Miss Buchanan was well on the way to complete recovery, was able to have
tea every afternoon with Althea, and to be taken for long drives in the
Bois, when Aunt Julia and the girls arrived at the Hotel Talleyrand.
Mrs. Pepperell was a sister of Althea's mother, and lived soberly and
solidly in New York, disapproving as much of millionaires and their
manners as of expatriated Americans. She was large and dressed with
immaculate precision and simplicity, and had it not been for a homespun
quality of mingled benevolence and shrewdness, she might have passed as
stately. But Mrs. Pepperell had no wish to appear stately, and was
rather intolerant of the pretension in others. Her sharp tongue had
indulged itself in a good many sallies on this score at her sister
Bessie's expense; Bessie being the lady of the lorgnette, Althea's
deceased mother.
Althea, remembering that dear mother so well, all dignified elegance as
she had been--too dignified, too elegant, perhaps, to be either so
shrewd or so benevolent as her sister--always thought of Aunt Julia as
rather commonplace in comparison. Yet, as she followed in her wake on
the evening of her arrival, she felt that Aunt Julia was obviously and
eminently 'nice.' The one old-fashioned diamond ornament at her throat,
the ruffles at her wrist, the gloss of her silver-brown hair, reminded
her of her own mother's preferences.
The girls were 'nice,' too, as far as their appearance and breeding
went, but Althea found their manners very bad. They were not strident
and they were not arrogant, but so much noisiness and so much innocent
assurance might, to unsympathetic eyes, seem so. They were handsome
girls, fresh-skinned, athletic, tall and slender. They wore beautifully
simple white lawn dresses, and their shining fair hair was brushed off
their foreheads and tied at the back with black bows in a very becoming
fashion, though Althea thought the bows too large and the fashion too
obviously local.
Helen was in her old place that night, and she smiled at Althea as she
and her party took their places at a table larger and at a little
distance. She was to come in for coffee after dinner, so that Althea
adjourned introductions. Aunt Julia looked sharply and appraisingly at
the black figure, and the girls did not look at all. They were filled
with young delight and excitement at the prospect of a three weeks' romp
in Paris, among dressmakers, tea-parties, and the opera. 'And Herbert
Vaughan is here. I've just had a letter from him, forwarded from
London,' Dorothy announced, to which Mildred, with glad emphasis, cried
'Bully!'
Althea sighed, crumbled her bread, and looked out of the window
resignedly.
'You mustn't talk slang before Cousin Althea,' said Dorothy.
'What Cousin Althea needs is slang,' said Mildred.
'I shan't lack it with you, shall I, Mildred?' Althea returned, with, a
rather chilly smile. She knew that Dorothy and Mildred considered her,
as they would have put it, 'A back number'; they liked to draw her out
and to shock her. She wanted to make it clear that she wasn't shocked,
but that she was wearied. At the same time it was true that Mildred and
Dorothy made her uncomfortable in subtler ways; she was, perhaps, a
little afraid of them, too. They, too, imposed their own standards, and
were oppressed and enlightened by none.
Aunt Julia smiled indulgently at her children, and asked Althea if she
did not think that they were looking very well. They certainly were, and
Althea had to own it. 'But don't let them overdo their athletics, Aunt
Julia,' she said. 'It is such a pity when girls get brawny.'
'I'm brawny; feel my muscle,' said Mildred, stretching a hard young arm
across the table. Althea shook her head. She did not like being made
conspicuous, and already the girls' loud voices had drawn attention; the
French family were all staring.
'Who is the lady in black, Althea?' Mrs. Pepperell asked. 'A friend of
yours?'
'Yes, a most charming friend,' said Althea. 'Helen Buchanan is her name;
she is Scotch--a very old family--and she is one of the most interesting
people I've ever known. You will meet her after dinner. She is coming in
to spend the evening.'
'Where did you meet her? How long have you known her?' asked Aunt Julia,
evidently unimpressed.
Althea said that she had met her here, but that they had mutual
friends, thinking of Miss Buckston in what she felt to be an emergency.
Aunt Julia, with her air of general scepticism as to what she could find
so worth while in Europe, often made her embark on definitions and
declarations. She could certainly tolerate no uncertainty on the subject
of Helen's worth.
'Very odd looking,' said Aunt Julia, while the girls glanced round
indifferently at the subject of discussion.
'And peculiarly distinguished looking,' said Althea. 'She makes most
people look so half-baked and insignificant.'
'I think it a rather sinister face,' said Aunt Julia. 'And how she
slouches! Sit up, Mildred. I don't want you to catch European tricks.'
But, after dinner, Althea felt that Helen made her impression. She was
still wan and weak; she said very little, though she smiled very
pleasantly, and she sat--as Aunt Julia had said, 'slouched,' yet so
gracefully--in a corner of the sofa. The charm worked. The girls felt
it, Aunt Julia felt it, though Aunt Julia held aloof from it. Althea saw
that Aunt Julia, most certainly, did not interest Helen, but the girls
amused her; she liked them. They sat near her and made her laugh by
their accounts of their journey, the funny people on the steamer, their
plans for the summer, and life in America, as they lived it. Dorothy
assured her that she didn't know what fun was till she came to America,
and Mildred cried: 'Oh, do come! We'll give you the time of your life!'
