CHAPTER XX.
Mr. and Mrs. Birch had given up the restaurant in the Colony at the time he was required to take a position in the interests of the Society. He turned out to be a splendid organizer and they had gone from city to city to get the colonies in line. In the meantime two children had been born, and first one, then the other had been left at the original Colony on account of the parents traveling about. Both Mr. and Mrs. Birch were good talkers and very much in demand. Everywhere they went success followed the enterprise. Just at this time they were staying at the hotel in the Colony to be near their children and to arrange to have their shares transferred to another part of the country where the weather was not so severe. In fact it was summer there all the year and they preferred making it their home. Six years had been devoted to the society; now they intended to live a domestic life and be with their children.
Mrs. Birch and Scoris Vivian had always been friends and while the Birches were going from place to place, Scoris (after moving to the society) saw that their babies had enough attention that they should not feel the loss of their parents; in that way she had become very much attached to them, and to the little tots she was a second mother, in fact they called her “’nother mamma,” to express their own sentiments. Their father had been trying to teach the youngest one to call her Miss Vivian, but she shook her head and said, “No, her is another mamma.”
Living in the Colony had brought about very close friendships. Those who had to keep their little ones in the nursery while employed could not give them all the fondling that children crave, but others were glad to take an hour every day or so. There was not a child in the nursery but what it had some one or other to take it out and give it recreation if it was only to take a walk. The lady principal of the establishment knew every one in the place and knew who to trust with their care.
Scoris felt the loss of the Little Birches more than she had anticipated, and when an invitation came for her to visit their parents she gladly accepted.
Paul Arling and his mother had just nicely settled in the Colony and Scoris was glad to get away for a time to overcome what she considered her foolish attachment for him. She had always thought it more womanly to let others see that you care for them, than to hide it, so while they had lived in the city the family had been more intimate than she intended they should in the Colony. Like many others she had found that to let a man see that you care for him is a mistake until they are ready to declare themselves. She knew his position but thought he could confide in her under the circumstances if he actually cared as much for her as at first she thought he did. In bitterness she realized that a spark of fire may be quenched if not allowed to burn too long, so she made up her mind that a change would indicate her indifference to him and possibly bring it about. Time had passed quickly nevertheless since she had been associated with the society, and she had formed habits that brought her in touch with nearly every family there. One thing, no one in the association knew that her heart had gone out to Paul Arling. It was only in the secret of her own soul that she acknowledged it.
In this new country the change had been so complete that she forgot she ever had any other motive for going away than pleasure. The society papers had announced her arrival and before she knew it all kinds of demonstrations were on foot to honor her as the Honorable Scoris Vivian, who had helped to bring about the conditions under which they all were prospering. She had forgotten that she ever had heartache for everyone treated her as if she was a princess and she was beginning to believe that she liked this new country better than the old. Men who were wealthy as well as devoted to the cause of the people, asked her to marry them. One in particular wouldn’t take no for an answer and he paid her such marked attention and had said so persistently that he would win her that it was announced in the papers that there was an engagement. There was much to see and the warm climate made a difference in the buildings which interested her, for instead of building them in apartments as in her home Colony, they were built separately because land was not so expensive nor was building material.
Laborers, machinists and builders were not as plentiful as land, but almost any one could put up a shelter, and improve upon it as their shares increased. She thought what a fine place it would be for aged or delicate people who suffer from severe climates, and she was looking around for possible employment for them. She knew that with the automobile system they could be sent there. She was interested in “the Solar system” that had been discovered there also, and intended to bring it before the home Colony when she returned. Her attention had been wholly on the affairs of the society, so she was not aware of the personal interest that she was attracting.
Her letters to her mother described the system instead of telling them news about herself.
“The Solar system was produced by using mirrors shaped like a large basin,” she wrote. “This was so arranged that it reflected the rays of the sun and the heat generated was focused upon a large, furnace-boiler, producing steam, this in turn was used to produce electricity and was stored in a storage battery. The reason the mirror had to be a basin shape was to focus the rays of the sun directly upon one spot, otherwise the heat wouldn’t be sufficient to produce the steam. It was so inexpensive that it soon revolutionized every other system of heating, lighting or producing electricity in that part of the country. It could be erected on the top of a house, or on a building built for that purpose which was found best where new conditions were practiced as they were in this colony. The fact that heat could be secured by reflecting the sun’s rays on a mirror was one of the greatest factors in making this colony a success. Its simplicity placed it within the reach of any intelligent person. Of course all kinds of patents were claimed for the different patterns, but even the trusts could not monopolize the sun, and small boys began to shape pieces broken from glasses in their homes or go to the factory and collect any kind and shape them together in a circular basin with the use of plaster paris and then stand it against the wall or a box and let it reflect the sun upon a pail of water suspended from a string that couldn’t come in contact with the rays.”
