Angel Unawares: A Story of Christmas Eve

								


Produced by Elaine Laizure from images generously made
available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.

Angel Unawares

A Story of Christmas Eve

BY

C. N. and A. M. WILLIAMSON

HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS

NEW YORK AND LONDON

Angel Unawares

Copyright, 1916, by Harper & Brothers
Printed in the United States of America
Published October, 1916

ANGEL UNAWARES

IF Angel Odell hadn't had a French nursery governess, and if that
French governess hadn't suddenly recognized her lost lover in a
wounded French sergeant on the sea-front, the Valois story would
have been a Christmas tragedy instead of--what it turned out to be.
This was strange, because neither the little American girl nor her
governess nor her governess's lover had ever heard of the Valois
family, nor had the Valois family heard of them. But most things
that happen are strange, if seen from every point of view.
At first, when Mademoiselle Rose gave a little scream and rushed
away from her charge to a good-looking soldier with his arm in a
sling, Angel stood still, extremely interested. Her mother did not
know about the lost lover. One need not tell all one's heart
secrets to one's employer on being engaged at a Paris agency! But
Mademoiselle cried in the night sometimes and gazed at a
photograph, so Angel (whose bed was in the same room) had asked
questions safer to answer than leave unanswered. When she saw the
meeting she quickly put two and two together in her intelligent,
seven-year-old brain.
"That's Claude," said the child to herself. "So he's alive, after
all. My goodness me! what a nice Christmas present for
Mademoiselle! I'm glad it's after lunch instead of before, though,
for I was hungry, and I expect she'll want to talk to him a long
time. I suppose she'll introduce him to me and we'll all three walk
up and down."
Instead of walking, however, Mademoiselle and her Christmas present
sat down on one of the seats placed at regular intervals along the
Mentone sea front. Apparently Mademoiselle forgot Angel's
existence, and "Claude" had not observed it. The child stood
neglected until she was tired and very bored. Then, too polite to
interrupt (a succession of nursery governesses of several nations
had instructed her never to interrupt), she decided to go home.
"Home" was a hotel; and Mrs. Odell, Angel, and Mademoiselle had
arrived only the day before from Paris, Mademoiselle had been in
Mentone before (that was one reason for engaging her), but Angel
and her mother never had. Angel's father was one of several
brilliant young men in the American Embassy, where he was well
content for himself, but found the idea of bombs on heads he loved
bad for his nerves; accordingly, wife and child had been sent to
safety in the south of France, somewhat against the former's will.
At the moment, Elinor Odell was getting off letters, meaning to go
out later and buy Christmas toys. So it happened that, just as