It proved a mistake, letting Eileen go away with Hal and the others.
At midnight she tried to let herself in noiselessly at the side door,
found it unaccountably locked, and was forced to ring the bell.
There was a scene at the breakfast table, reported to Mrs. Ascott by
Theodora, with dramatic touches. Scenes were not uncommon, but this one
was different. It developed along unexpected lines. No one had taken
into account the possibility of Mrs. Trench as a bulwark of defence
for Eileen. But that wary ally was not wont to fight in the open. She
was so accustomed to storming the postern gate, that she was likely
to creep around to the rear of her objective, when the front portal
stood open, undefended. This morning she had for subterfuge the highly
practical business advantage of cultivating Hal Marksley’s friendship.
Hal’s father, as the whole town knew, was preparing to build a palatial
mansion in the parklike addition he had recently laid out, at the
western limit of Springdale’s residential section. Six architects had
been invited to compete for the plans. It was important that Larimore
Trench be the victor. This would place the contract for construction
automatically in David’s hands. But David and Lary wanted to eliminate
themselves from the competition, and admonish Hal that it would be
advisable for him to take his affection elsewhere. At this, Lavinia
forgot her prudence--delivered a direct assault on her husband, which
might have been but an echo of the thing she had been saying to him at
regular intervals for twenty-eight years:
“Yes, and you’d insult Hal--spoil Eileen’s chance, _the way my father
spoiled mine_--just because a young man has money and knows how to
show a girl a good time! I don’t intend to go through another such
experience as I had with Sylvia.”
The reference to Sylvia was beside the mark. She had not intended to
betray her eagerness for an early marriage for her second daughter.