Helen and her mother were talking about Scoris’ letter and the advantage of the solar system would be to all the colonies. Presently Helen says I am sorry for Paul for I know he has always loved Scoris, and she doesn’t deny what the papers are saying.
While they were talking Paul Arling’s mother called.She said she had come to ask if it was true that Scoris was going to marry someone out in the new Colony?
Mrs. Vivian told her that Scoris had never written them about it, but she hadn’t denied it either. That possibly she had intended waiting until she came home before letting them know.
They had been old friends, Mrs. Arling reminded Mrs. Vivian, and she had hoped that some day Scoris would have been her daughter-in-law.
Mrs. Vivian sat with her chin resting on her hand, looking away out to the future; in thought she, too, had wished that Paul and Scoris would marry sometime.
“Our dreams rarely come true,” she replied, softly. “I had hoped that all my children would be near me while I live, but, ah, well,” she sighed, “Scoris has always been a sensible girl and I am sure will not make a mistake.”
Mrs. Arling reported the conversation to Paul and it seemed to him a fact that he had lost Scoris after all these years waiting to have something to offer her. He didn’t try to hide his grief from his mother, and when he told her why he hadn’t spoken to Scoris, she reminded him that he had been in fault.
“You must remember that it is the custom for women to keep silence on that subject. I always supposed that there was an understanding between you.”
“To tell the truth, so did I,” he answered.
“There you go!” she said. “Like all the rest of men, taking things for granted. I would sooner have had one room for the rest of my life than to have come between you two. Why, with the advantages we have here in this colony I would have been more comfortable, for I would have less care.”
PRINCESS LOVECHILD.
PRINCESS LOVECHILD.
PRINCESS LOVECHILD.
There was a touch of human nature; she had been selfish, and now as she thought she had made her son unhappy she blamed him.
“I see I am to blame,” he soliloquized when alone. “I should have consulted her; perhaps she would have married me now. I have enough to start with, for it doesn’t require as much in a colony like this, where you are sure of employment as long as you need it.”
He had invested a small sum in starting some exchanges and the dividends had been unusually large. “If I could only have had it before!” he said to himself; “I would have known just what to do. Now I suppose I have lost her.”
About this time Helen’s engagement had been announced to a young Prince and he saw the effect Scoris’ engagement had upon Paul Arling, for Paul had been unable to hide it. The four had been constant companions in the city and he believed that Scoris cared for Paul. One evening he called for him to take him automobiling and after they had left the Colony behind and were going slowly through a cool stretch of bush, where the trees almost touched their heads, the Prince said:
“Helen and I are going to be married in the fall.”
“And I suppose Scoris will be married also?” Paul questions.
“I don’t know,” the Prince answered. “You are referring to that announcement in the paper. She will be home in two weeks, and we will know then. I am disappointed, old fellow,” he continued, “for I used to think that your heart was in that direction.”
“It was, and is yet,” Paul answered softly. “I am dazed with the news. You know, Charley, I had nothing to offer her until now.”
“Well, neither had I; but I let Helen know I loved her, so she wouldn’t learn to care for some one else.”
“But you hadn’t anyone else to support, as I had,” Paul said. “I will go away before she comes back,” he continued. “I never could live here and witness that wedding. I don’t know when I began to love Scoris Vivian. Long before I saw her she was my ideal in imagination, and I knew her to be my fate when she appeared.”
“And you never told her this?” Charley asks.
“How could I, when I was not able to give her a home such as she deserves?”
“Paul Arling, the trouble with you is that you are too cautious. I didn’t even have a position when this Colony started, but I pitched right in and now I can take life easy. I was bound to win and nothing daunted me. I kept Helen posted all the time, and she encouraged me to succeed.”