How odd, she thought. I’m calm and smiling and ready to continue celebrating Jill’s birthday. I don’t feel bitter or humiliated or like I want Ben and Reba to suffer at all!
Belle skipped down the stairs to the party and resumed dancing. Ben asked her to dance, and she accepted. It was magical to be back in his arms. Ben was an extraordinary dancer, and the two of them made a handsome couple on the dance floor.
“You look so beautiful tonight, Belle,” Ben whispered into her ear as they danced.
Belle accepted the compliment, but it did not feel the same to her as it once would have. God—or something from outside of herself—had answered her prayers and given her peace.
Still, Belle was not yet ready to tell anyone else what she was experiencing. It was still too much for her to take in, and she didn’t want to be bothered with other people’s expectations for her.
The one thing she did allow her mother to do was to talk her into attending a Sunday afternoon Bible class with Professor Ellis. The first time Belle attended the Bible class it was as a favor to her mother, but the professor, an educated and gentle Christian man, soon captivated her interest. He talked about many of the liberal ideas Belle had been taught at college, and one by one he intelligently refuted them.
Soon Belle found herself eagerly awaiting Sundays and her afternoon Bible class. She knew that her action was probably confusing her parents, especially since she gave them no other outward clue that she was “trying God out” for herself.
Life continued, and big changes lay ahead in the Miller family. Since his return from fighting in the Great War in Europe, Belle’s brother Murray had been too restless to find a job. Eventually Samuel and Alice Miller decided it was time for them to intervene in their son’s life. They sold their home in Vancouver and bought a chicken farm not far from Victoria on Vancouver Island. Belle’s father, a pioneer in the field of using X-ray technology in medicine, commuted regularly between Victoria and Vancouver, where he worked for a doctor. He would continue with his medical work while Murray ran the chicken farm.
This left everyone with a place to live except Belle, who had finally graduated from the University of British Columbia in May 1922 and accepted a job teaching third-grade students at Cecil Rhodes School in Vancouver. She really wanted to become a college professor, but this would require more study, and she decided to wait until she was a little older before embarking on it. No one was going to take a twenty-year-old graduate seriously.
With the family home sold, Belle looked around for somewhere else to live. With few alternatives, she settled on boarding with a woman named Mrs. McMillian and her brood of children. In all, nine people were living in the McMillian house, including a baby, and Belle found herself impacted by the bustle of their lives. Everyone, it seemed, was into playing cards and gambling. Night after night someone would produce a pack of cards, and the table in the parlor would be cleared. “Do you want to play, Belle?” someone would ask. At first Belle agreed to play sometimes, but she soon became frustrated with wasting time. She would much rather spend an hour each evening in prayer and Bible study. However, the beer-induced laughter that emanated from the card game in the parlor rang throughout the house, making it impossible for Belle to concentrate on her chosen activities.
Undeterred, Belle prayed that God would wake her at two o’clock every morning. By then the last of the card players had gone to bed and the house was still. Belle’s prayer was answered. Night after night Belle awoke around two to pray and read her Bible, and then returned to a sound sleep until morning.
Belle also began attending evening lectures at the Vancouver Bible College, but she found it hard to make new friends there. The students at the Bible school were nothing like the sparkling, fun-filled students she had attended the University of British Columbia with. Her university friends were now scattered across Canada and the United States, and as much as she hated to admit it to herself, for the first time in her life, Belle was feeling lonely.
Being a schoolteacher was not working out as Belle had imagined it would. She dreaded the long, rainy days when she would be stuck inside all day with a class of thirty eight-year-olds. Day after day she labored, teaching the same simple math and reading concepts. Some of her students, knowing that she was young and inexperienced, tried all kinds of tricks on her.
Belle had been a high-spirited child herself, and a part of her wanted to laugh at the children’s antics. But another part of her was annoyed that these little people took up so much of her time and energy. She began to ask herself whether she really wanted to be a teacher for the next five years.
The answer, she decided, was no. But what alternative was there? It was the 1920s, and girls basically had one of three career choices available to them after high school and college: nursing, secretarial work, or teaching. It was too late for her to change tracks and become a nurse, and Belle could not imagine herself stuck in an office all day. No, she had chosen teaching, and she would have to make the most of it.
With that in mind, Belle decided to attend a teachers’ convention being held in Seattle, Washington, over the Easter holiday break. She hoped the companionship of other teachers and learning some new teaching techniques would refresh her vision for teaching third graders.
When Belle told her father what she was planning to do, he arranged for her to stay with his friends Otis and Julia Whipple. This made Belle angry. Surely her father realized that she was too old to have arrangements made for her. However, since Belle received news of her father’s arrangements only just before she boarded the ferry for the trip to Seattle, she had no time to telegraph him to let him know that she would prefer to stay with younger people.
It was a frustrated Belle that got off the ferry in downtown Seattle. Deep down she did not think that the teachers’ convention would rekindle any kind of love for elementary school teaching, and the thought of staying with an older religious couple made her roll her eyes.
