17 - The Best Man by Grace Livingston Hill.

17 - The Best Man by Grace Livingston Hill.  
Cyril Gordon, a young and handsome secret service agent is running from pursuers who desperately want the information he holds. He hides out from them in a church, and then finds himself married to a woman he’s never seen before. A sweet and sometimes, funny, romance, with several exciting chases.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter seventeen of the Best Man. This LibriVox recording is
in the public domain. Recording by Gale maddern The Best
Man by Grace livingstone Hill, chapter seventeen. The next morning,
quite early, the phone called Gordon to the office. The
Chief Secretary said the matter was urgent. He hurried away,

(00:23):
leaving Celia somewhat anxious lest their plans for going to
New York that day could not be carried out. But
she made up her mind not to fret, even if
the trip had to be put off a little, and
solaced herself with a short visit with her mother over
the telephone. Gordon entered his chief's office a trifle anxiously,

(00:44):
for he felt that in justice to his wife. He
ought to take her right back to New York and
get matters there adjusted, but he feared that there would
be business to hold him at home until a Holeman
matter was settled. The Chief greeted him affably and bade
him sit down. I am sorry to have called you
up so early, he said, but we needed you. The

(01:06):
fact is they've arrested Holman and five other men, and
you are in immediate demand to identify them. Would it
be asking too much of an already overworked man to
send you back to New York to day. Gordon almost
sprang from his seat in pleasure. It just exactly fits
in with my plans, or rather my wishes, he said, smiling.

(01:27):
There are several matters of my own that I would
like to attend to in New York, and for which,
of course I did not have time. He paused and
looked at his chief, half hesitating, marveling that the way
had so miraculously opened for him to keep silence a
little longer on the subject of his marriage. Perhaps the
Chief need never be told that the marriage ceremony took

(01:49):
place on the day of the Holman dinner. That is good,
said the Chief, smiling. You certainly have earned the right
to attend to your own affairs. Then we need not
feel so bad at having to say and you back.
Can you go on the afternoon train? Good? Then let
us hear your account of your trip briefly, to see
if there are any points we didn't notice yesterday. But first,

(02:11):
just step here a moment. I have something to show you.
He flung open the door to the next office. You
knew that Fairy had left the department on account of
his ill health. I have taken the liberty of having
your things moved in here. This will hereafter be your headquarters,
and you will be next to me in the department.

(02:31):
Gordon turned in amazement and gazed at the kindly old
face promotion he had hoped for. But such promotion right
over the heads of his elders and superiors he had
never dreamed of receiving. He could have taken the Chief
in his arms. Pooh, pooh, said the Chief. You deserve it.
You deserve it. When Gordon tried to blunder out some

(02:53):
words of appreciation, then, as if to cap the climax,
he added, and by the way, you know, some one
has got to run across the water to look after
that Stanhope matter that will fall to you. I'm afraid
sorry to keep you trotting round the globe, but perhaps
you will like to make a little vacation of it.
The Department will give you some time if you want it. Oh,

(03:16):
don't thank me. It's simply the reward of doing your duty.
To have more duties given you and higher ones. You
have done well, young man. I have here all the
papers in the Stanhope case, and full directions written out,
and then if you can plan for it, you needn't
return unless it suits your pleasure. You understand the matter
as fully as I do already. And now for business,

(03:39):
let's hurry through. There are one or two little matters
we must talk over, and I know you will want
to hurry back and get ready for your journey. And so,
after all, the account of Gordon's extraordinary escape and eventful
journey home became, by reason of its hasty repetition, a
most prosaic story, composed of the bare facts and no

(04:00):
all of those. At parting, the Chief pressed Gordon's hand
with heartiness and ushered him out into the hall with
the same brusque manner he used to close all business interviews.
And Gordon found himself hurrying through the familiar halls in
a daze of happiness, the secret of his unexpected marriage
still his own and hers. Celia was watching at the

(04:23):
window when his key clicked in the lock, and he
let himself into the apartment, his face alight with the
joy of meeting her again after the brief absence. She
turned in a quiver of pleasure at his coming. Well
get ready, he said, joyfully, we are ordered off to
New York on the afternoon train with a wedding trip
to Europe into the bargain, and I'm promoted to the

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next place. To the chief, what do you think of
that for a morning surprise? He tossed up his hat
like a boy, came over to where she stood, and, stooping,
laid reverent lips upon her brow and eyes. Oh beautiful, lovely,
cried Celia ecstatically. Come sit down on the couch and
tell me about it. We can work faster afterward if

(05:08):
we get it off our minds. Was your chief very
much shocked that you were married without his permission or knowledge? Why?
That was the best of all. I didn't have to
tell him I was married, and he is not to
know until just as I sail. He need never know
how it all happened. It isn't his business, and it
would be hard to explain. No one need ever know,

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except your mother and brother, unless you wish them to Dear. Oh,
I am so glad and relieved, said Celia delightedly. I've
been worrying about that a little. What people would think
of us, For of course we couldn't possibly explain it
all out as it is to us. They would always
be watching us to see if we really cared for

(05:50):
each other, and suspecting that we didn't, and it would
be horrid. I think it is our own precious secret,
and nobody but Mamma and Jeff have a right to know,
don't you. I certainly do. And I was casting about
my mind as I went into the office. How I
could manage not to tell the chief when. What did
he do but spring a proposition on me to go

