Read Online Not My Will and The Light in My Window by Francena H. Arnold - Free Book Online Page B

took no recreation and was so engrossed in his work and oblivious to all things else that he did not notice Eleanor’s weariness. She never complained, however. She had found that if she worked as hard as possible all day, there was less time to be lonely.
    “But I
am
lonely,” she admitted to herself. “I lovemy work, and I want to help, but it doesn’t satisfy me anymore. I wonder what the professor would think if he knew that my thoughts aren’t here in the laboratory half the time but out in the fields with Chad. If only I could have gone with him!”
    Letter writing helped, but not much. Every letter Eleanor received made her long more intensely for her husband, especially as she read of his yearning for her. Several times she wrote long letters in return, pouring out all her love on the paper. But the intensity of the letters frightened her when she read them over, and in the end she always burned them, sending Chad instead short, bright notes telling of her work and her admiration for the professor. She knew that these would not satisfy Chad, but she could not write more intimately without breaking down the wall she had constructed to shut in her longing to be with him.
    “Why, if Chad ever got this,” Eleanor told herself as she finished re-reading one of the long love letters she never mailed, “he’d come on the next train and bundle me up and take me back with him without listening to a word I could say. No siree!” She shook her bright head and began writing a much different sort of letter. “I’ll make it all clear to him when I see him again.”
    One morning in mid-September, Professor Nichols entered the laboratory to find Eleanor already at work.
    “Well, Miss Eleanor,” he announced jovially, “I have good news for you.”
    “What is it? Is the book finished?”
    “It can be finished now quite satisfactorily without the aid of the equipment here. We are going to returnhome just as soon as you can prepare yourself for the journey. How soon can we make our reservations ?”
    He was unprepared for the glad smile that broke over her face. “Oh, tomorrow—today!” she exclaimed. “I can be ready as soon as you like. Do let’s go soon!”
    “Well, we shall take our departure as soon as arrangements can be concluded. I suppose you are eager to take up this next year’s work at the university.” He beamed at her fondly.
    Chad, Chad,
her heart sang.
    * * *
    As the miles flew behind them, the thoughts of both the professor and Eleanor raced ahead. Professor Nichols, anticipating the finishing of his book, was thanking the Lord for sending him such an efficient assistant as Eleanor, whose aid had been so indispensable to him. He planned the dedication of the volume.
    To my dear wife,
whose faith in me inspired this volume,
and to my faithful assistant, E. A. S.,
whose labors made it possible.
    Eleanor was not thinking of the book. She was wondering when Chad would return from the farm. His last letter had not disclosed his plans. She sent him a wire and thought she could not bear the disappointment if he should still be gone when she arrived. The professor and his wife left the train at a suburb just outside the city, but she scarcely heard their farewells. She was asexcited as any schoolgirl at the prospect of seeing Chad again.
    The station was full of people milling about, but no Chad. Eleanor made her way to the street door. Suddenly she felt her purse being slipped out from under her arm. She turned to retrieve it, only to meet Chad’s laughing, loving gaze.
    “This your purse, madam?” He held it up teasingly.
    “Oh, Chad,” she gasped.
    Quickly he engineered her to the sidewalk and beckoned for a cab. They climbed in; Chad gave the driver an address, and as they drove off, Chad’s arms went around her in a close, tender caress.
    “Darling,” he said. “I know this is extravagant, but you wouldn’t have wanted me to do this on the El, would you? Oh, Ellen, it’s been a long,