Durland was digging a small hole near Miss Exeter's hand; his shoulder
was turned to Caroline and he did not shift it as he replied, "You can
if you like."
There was a pause. Apparently she didn't like, for she did not move,
and after a time she said in the same tone of lowered confidence, "I
have the car here. I'll drive you home."
"Thanks," said Durland. "I'm on my bicycle." Another pause.
"Shall we play tennis this afternoon?"
"I may," answered Durland.
Pearl began to feel her sex pride wounded. She bent forward, and
beaming upon the newcomer, she said, "You play tennis?"
Caroline just glanced at her.
"Of course I do," she said.
She had not the smallest intention of being rude, for she was a
sweet-tempered child; even less did it occur to her to be jealous
of an elderly woman of twenty-four; but her mind, concentrated upon
the pursuit of Durland, was rendered irritable by inconsequential
interruptions. Durland, however, though no critic of manners, was aware
that a gesture of friendship from a goddess had not been gratefully
received.
"You might be civil about it," he said, and then looking up at Pearl,
he asked in a softened tone of adoration whether she would like to play
tennis that afternoon.
"Doubles?" said Caroline, as if this were, of course, possible though
utterly undesirable.
"Would you like to play doubles?" Durland asked again.
"If it is convenient to your mother," said Pearl.
Durland dismissed such an idea as repellent to him and, glancing over
his shoulder to Caroline, he said, "All right. Miss Exeter and I will
play you--if you can get a fourth."
It was not the way Caroline had designed the set and she said so. She
said clearly and rather complainingly that she had expected to play
with Durland, and yet she did not seem wounded so much as thwarted.
"I'm sure I don't know whom I can get," she said.
"I suppose you can get the faithful Wally--anyone can get Wally."
"I thought you did not like Wally."
"I?" said Durland, as if it were far beneath him ever to have been
aware of Wally's existence; and without any further answer he got up
and walked into the Atlantic so suddenly that Miss Temple, scrambling
as rapidly as possible to her feet, was several yards behind him as he
dived into his first wave.
"Isn't she pretty?" said Antonia. "She's been his best girl for two
summers."
"I don't think he's very nice to her," said Pearl.
"Well," said Antonia, giving one of her little shakes of the head, "it
would seem wonderful to me if Durlie spoke to me at all. However, it
may be over. Like what Shakespeare says--one foot on land. Next time I
have a chance I'll look and see if her picture is still in the back of
his watch."
Presently they were back in the same order--Durland first, and Miss
Temple following. He sat dripping, and taking a cigarette from a
package he had left on the sand, he began groping for a match.
"Oh, Durland," said Miss Temple, "I do wish you wouldn't smoke. It
isn't good for you. It looks so badly." Durland gave a short laugh that
seemed to say that if he had regarded public opinion he would have made
of life a very different thing. In her distress Caroline turned to the
stranger whose presence she had so far refused to acknowledge. "Don't
you think it's wrong for him to smoke?" she said.
It was Pearl's moment.
"Why, no," she answered, "I can't see anything wrong about it."
She put out a lazy hand and took one from the little paper envelope.
Durland's hand, with the match in it, was arrested.
"But--you're not going to smoke--here? On the public beach?"
"Isn't it allowed?" asked Pearl, all innocence. "It must be--you are
smoking. Let me have a match."
"I haven't a match," he said, and threw away his own cigarette so
that she could not get a light from that. It was an important moment
in his life. He thought rapidly. "I hope you won't think me fresh or
anything," he said, "but I don't think a governess ought to smoke, if
you know what I mean--not in public anyhow."
She wasn't angry, only thoughtful.
"Well, that's only your opinion."
It touched him that she knew so little of the world--or of her own
position. He said gently, "I'm afraid you'd find it was everybody's
opinion."
"Ought you to be so much influenced by the opinion of other people?"
"Yes, indeed," he answered. The cigarette with which she was still
playing might separate them forever. His mother, he knew, was just
waiting for a good excuse to send her away, and where could she find a
better one?
She argued it further, tapping the cigarette on her hand as if she were
about to place it between her lips.
"But you don't pay any attention when people say you oughtn't to smoke."
Even then he did not know that a trap had been set for him. On the
contrary, he thought he had an original idea of some beauty when he
said impulsively, "I tell you what, I'll swear off if you will."
