A WIDOW'S SMILE
One morning, a California morning, all sea-breezes and flower-scents and
golden sunshine, Mr. Hepworth read, as he ate his breakfast, a letter
from Willoughby Hewston. The letter, in itself, was a long one, and it
also contained a bulky enclosure. This enclosure was the full page of a
sensational New York newspaper. This exhibited enormous, black
head-lines, screaming innuendo of the most blasting character. In the
center of the page were pictures of Hepworth and a dark, heavy-browed
young woman, with large eyes and strongly-marked Hebraic features. The
page was further embellished by pen sketches surrounding these
photographic reproductions, sketches of a startling and romantic nature,
a wrecked automobile, a picturesque young woman in very high heels and a
very long coat, fainting into the arms of a tall, rather elderly man,
presumably Hepworth.
Hepworth had scowled and reddened at the first sight of this dreadful
page, and his expression did not improve as he continued his perusal of
it. Finally, however, his face cleared. He folded it neatly together and
placed it carefully in his pocket-book. Not a pleasant incident, but
closed. No use in crying over spilled milk. This newspaper account of an
adventure had occurred nearly nine days ago and therefore any wonder it
may have excited was practically over. He turned again to Hewston's
letter and re-read it with mixed expressions in which amusement
predominated.
When Hewston set out to be profoundly serious, Hepworth always found him
intensely funny. Finishing his friend's admonitory epistle, Hepworth
next picked up one addressed to him in a smart feminine hand, Alice
Wilstead's. He ran his eye over several pages, and then paused at a
paragraph which he read over two or three times, his rather worried look
changing the while to one of profound dismay, for Mrs. Wilstead not only
stated that she was carrying out a long-cherished intention of visiting
California with her friends, the Warrens, but, what was more, she was
staying not upon the order of her coming, but coming at once.
She digressed at this point to express her pleasure at the thought of
seeing him so soon again. He bestowed upon these protestations of
friendship one bare, ungrateful glance and rustled over the various
sheets of her letter, hoping to gain, if possible, some more definite
information; and there it was before his incredulous and resentful eyes.
She was, she explained, writing this "hasty note" (it was eight pages)
within an hour of leaving. She expected to arrive in Santa Barbara on
the Thursday afternoon train. Why, Great Heavens! He clattered his
coffee-cup impatiently in the saucer. This was Thursday morning and he
had made all arrangements to spend a rather diversified day, including
golf and a luncheon at Monticito with Fuschia and her father, a little
fete in honor of Jim's triumphant return, with "the earth, by George,
the earth and nothing less in my vest pocket."
"And Alice," Hepworth clattered his cup again, he knew her of old. She
was quite as inquisitive as her delicately-pointed tip-tilted nose
indicated, and if he wasn't on hand to greet her, she would make life a
burden to him until she discovered why.
Hepworth, however, was used to coping with difficult situations. He took
what odds fortune offered him and coldly, nonchalantly played to win. He
sat for a few moments in deep thought. He had no intention whatever of
giving up his day's pleasuring. The only problem which occupied him was
what to do with Alice. Inspiration followed thought. He rang the bell
and despatched a hasty request that Mr. Hayward Preston come to him at
once.
Mr. Preston was a favorite with all mothers, especially those with
daughters. They spoke of him in an almost lyric strain. Naturally, one
might expect to find him an egregious ass, and avoided of all men. The
wonder is that he was not. He had an agreeable appearance, admirable
manners, excellent business abilities. His virtues were all a little
obvious and robust, and if one insisted on a flaw, it might be said that
he lacked subtlety. So much the better. Subtlety destroys a healthy
interest in the commonplace and makes of the straight and narrow way a
tame and monotonous pathway too rocky for speed.
"Preston," said Hepworth with his usual courteous charm when this
younger associate in certain business enterprises appeared, "I wish to
ask you a favor, or, to put it more correctly, I am going to do you a
favor. I have just received a letter from an old friend of mine, Mrs.
Wilstead, saying that she will arrive this afternoon on the three-thirty
train. Unfortunately I have another engagement and can not meet her at
the station, as, under other circumstances, I should very much wish to
do; so," with another cordial smile, "I am hoping that you will be free
to act as my proxy."
