Free Stranger within the Gates by Grace Livingston Hill

ought he to have a lot of love spent on him when he did that?"
    Mary Garland sighed.
    "If God did that way with us, when we have done wrong, there are a good many gifts we wouldn't get from Him. I guess perhaps we all need to go and pray again."
    "Well, Moms, what would you think we could give her? Would a box of candy be all right?"
    "Yes, I should think so," said the mother.
    "I have a pretty scarf I got for Cousin Euphrasia, and then I decided on a book instead. I could give that," said Sylvia.
    Fae was very sober and thoughtful for a moment, and then she said, "Well, I could give her a pretty handkerchief. I've got enough money left from my Christmas fund for that. Would that be all right, Muvver?"
    Mary Garland drew her youngest child within her arm and kissed her round, pink cheek.
    "Yes, dear. I think that would be nice."
    They scattered presently to their rooms, but their mother lay still a long time, thinking of her own problem. It hadn't been as simple as the children's. It wasn't just a matter of a present. It involved too many questions that might affect a whole lifetime if she went astray in her judgment.
    She fell asleep at last, comforted by the thought that at least the strain of not knowing could not be much longer. Paul, anyway, would surely be coming home tomorrow night.

Chapter 5
    About two weeks before the letter came that so disturbed the Garland family, Rex stamped into the pie shop of the college town around ten o'clock one night, when most of the other students were attending a fraternity dance. It didn't happen to be Rex's fraternity, and anyway, he didn't care much for dancing. Besides, he was trying to study hard and make really good marks.
    He had been working away in his room since dinner that night, and now he was suddenly hungry, so he had come down to the pie shop to get a bowl of soup.
    It happened that there was no other customer in the shop but himself, and a blond waitress was the only attendant that night. One got extra pay for evening work, and she was buying an expensive suit on an installment plan. Another installment was due in a few days now, so she had offered to work that evening.
    The waitress was seated behind the counter on a high stool reading a movie magazine when Rex came in, but she cast the magazine aside and came forward eagerly. This was Rex Garland, already famous as a probable athletic star. He had dark, crisply curly, well-cut hair and eyes that were deep blue, darkly fringed.
    "Ice cream?" she said cordially. "We have fresh strawberry, vanilla, chocolate, caramel custard--"
    But he held up his hand to check her list.
    "I want something real," he said. "I'm hungry. I want a bowl of soup. We had a rank supper tonight at college. Sauerkraut, and I never could abide it."
    "Is that so?" The girl smiled indulgently. "Well, I don't like it either. I don't think it's fit to put in a human stomach. What kind of soup do you want? Tomato or mushroom?"
    "Haven't you got plain vegetable soup?" he asked eagerly. "The kind they make at home? I'm hungry for my mother's cooking!"
    "Isn't that the truth!" sympathized the girl. "Does your mother cook? Most ladies don't have time for that nowadays, what with all the bridge parties and clubs and things."
    "Oh, my mother doesn't go to clubs much, and she doesn't play bridge. Yes, she can cook, though she doesn't do much of it anymore, but she's taught the servants to cook as well as she ever could."
    All the time this idle conversation was going on the girl was working rapidly, manipulating a can of soup and a bright kettle on the gas hot plate, and now she set the bowl of steaming soup before him and brought a plate of crackers and a glass of ice water.
    "Do you have many servants?" she asked casually.
    "Only three now--a cook and a maid and a gardener."
    "You're lucky to have a home like that!" said the girl with a wistful sigh. "Take me, now, I haven't got any mother, nor any home, either." And she sighed deeply.
    "Say, now, that's hard