She seemed to debate it through an agonizing second or two, while he
looked at her with dog-like eyes. Then she smiled and gave him a strong
hand.
"All right," she said. "That's a bargain."
Durland felt flooded with joy--not only at having saved a beloved woman
but at having done it in just the right way. He picked up the package
of cigarettes and flung it toward the sea. It did not quite reach the
water and Caroline sprang up and brought it back to him.
"I suppose you thought that was empty," she said.
He tossed it away again without thanking her, but at last to her
repeated clamors he yielded the information that he had given up
smoking.
"Oh, Durland," she said, "now you can come to the house again. Is that
why you did it?"
He did not want to deceive the girl, but he could not resist the
temptation of allowing her to deceive herself. He did not answer
directly; but rising, he said, "Anyone who wishes to swim to the
barrels with me may now do so."
It was more like an invitation than anything he had said all morning,
and they were soon swimming side by side.
Presently Mrs. Conway in a dark-blue silk bathing dress with ruffles
appeared and dropped a string of pearls into the lap of the governess
as if they had been beads. Pearl had never had such pearls in her
hands before. They were heavier--much heavier than she had imagined,
and brighter, more iridescent, better worth looking at. She was not
given to envy, but she was aware of thinking that there was something
slightly wrong with a world where Mrs. Conway had pearls and she had
not. Antonia insisted on her putting them around her neck.
"It's much safer--you can't drop them in the sand--Cousin Cora always
does--that's Miss Wellington; she's no relation, but she likes us to
call her cousin--she wants us to call her aunt, but mother says, 'Wait
till she is.'"
"Oh," said Pearl, conscious of a distinct pang, "is she going to be?"
Antonia gave one of her head shakes.
"Mother says, 'Say not the struggle nought availeth.' Older people make
a lot of fun of their best friends, don't they?"
"Would you like her for an aunt?" said Pearl.
"Yes and no," Antonia replied. "I think the wedding would be fun, and
I think I'd be a bridesmaid or something; but as a family we prefer
to keep Uncle Anthony to ourselves. Mother says if he marries Cora
we wouldn't lose him as much as if he married a stranger. There was
a Russian actress one year, with red hair; I didn't think her a bit
pretty. She used to send mother flowers and seats for her plays. They
were all pretty sad though. Then there was another time--she was
married this time, but mother said----"
Antonia broke off to call Pearl's attention to Dolly, who was coming
down the boardwalk in a bathing dress of as many hues as Joseph's coat.
Everything about her was bent--her back, her knees, her elbows, her
fingers, and every crook was obviously intended to charm the young man
by whose side she was walking, who was staring out to sea and very
thoughtfully putting cotton in his ears. Even Pearl, indifferent as she
then supposed herself to be to all men, could not but admit that he was
as splendid an example of young blond manhood as she had ever seen.
Then as he came nearer she saw a certain pale red-rimmedness about
the eyes, and she thought, "He's the kind you'd have to describe as
handsome, and yet if anyone else did, you'd say, 'Oh, do you think him
handsome? I don't like his looks at all.'"
Antonia meantime was pouring his life history into her ear.
"Allen Williams. He's twenty-one and has been a freshman for two
years--isn't he handsome?--and very vicious--gambles and drinks and
everything. I heard the Williams' governess telling someone the other
day that Monsieur Allen was _déjà très connu dans le monde--le monde
gal--gal_--something or other. I wish I knew more French. You can't
really tell much what goes on on the beach unless you know French. Of
course, he's just amusing himself with Dolly."
"I tell you what I think," said Pearl, suddenly becoming aware that she
had been staring, and not only this, but also stared at. "I think it's
horrid of you to be against your own sister."
"But look at the way she's giggling and wriggling. I feel ashamed of
her," said Antonia.
"That's the very time you ought to stick up for her," said Pearl.
"Well, it's a point of view," said Antonia. "That's what Uncle Anthony
always says when he doesn't agree with you but is too lazy to argue it
out."
Dolly and Mr. Williams had reached them by this time. Dolly was for
passing by, but Williams stopped and said in a voice clearly audible,
"And who is the beautiful girl in the pearls?"
Dolly's voice was too low to be audible. She stopped. Spoiled and
selfish she might be, but she was at heart a lady. She introduced Mr.
Williams to Miss Exeter with perfect civility. Williams took Pearl's
hand and looked at her with something fierce and blank in his eyes.
Oh, how well she knew that look!