Mr. Preston was not free. He had something else on hand, but this fact
he did not hint by so much as a flicker of an eyelash, relegated it to
the background of his thoughts to be settled later. He was not letting
any opportunities to do "the chief" a favor slip lightly by him.
"I shall be very glad to meet Mrs. Wilstead, if you can assure me that
she will accept me as your proxy," he said with a frank smile. "Let me
see. The afternoon train. And how shall I know the lady?"
"I will send my chauffeur with you. He knows her. You are sure,
Preston," solicitously, "that this does not interfere with any of your
plans?"
"Quite sure," returned Preston with convincing sincerity.
"Thank you," said Mr. Hepworth devoutly; he made a mental vow to the
effect that Preston should never rue this day.
Thus, it happened that Alice Wilstead, on stepping from the train at the
conclusion of her trip across the continent, found, instead of her old
friend, a good-looking young man awaiting her, a young man after her own
heart, with that gravity and stability of mien, and the dependable
smile, which, being in strong contrast to her own volatile self, always
impressed her pleasantly.
Hayward Preston, on his part, gazed at the most attractive woman he had
ever seen, of the type he particularly admired. Tall, graceful, her
vivacious irregular face lighted by the gleam of white teeth and the
sparkle of dark eyes, the air of the great world clinging about her as
lightly as a perfume.
To her joy, this delightful, wholesome-looking, grave man stopped before
her. "Mrs. Wilstead?" he asked.
She looked at him and smiled. It was the most effective smile in her
whole arsenal reserved only for very special occasions.
"Mr. Hepworth was at the last moment detained by certain business
matters which are holding him a prisoner at his office and he asked me
to act as his proxy. This ought to identify me, ought it not?" with a
smile, and he gave her the card upon which Hepworth had written a few
lines.
She barely glanced at it and then smiled again, the same smile, only a
little diluted. She had seen at once that it was strong wine for
Preston.
"You must meet Mr. and Mrs. Warren," she turned to the two who were
fussing over their luggage. Warren was a tall, good-looking man and his
wife an amiable, attractive little person.
Preston left the question open to them whether they wished to go to
their hotel at once or would prefer to drive about, and see something
of this new world, into which they had just stepped, and they decided in
favor of the latter suggestion.
Through the town they drove, exclaiming over the roses, along the
palm-lined boulevard by the shore and then in a rash moment at Alice's
request, they turned toward the mountains. A rash suggestion and one
that Preston had cause to rue, for presently they passed a carriage
being rapidly driven in another direction and all apparently in the
highest spirits. It was a party of three, two men and a girl, a slender,
tanned, laughing girl, who caught Alice's eye at once. The next glance
revealed the man who sat beside her, and who was leaning toward her
explaining something, to be Cresswell Hepworth. As Alice bent forward,
doubting the evidence of her senses, this girl lifted a bonbon from a
box on her knees and held it out toward Hepworth with a pair of tiny
gilt tongs. He snatched it deftly in one bite, to the accompaniment of
immoderate laughter from his friends, in which he joined.
Oh, dignity! Oh, austere grief! What crimes are committed in thy name!
In these days one might well paraphrase the famous lines from _The
School for Scandal_ and render them: "When a young girl marries a
middle-aged man, what is she to expect?" The situation was graver than
even Willoughby Hewston could have predicted. In the first surprise
Alice had exclaimed, "Why, that's Cress!" And then to relieve Preston of
embarrassment before the Warrens, an embarrassment which was manifesting
itself in the deep flush which overspread his face, "He probably got
through sooner than he expected," she said in a matter-of-fact tone and
dropped the subject.
But she thanked fortune that both Mr. and Mrs. Warren were talkative
people given volubly to voice their enthusiasm over the beauty about
them, and thus her rather stunned preoccupation passed unnoticed.
She had upon her journey, and even before she started, pictured herself
as a sort of missionary, with the not altogether unpleasant task before
her of cheering up poor Cresswell. She knew the strength of his few
affections, his devotion to Perdita and therefore she had some idea of
how deeply this breach between them had affected him. But like most
women, even the experienced ones, she had never realized that the
masculine and feminine attitude toward grief is as wide apart as the
poles. They may both wear rue, but with a difference. Woman seeks a
cloister that she may brood over her sorrow, commune with it, hug it to
her heart in solitude, but man does his best to shake that black,
haunting shape, tries to lose it in a crowd, and willingly sips any kind
of a nepenthes which seems to offer him forgetfulness.
