Chapter XV: Rachel's Pearls

Rachel took out her pearls from the jewel box and looked at them. They were certainly very beautiful. She had not worn them since her wedding day; and she did not see any chance of wearing them again.

In case the parting with them should grow a little hard she packed them up quickly and went to the post to register them.

It seemed to her as if she was parting with another link of the old life. But after all what did that matter! She had Luke; and it was true what Gwen had said, that Luke compensated for the loss of all else. Besides which, she knew that they both needed a change and rest, and certainly sea breezes were of more value just then than pearls locked up in her jewel case could be. Nevertheless it cost her something to part with their beauty. It was not so much their value that she had thought of as their beauty; and more than once she had taken them out simply to have the pleasure of seeing something very lovely. There was so little beauty surrounding her that she revelled in the sight of her pearls.

It was some time before the cousin, to whom she had sent them, wrote and told her that he believed they would fetch a very good price; and one morning at breakfast she opened a letter that was lying on the table beside her, and a cheque, much larger than she had hoped for, fell out.

Her exclamation of surprise and pleasure caused Luke to look up from the paper he was reading.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Something delightful," she answered. "We can now go for our holiday."

"What do you mean? Have you come in for a fortune?"

"I feel as if I had in our present strait," said Rachel still looking down at the cheque in her hand. "Would you like to see what I have?" She held it out to him.

Money meant little to Luke, except that it enabled him to carry out plans on which he had set his heart. And there was a plan of his that sprang at once into his mind as he looked at the cheque. His face glowed.

"Where did it come from?" he asked, astonished and delighted.

"I sold my pearls."

The smile on his face faded for a moment.

"I did not know you had any, I have never seen them."

"I have never shown them to you as I know that that kind of thing is not in your line, you don't care for jewels; but I wore them on my wedding day. I hope you saw them then."

"No, I only saw you. But why didn't you tell me what you were doing?"

"Because I was afraid you would not let me part with them. Uncle Joe gave them to me, and I was fond of him."

"I shouldn't have prevented you from parting with them. What is the good of pearls?"

"The good! Why their beauty is their good. They are gifts from God just as everything else is that is lovely, and of good report. Don't despise them. Besides," she said, feeling a little sore, "Uncle Joe gave them to me, and I loved him." Then she added, determined not to give way to any feeling of disappointment, "and now we can think about our holiday. Where shall we go?"

She was folding the cheque up and putting it again in the envelope of her letter. But on noticing that Luke did not answer her question, she glanced up and found him looking out of the window with a dreamy happy smile on his face. He was evidently thinking of the holiday. Perhaps his thoughts had flown to Southwold and the moon's silver pathway on the sea. The happiness displayed in his expression of face made her feel that the small self-denial that she had exercised was well worth while.

"I do believe," he said, still looking out of the window, "that at last my dream will be fulfilled."

"What is your dream?" asked Rachel. She had been right. He was evidently dreaming of Southwold.

"Why, to put electric light in St. Marks. Think how attractive and bright it would make the place. I never thought I should be able to do it. How much do you think it would cost?"

Rachel was silent from astonishment and disappointment.

Then she said slowly:

"You don't suppose, do you Luke, that I have sold my pearls to be able to do for the Church what the people are far better able to afford to do than we are? You seem to forget that we are really poor, much poorer than many of the congregation. No, the first thing we must do," she said decidedly, "is to pay our bills and to start afresh, and then to go for a holiday."

Rachel's tone of voice was so decided that he turned and looked at her in surprise.

"But," he said, "it is God's work that you are refusing."

"No," she answered, "I don't think it is. To provide the luxury of electric light in a place where the gas is quite good and sufficient, seems to me to be not so much doing the Will of God as paying our debts, and going for a holiday, which will give you strength to do His work better."

Luke was silent.

"Besides," she added in a lower voice and smiling, "you forget next January."

Luke looked mystified. Then noticing the expression of his wife's eyes, he remembered.

"I forgot for the moment," he said. "You are quite right."

At the thought of January Rachel's face had lost all the surprise and disappointment as she looked down again at the envelope containing the cheque. Then she suddenly drew it out with a gay laugh and flourished it in his face.

"Happily it's mine," she said, "and you can't get at it."