Free New Name by Grace Livingston Hill

smartly, and for an instant the pain was so great that he could do nothing but stand still.
    The girl in the doorway was tall and slim, and she stood where the light from the chapel shone full behind her and silhouetted a very pleasant outline. Also she knew that the light caught and scintillated from her crystal necklace, which hung to her very long indefinable waist, and that she presented thus a trim appearance. But she might as well have been short and fat for all he saw of her as he stood and held his eye and groped about with his other hand on what seemed an interminable stone wall behind him. Was there no way to get out of this?
    Jane was not a girl to give up the vantage she had gained of being the first to welcome this new hero to town. He had backed off into the shrubbery, shy perhaps, and had not answered, but she was reasonably sure of her man. Of course it must be he. He was likely reconnoitering to be sure he was in the right place, and it wouldn’t do to let him slip away. He might be one of those who were shy of an open welcome and needed to be caught or he would escape. So Jane proceeded to catch him.
    With nimble feet she descended the three stone steps and was upon him before he knew it, with a slim white hand outheld.
    “Your name is Murray, isn’t it? I was sure it must be”—as he did not dissent. “Mine is Jane Freeman, and we’re awfully glad you’ve come to town. We’re expecting you to supper, you know, and you might as well come right in. Everybody else will be here pretty soon, and we’ll just have that much more time to get acquainted. Won’t the girls be humming though when they find out I met you first! But I had a sort of right, because my mother and your mother were schoolmates together, you know! Were you trying to find the right door? It is confusing here. Doctor Harrison’s study is that door, and that one goes into the choir room, and this enters the kitchen and dining rooms. We go over to this other door and enter through the chapel. Everyone gets lost here at first.”
    “Yes, I guess I did lose my way,” murmured Murray Van Rensselaer, feeling it imperative to say something, under the circumstances, and casting furtive glances behind him to see how he could get away.
    “Come right around this way,” went on Jane volubly. “Here’s the path. Have you been over to Mrs. Summers’ yet? Isn’t she coming over? I thought she would have shown you the way.”
    “No, I haven’t been to Mrs. Summers’ yet,” he said, catching eagerly at the idea. “But I really can’t go in this way. I’ve—you see, there was a wreck on the road—”
    “Oh, were you really in the wreck after all? How wonderful! And you got through? How ever did you do it? Why, the relief train hasn’t come back yet—at least it hadn’t when I came over.”
    “Oh, I walked part of the way and got on the freight—”
    “Oh really! How thrilling! Then you can tell us all about the wreck. We haven’t heard much. Come right in and meet Anita. I want you to tell her about the wreck.” But the young man halted firmly on the walk.
    “Indeed,” said he decidedly, “it’s quite impossible. I’m a wreck myself. I’ve got to dress before I could possibly meet anybody, except in the dark, and I think you’ll have to excuse me tonight. My trunk hasn’t come yet, you know, and I’m really not fit to be seen. You don’t know what a wreck is, I guess.”
    “Oh, were you really in it like that!” exclaimed Jane adoringly. “How wonderful that you escaped! But you’re mistaken about your trunk. It came yesterday. Mrs. Summers told me this morning it had arrived, and it’s over in your room. If you really must dress first, I’ll show you the way to Mrs. Summers’, but it wouldn’t be necessary, you know. You would be all the more a hero. You could come right in the church dressing room and wash and comb your hair. It would be terribly interesting and dramatic for you to appear just as you came