That night Belle met Otis and Julia Whipple, who were not at all as she had imagined them to be. She found herself sitting happily by the fire eating Julia Whipple’s delicious chocolate cookies and listening to stories about a place called The Firs. Julia told Belle that she and her husband, who was an architect, had spent their life savings to buy a lot of land and had turned it into a Christian campground. Excitement glowed in her eyes as she talked of the missionary convention they were planning at The Firs for the summer and how her recently widowed sister-in-law was going to be one of the speakers.
Julia’s enthusiasm was not exactly infectious, but as Belle lay in bed that night, she did admit to herself that the middle-aged woman was quite likeable and that there were worse places where she could be staying in Seattle.
The conference turned out to be nowhere near as inspiring as Belle had hoped it would be and left her plenty of time for sightseeing. On Easter Sunday afternoon she met up with Mamie, an old college friend from the University of British Columbia. The two women spent a fun-filled afternoon walking along the waterfront and then climbing Queen Anne Hill for a panoramic view of Seattle.
All was going well until Mamie finally got around to asking Belle how she liked being a teacher. Belle was forced to hold back the tears as she replied, “I’m not happy at all. I never imagined it would be like this. I wish I were teaching high school, but I am still too young for that. It’s so boring teaching spelling and arithmetic day after day…”
Mamie put her hand on Belle’s shoulder and interrupted. “I know just what you need. A friend of ours is coming to dinner tonight, and he’s a phrenologist. He normally charges a lot for his services, but if you came as my dinner guest, I’m sure he would read your head for free and tell you what you should be doing.”
Belle’s heart soared. It was just what she needed: someone to help her see the way ahead, and who better to do that than a phrenologist? After all, phrenologists—trained medical men who could look at the shape of a person’s skull and tell the person what kind of job he or she was suited to—were all the rage.
Then Belle remembered that she was supposed to be back at the Whipples for dinner. “Mamie, that sounds just wonderful, except that I don’t know if I can get away at dinnertime. I am staying with a very religious couple, and I don’t know what they would think about my seeing a phrenologist—and on Easter Sunday too.”
“But you have to come,” Mamie countered. “You don’t want to be a grim old schoolmarm ten years from now. You owe it to yourself to find out what you really should be doing.”
Belle nodded. “I know I do. I think I can work it out. I need to go back to the Whipples and explain the situation, and then I will phone you. I’m sure they won’t mind if I explain the bind I’m in. Besides, they don’t own me. I am just staying in their house.”
Mamie nodded in agreement. “If anyone can explain her way out of dinner, it’s you, Belle. I’ll be waiting for your telephone call.”
Belle and Mamie parted company. Belle’s heart was light as she headed back to the Whipple home. At last she was on the trail of some answers. Surely tonight her future would unfold before her.
Chapter 4
A Plan for Life
One hour after parting company with Mamie, Belle found herself sitting on the bed in the small second-floor bedroom of the Whipple house and talking to Julia Whipple.
“Now, what’s this about going to a phrenologist to see what your future holds?” Julia asked gently. “I’m not sure I understand.”
Belle took a deep breath and began. “I thought I would be happy teaching. I always wanted to be a teacher, but the truth is, I find it dreadfully boring. The students run all over me, and I dread going to school each day. My friend Mamie has a phrenologist coming to dinner, and I know it’s Sunday, but I would love to have him read my head and tell me what I’m really suited to do.”
“I see,” Julia replied.
There was a long pause, which Belle felt obliged to fill. “So I was just wondering, do you think there would be a problem with my seeing a phrenologist on a Sunday?”
Julia shook her head. “Belle, dear, I don’t think it really matters so much what day of the week it is. I think the important thing you need to know is that God has a plan for your life. The book of Ephesians tells us that you and I were created for good works in Christ. Now, if that’s true, you would be much better off asking God what His plans are for you rather than consulting someone who will examine the lumps and bumps on your head. Don’t you think so?”
Belle sat back and closed her eyes. In all the hundreds of Sunday school lessons and church sermons she had sat through she could not recall a single reference to God having an individual plan for a person’s life. This was an exciting thought to her. What if God did have something special for her to do?
Tears filled Belle’s eyes as she looked at Julia. “How would I find God’s plan for my life?” she asked.
Julia reached for her Bible. She patted its cover. “I have always found God’s will through His Word—this book,” she said, handing the Bible to Belle.
Impulsively Belle opened the Bible and let her finger fall on some text. She read it aloud: “Keep thee from a false matter.” Belle stared at the words she had just read. Was phrenology a false matter? Was God—the God of the universe—talking to her, warning her to keep away from such things as phrenology and put her life in His hands? It seemed incredible, but somewhere deep inside, Belle believed that was exactly what God was saying to her.
In that instant a lifetime of worrying about her future, of worrying about who she would marry and what she should do for a living, evaporated. She felt freer than she could ever remember. The answer was simple, so simple: God would unfold the way ahead for her. He would lay out the plan for her life, and she would follow it.