Alice Wilstead had not expected that Hepworth would make any unmanly
exhibition of his woes, weep on her shoulder or be excitingly dramatic;
she knew him too well. But she had expected to see him a little older,
perhaps; a little grayer, sadder, more quiet, with a hint of melancholy
in his eyes. He might--occasionally she pictured the scene--open his
heart to her now and then in a grave and reticent way and disclose a
strong man's grief; but instead she had seen him sitting up in a very
smartly appointed carriage beside a correspondingly smart young woman
in a white serge gown, who was in the very act of popping an enormous
_marron glace_ between his willing teeth.
"Men," said Mrs. Wilstead to herself, with cynical humor, "are all
alike." A nugget of wisdom, by the way, which frequently falls from the
lips of a sex prone to generalize from a personal experience.
On arriving at the hotel, Mrs. Warren professed herself a bit weary and
retired to her rooms, followed by her dutiful husband, but Alice
Wilstead, afire with repressed curiosity, suggested, with another of
those smiles, full strength now, that Mr. Preston take a cup of tea with
her. She was more tired than she had thought.
For a few moments, Mrs. Wilstead spent herself in enthusiasm for the
beauty and charm of the place. Such air! Such scenery! Such flowers!
Then she was solicitous about Preston's tea; two lumps of sugar and two
slices of lemon? What mathematical exactness! She took a sip of her own.
Just the right strength and of excellent flavor. What interesting
looking people at the table over there; she believed, no, she was quite
sure that she had seen them, perhaps met them before. Yes, she
remembered the daughter distinctly. It was in Switzerland, a year ago.
She was completely absorbed in the scene before her. "Look at that
absurd man yonder, Mr. Preston." Preston eagerly fell in with her mood,
lulled to a false sense of security. Then without a minute's warning she
opened fire.
"A charming young woman," she began, "is a much more plausible, less
hackneyed and convincing excuse than a 'pressing business engagement.'
I'm surprised Cresswell did not think of it. But that would be telling
the truth, and you men avoid that as much as possible in dealing with
women, do you not?"
"You have taught us that you prefer the other thing," he returned with
some spirit, although his soul quaked within him.
"Who is she?" asked Mrs. Wilstead, without preamble.
"I don't know," said Mr. Preston miserably. He knew perfectly well that
Mrs. Wilstead was too experienced to believe him, and would scorn his
clumsy subterfuge. This confused him frightfully, but he hadn't the
faintest idea what else to say, so he stumbled on with what he felt was
yokel-like stupidity. "Really, I do not know."
"No, of course you would not know under the circumstances." Mrs.
Wilstead's tone was sweet and sincere, but beneath the sugar-coating of
innocence he discerned the bitter pill of her complete understanding.
His ears burned and felt the size of an elephant's. He was very unhappy.
He stirred his tea round and round, as if his spoon were an egg-beater.
"Now that you are here," he said awkwardly, "she will be heard of no
more."
Although he never knew it, that speech advanced him leagues in Alice
Wilstead's favor. The genuine sincerity of his tone would have warmed
the heart of any woman standing with reluctant feet where the brook of
_passe_ joins the river of middle-age.
Alice regarded the opals on her fingers (she was born in October) with a
pleased yet humorous smile.
"Accepting your inference, what chance has an elderly widow against a
young and lovely actress?"
Preston started. She had played trumps when he was least expecting
them. "Then you know--" he said.
"That Miss Fuschia Fleming is a star that will shoot madly from her
sphere to brighten the firmament of New York this spring."
"I supposed, of course, that was her game," he said soberly. But he was
thinking not so much of Fuschia Fleming as of that after revelation
which this delightful woman had made. A widow of charm, of sparkle, of
money. One felt the latter. She unconsciously exhaled it. And best asset
of all, the old and valued friend of Cresswell Hepworth. Preston was no
cold-blooded schemer, neither was he an ardent, impetuous Hotspur. He
merely calculated chances, not only by virtue of temperament but
training, and when this jewel of a chance flashed its dazzling rays, he
instinctively estimated its weight, the accuracy of the cutting and
possible value.
Therefore Mr. Hayward Preston made such hay in the next few minutes,
that when he left, or rather when Mrs. Wilstead dismissed him, he
received another of that particular brand of smiles and walked home with
his head among the stars.