It was three o’clock when Eileen came home from school, tossed
her things on the settee in the living-room and curled herself up
contentedly on a hassock at Mrs. Ascott’s feet. Her cheeks were flushed
and her low brow was framed in little caressing ringlets. She looked
amazingly like Lary. Happiness fairly exuded from her being.
“I can’t beat around the bush, Lady Judith. When I have anything to say
... I have to go to it with both feet. Will you take care of this for
me?”
She drew a shining gold chain from somewhere within the harbouring
crispness of her piqué collar, wound the pliant links around her
slender forefinger, and brought to light a ring set with a huge
diamond. Hal had given it to her that morning. She had known about it
for some time. The stone was one of many that belonged to his father
... and would never be missed. There was a good handful of them in a
box in the office safe, and Adelaide would coax them all away from her
father. He, Hal, might as well get his--while the getting was good. He
had taken this one, and another for a scarf pin for himself, to St.
Louis to be mounted the day after he and Eileen became engaged.
“You haven’t told your mother?” Mrs. Ascott interrupted.
“I can’t! I can’t! If you knew mamma better.... It would take all the
sacredness--all the meaning out of it ... to have mamma preen herself
because her daughter is going to marry the son of the richest man in
town.”
“And your father, Eileen?”
The fair face went gray, and pain quivered the sensitive lips. “I can’t
make that as clear as the other; but I’m the most unfortunate person in
the world. You don’t know how I have dreamt of the time when I could go
to my darling old daddy and hide my blushes in his shoulder, while I
told him that the greatest thing in life had come to me. And now that
it’s come ... he wouldn’t understand ... or approve. And mamma, who
hasn’t a mortal bit of use for me, would take it as a personal triumph.
Rush off to that silly little Bromfield Sentinel with an announcement
of my engagement, and all about who the Marksleys are, and how much
money they have. I just can’t give her that gratification. I’d choke.”
Sixteen! and she had life’s irony at her finger ends. The amber eyes
filled with tears that glistened a moment on the long lashes and went
trickling down the pale checks to make little welts on the stiffly
starched piqué collar. Mrs. Ascott felt no impulse to smile. Here was
a little hurt child, whose quivering lips might have been pleading for
the life of a puppy condemned to be drowned. And it was all so deadly
serious to her. Love? She might experience a dozen such heart-burnings
before the dawning of the great passion.
“My dear, there is a touchstone given to each one of us, before we
reach the years of discretion and judgment. Mine was my grandmother.
Yours, I believe, is your father. I hid my engagement to Raoul Ascott
from Grandma Holden. Only because I knew she would not approve. And,
Eileen, my marriage turned out wretchedly. My husband was much older
than I. And, do you know, dear, the immature mind is keenly flattered
by the attention of the mature one. Hal is a college senior, almost
five years older than you. If you could be sure your vanity isn’t
involved--”
“No, that has nothing to do with it. Hal loves me. You can’t
understand what that means to me ... because ... you don’t know how
my people regard me. The only thing I ever wanted is love. Not the
kind that papa gives me. That’s too general. He loves everything and
everybody--including my mother, when she treats him like a dog. But I
don’t want to think about them, now. It hurts ... to think about my
father. I can stand it, because I’m not very lovable. He couldn’t be
unkind if he tried. He would go on loving his children, if we did the
worst thing in the world. I used to wish Lary would love me ... he’s so
much like papa in some ways. But you couldn’t tell anybody that what
you wanted was love. They’d think you were stalling--that you were
after something else, and used that for a blind. Why, even Bob didn’t
really know me--and he was the best friend I ever had. I used to steal
matches for him, when he was learning to smoke, and I’ve taken many a
lickin’ to keep him out of trouble. I got mean and hateful after he was
drowned. Talk about an all-wise Providence! I couldn’t have any respect
for a God that would kill Bob and leave me alive.”
“But Dr. Schubert--”
“Yes, he and Syd....” Her lips tightened. “They wouldn’t approve of
Hal either. He has a reputation for being ... well, rather loose in
his ideas. He isn’t a bit worse than the other boys in college. But
he happens not to be the psalm-singing kind. I hate the tight ideas I
was brought up on. But that isn’t what makes me love Hal. Lady Judith,
if you had been told all your life that you were ugly and cross and
good-for-nothing ... and somebody came along who thought you were sweet
and clever and beautiful--” She laughed shortly. “Yes, all of that! I
know I’m built according to the architecture of an ironing board; but
Hal says my form is perfect. He twists my hair around his fingers by
the hour, and he just loves to stroke my cheeks, because my skin is
soft--like Lary’s, and papa’s. Don’t you see? Being loved like that--”
“Yes, Eileen, I see. How soon are you going to be married?”
“Not for years and years. I persuaded Hal, last night, to go to Pratt
Institute, instead of that third rate college where he was going to
take finance. I want him to do that--so that Lary’ll respect him. He
doesn’t intend to settle down in this dried-up village. He hates it as
much as I do.” She fell silent a moment. “There’s only one drawback to
living away from Springdale.”
“Leaving your father?”
“No, he wouldn’t mind that, and neither would I--after I had a family
of my own. But if one of my children should get sick--very sick--and
I couldn’t reach Syd--I’d be frantic! Syd’s the only doctor who knows
what’s the matter with a baby.”
“You love children, Eileen?”
“I adore them.” She hugged her breast ecstatically. “I hope I’ll
have six. Hal loves them, too. That’s only one of the tastes we have
in common. He wants a home ... he’d even be willing to let Lary build
it, and select the furniture. And that’s a lot ... the way my brother
treats him. I hope you’ll try to see his fine side, to like him ... for
my sake. You know what it’s going to mean to me.”