(06:12):
at once to New York and identify those men. He
apologized tremendously for having to send me right back again,
but said it was necessary. I told him it just
suited me, for I had affairs of my own that
I had not had time to attend to when I
was there, and would be glad to go back and
see to them. That let me out on the wedding question,

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for it would be only necessary to tell him I
was married when I got back. He would never ask when.
But the announcements, said Celia, catching her breath laughingly. I
never thought of that. We'll just have to have some
kind of announcements or my friends will not understand about
my new name, and we'll have to send him one,
won't we Why I don't know. Couldn't we get along

(06:56):
without announcements? You can explain to your intimate friends, and
the others won't ever remember the name. After a few months.
We'll not be likely to meet many of them right away.
I'll write to my chief and tell him informally, leaving
out the date entirely. He won't miss it. If we
have announcements at all, we needn't send him one. He

(07:16):
wouldn't be likely ever to see one any other way,
or to notice the date. I think we can manage
that matter. We'll talk it over with your he hesitated,
and then smiling tenderly, added, we'll talk it over with mother.
How good it sounds to say that I never knew
my mother, you know. Celia nestled her hands in his

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and murmured, oh, I'm so happy, so happy. But I
don't understand how you got a wedding trip without telling
your chief about our marriage. Easy as anything. He asked
me if I would mind running across the water to
attend to a matter for the service, and said I
might have extra time while there for a vacation. He

(07:58):
never suspects that faction is to be used as a
wedding trip I'll write him or phone him the night
we leave New York. I may have to stay in
the city two or three days to get this holeman
matter settled, and then we can be off. In the meantime,
you can spend the time reconciling your mother to her
new son. Do you think we'll have a very hard
time explaining matters to her? Not a bit, said Celia Gaily.

(08:23):
She never did like George. It was the only thing
we ever disagreed about my marrying him. She suspected all
the time I wasn't happy and couldn't understand why I
insisted on marrying him when I hadn't seen him for
ten years. She begged me to wait until he had
been back in the country for a year or two,
but he would not hear to such a thing, and

(08:44):
threaten to carry out his worst At once, Gordon's heart
suddenly contracted with righteous wrath over the cowardliness of the
man who sought to cane his own ends by intimidating
a woman. And this woman so dear, so beautiful, so
lovely in her nature, it seemed the man's heart must
indeed be black to have done what he did. He

(09:07):
mentally resolved to search him out and bring him to
justice as soon as he reached New York. It puzzled
him to understand how easily he seemed to have abandoned
his purposes. Perhaps, after all, he was more of a
coward than they thought, and had not did to remain
in the country. When he found out that Celia had
braved his wrath and married another man, he would find

(09:29):
out about him and set the girl's heart at rest
just as soon as possible, that any embarrassment in some
future time might be avoided. Gordon stooped and kissed his
wife again, a caress that seemed to promise all reparation
for the past. But it suddenly occurred to the two
that trains did not wait for lover's long loitering, and

(09:51):
with one accord, they went to work. Celia, of course,
had very little preparation to make. Her trunk was probably
in Chicago and would need to be wired for. Gordon
attended to that the first thing, looking up the number
of the check and ordering it back to New York
by telegraph. Turning from the telephone, he rang for the

(10:11):
man and asked Celia to give the order for lunch
while he got together some things then he must take
with him. A stay of several weeks would necessitate a
little more baggage than he had taken to New York.
He went into the bedroom and began pulling out things
to pack, But when Celia turned from giving her directions,
she found him standing in the bedroom doorway with an

(10:33):
old fashioned velvet jewel case in his hand, which he
had just taken from the little safe in his room.
His face wore a wonderful tender light, as if he
had just discovered something precious. Dear, he said, I wonder
if you will care for these. They were mothers. Perhaps
this ring will do until I can buy you a

(10:54):
new one. See if it will fit you. It was
my mother's. He held out a ring containing a diamond
of singular purity and brilliance in a quaint, old fashioned setting.
Celia put out her hand with its wedding ring, the
ring that he had put upon her finger at the altar,
and he slipped the other jeweled one above it. It
fitted perfectly. It is a beauty, breathed Celia, holding out

(11:18):
her hand to admire it. And I would far rather
have it than a new one, your dear little mother.
There is not much else here but a little string
of pearls and a pin or two. I have always
kept them near me. Somehow they seemed like a link
between me and mother. I was keeping them for he hesitated,
and then giving her a rare smile, he finished, I

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was keeping them for you. Her answering look was eloquent
and needed no words, which was well for Henry appeared
at that moment to serve luncheon and remind his master
that his train left in a little over two hours.
There was no further time for sentiment. And yet these two,
it seemed, could not be practical that day. They idled

(12:02):
over their luncheon and dawdled over their packing, stopping to
look at this in that picture or bit of bric
a brac that Gordon had picked up in some of
his travels, and Henry finally had to take things in
his own hands, packed them off, and send their baggage
after them. Henry was a capable man and rejoiced to
see the devotion of his master and his new mistress.

(12:25):
But he had a practical head and knew where his
part came. In end of chapter seventeen,