saw he had just to begin all over again. And wasn't he wealthy, too? It seemed she remembered that about him. She had never thought of this advice as applying to good, right-minded people. She couldn't help feeling a little outraged that anyone should think she herself--well, at least her father, anyway--needed to be born again. Perhaps this was some sort of heretical book that she ought not to bother with. Yet because it had been sent to her father, she felt she must know more about it. Besides, the book itself was intriguing. It seemed to speak to her very soul, to make her suspect things in her heart that she did not know were there, that she had never dreamed were objectionable to God.
So she went on reading until suddenly Janet knocked at the door.
"Are ye asleep, Miss Eden? I'm sorry to disturb ye, but a mon downstairs seems tae think he ought tae see ye richt away. It's that lawyer mon from the bank, and he says there's something important ye ought to know at oncet. Could ye coom doon juist a meenit? He says he wouldna keep ye lang."
"Why, of course, Janet. No, I wasn't asleep. I was just reading one of Daddy's books."
Eden jumped up, her finger in the page where she had been reading, and hurried down the stairs.
The young man was standing in the hall, glancing at his watch.
"I hope I haven't disturbed you, Miss Thurston. Mr. Worden has telephoned again, and he wanted me to get in touch with you and tell you what has been discovered so far."
"Oh, you haven't disturbed me," said Eden pleasantly. "I was only reading. Come into the living room and sit down. Of course, I'm anxious to know if there are any new developments."
"Well, yes, there are," said the young man. "They've found some more jewels sewed quite neatly in the lining of the young man's coat. Also several concealed in the woman's hat, and even some jewelry fastened into her clothing. They were so cleverly concealed that they were not discovered at first and so have just come to light. Of course, the woman claims that you gave them to her, but in view of the fact that you knew nothing about some of the other things she said you gave her, we felt you should see them at once. Also most of these things answer to the description of the articles in the bank list as from the secret compartment. Now, will you look at them? See, I have put them out there on the piano. Here's the diamond bracelet. Do you remember ever seeing it before?
Eden shook her head.
"I'm not sure," she said. "I dimly remember sitting on my mother's lap and putting my hand on something on her wrist, and saying, 'Pitty, pitty.' At least there is a story in the family to that effect, and I've heard it so much that it may be I just imagine I remember it. And it might have been the bracelet. I don't know."
"It were!" announced Janet, arriving quietly in the room. "Ye was settin' on yer mither's lap an' playin' wi' her bracelet, an' they was one o' the verra first words ye spoke. 'Pitty, pitty.' An' yer feyther was that pleased! An' thet's the verra bracelet. I mind it well."
So they went down the line of jewels. Some Eden vaguely remembered having seen before, others she knew nothing about, but all of them were familiar to Janet, who had often helped Eden's mother put her treasures away carefully.
"Well, that's about it so far. All single jewels in the list are found, except a few rubies, and they may turn up in the possession of the two crooks. We are going to search them again carefully. But they have enough on them already to definitely put them in jail. In fact, it will be necessary, for we have checked on their movements out West and find that the boy had once before escaped from confinement there, where he was being held for trial for forgery and complicity in robbery. I'm afraid they are really hardened criminals."
Eden shivered a little and looked distressed.
"Oh, why do people want to be like that?" she said. "I never did like them, nor enjoy having them around, but why do you suppose they choose to be that way? Were they born so?"
"Well, yes, I suppose they were. That is, they were born with a sinful nature," said the young man thoughtfully, "the same kind of nature we all have of course, only some of us choose to sin in more respectable ways." He smiled disarmingly. "People don't have to be crooks unless they choose to be. We don't have to follow every evil thought that comes to us. They know the things they plan to do are wrong, but they want to do them. They take a chance that they can get away with it. This time they didn't get away with it."
Eden looked at the young man with interested eyes.
"That sounds a little like something I was reading just now in this book that was sent to my father."
"Why, yes, I suppose it must. I was just noticing the book in your hand. I've heard of it and often wanted to read it. As soon as I get settled into real living, since army days, I want to do some reading. Just now I haven't time, but from what I've heard about that, you'll find it a great book. Don't you?"
"Oh, I haven't read but a few pages yet. I was just looking it over, and it seemed quite new and strange to me. If it hadn't been sent to Father's address, I wouldn't have known whether to trust it or not, but I rather think he had ordered it himself. You see, I was really wishing for a different kind of book when I first opened it, and then I got interested. But perhaps you would know of a book I could get to answer someone who doesn't believe in God anymore. Is there such a book? Surely there must be somewhere. There are so many good people and so many fine churches."
The young man looked at her with quick surprise and a gentle pity.
"Oh, yes, there are books, plenty of them. Of course, the Bible is the crowning book. But did your friend ever believe in God?"
Eden cast him a puzzled look.
"Why, I suppose he did," she said as if she were trying to think back to the past. "He joined the church at the same time I did. Aren't all church members supposed to believe in God?"
"Yes," said the young man sorrowfully, "supposed to believe. But they do not always do it. Sometimes they do not even know what it is to believe. They are just accepting a general belief that is popular among their friends. Jesus Christ means nothing at all to them. I know a lot of ex-Christians like that myself; some of them were never taught, or had never been introduced to the Lord Jesus. Of course, that is the best proof that there is a God, if you know Jesus Christ. When one really knows Him, he can never doubt again. Do you mind my asking if you know Him?"
"Oh," said Eden with distinct trouble in her eyes, "I don't know. I--supposed I was all right. I never really heard anybody put it that way. I didn't know it was possible to know the Lord till you got to heaven. How could you know Him on this earth?"
And it was just at that moment that Tabor, who had answered a ring on the telephone, came in to say: "Beg pardon, sir, but there is a call for you on the telephone. They said it was urgent. The speaker was about to catch a train."
"Oh, will you excuse me a moment, Miss Thurston?" said the young man, and he hurried to the telephone in the hall.
Eden stood pondering what he had been saying, amazed that a young man of his age and standing should be so earnestly interested in religious matters. Perhaps he would be able to help her perplexities. Then he hung up the receiver and returned to her.
"I am sorry to interrupt our conversation just at this point, but this message was urgent and I must go at once. May I talk to you again sometime about it?"
"Oh, yes," said Eden. "I want to know very much what you were going to say."
"Very well, then, I'll be seeing you later. Soon, I hope. Good night!" And he was gone, leaving a great wonder in her heart and an intense admiration for a man who could speak in this assured way of the things of God. Then she went back to her book, and somehow it became more alive and real than before she had had that talk with the lawyer.