Helen declared that she hoped some day to experience this climax.
Before going to bed, and attired in her dressing-gown, Althea went to
Helen's room to ask her how she felt, but also to see what impression
her relatives had made. Helen was languidly brushing her hair, and
Althea took the brush from her and brushed it for her.
'Isn't it lamentable,' she said, 'that Aunt Julia, who is full of a
certain sort of wise perception about other things, doesn't seem to see
at all how bad the children's manners are. She lets them monopolise
everybody's attention with the utmost complacency.'
Helen, while her hair was being brushed, put out her hand for her watch
and was winding it. 'Have they bad manners?' she said. 'But they are
nice girls.'
'Yes, they are nice. But surely you don't like their slang?'
Helen smiled at the recollection of it. 'More fun than a goat,' she
quoted. 'Why shouldn't they talk slang?'
'Dear Helen,'--they had come quite happily to Christian names--'surely
you care for keeping the language pure. Surely you think it regrettable
that the younger generation should defile and mangle it like that.'
But Helen only laughed, and confessed that she really didn't care what
happened to the language. 'There'll always be plenty of people to talk
it too well,' she said.
Mrs. Pepperell, on her side, had her verdict, and she gave it some days
later when she and her niece were driving to the dressmaker's.
'She is a very nice girl, Miss Buchanan, and clever, too, in her quiet
English way, though startlingly ignorant. Dorothy actually told me that
she had never read any Browning, and thought that Sophocles was
Diogenes, and lived in a tub. But frankly, Althea, I can't say that I
take to her very much.'
Aunt Julia, often irritating to Althea, was never more so than when, as
now, she assumed that her verdicts and opinions were of importance to
her niece. Althea shrank from open combat with anybody, yet she could,
under cover of gentle candour, plant her shafts. She planted one now in
answering: 'I don't think that you would, either of you, take to one
another. Helen's flavour is rather recondite.'
'Recondite, my dear,' said Aunt Julia, who never pretended not to know
when a shaft had been planted. 'I think, everyday _mere de famille_ as I
am, that I am quite capable of appreciating the recondite. Miss
Buchanan's appearance is striking, and she is an independent creature;
but, essentially, she is the most commonplace type of English
girl--well-bred, poor, idle, uneducated, and with no object in life
except to amuse herself and find a husband with money. And under that
air of sleepy indifference she has a very sharp eye to the main chance,
you may take my word for it.'
Althea was very angry, the more so for the distorted truth this judgment
conveyed. 'I'm afraid I shouldn't take your word on any matter
concerning my friend,' she returned; 'and I think, Aunt Julia, that you
forget that it is my friend you are speaking of.'
'My dear, don't lose your temper. I only say it to put you on your
guard. You are so given to idealisation, and you may find yourself
disappointed if you trust to depths that are not there. As to
friendship, don't forget that she is, as yet, the merest acquaintance.'
'One may feel nearer some people in a week than to others after years.'
'As to being near in a week--she doesn't feel near _you_; that is all I
mean. Don't cast your pearls too lavishly.'
Althea made no reply, but under her air of unruffled calm, Aunt Julia's
shaft rankled.
She found herself that afternoon, when she and Helen were alone at tea,
sounding her, probing her, for reassuring symptoms of warmth or
affection. 'I so hope that we may keep really in touch with one
another,' she said. 'I couldn't bear not to keep in touch with you,
Helen.'
Helen looked at her with the look, vague, kind, and a little puzzled,
that seemed to plant Aunt Julia's shaft anew. 'Keep in touch,' she
repeated. 'Of course. You'll be coming to England some day, and then
you'll be sure to look me up, won't you?'
'But, until I do come, we will write? You will write to me a great
deal?'
'Oh, my dear, I do so hate writing. I never have anything to say in a
letter. Let us exchange postcards, when our doings require it.'
'Postcards!' Althea could not repress a disconsolate note. 'How can I
tell from postcards what you are thinking and feeling?'
'You may always take it for granted that I'm doing very little of
either,' said Helen, smiling.
Althea was silent for a moment, and then, with a distress apparent in
voice and face, she said: 'I can't bear you to say that.'
Helen still smiled, but she was evidently at a loss. She added some milk
to her tea and took a slice of bread and butter before saying, more
kindly, yet more lightly than before: 'You mustn't judge me by yourself.
I'm not a bit thoughtful, you know, or warm-hearted and intellectual,
like you. I just rub along. I'm sure you'll not find it worth while
keeping in touch with me.'
'It's merely that I care for you very much,' said Althea, in a slightly
quivering voice. 'And I can't bear to think that I am nothing to you.'
There was again a little pause in which, because her eyes had suddenly
filled with tears, Althea looked down and could not see her friend.
Helen's voice, when she spoke, showed her that she was pained and
disconcerted. 'You make me feel like such a clumsy brute when you say
things like that,' she said. 'You are so kind, and I am so selfish and
self-centred. But of course I care for you too.'
'Do you really?' said Althea, who, even if she would, could not have
retained the appearance of lightness and independence. 'You really feel
me as a friend, a true friend?'
'If you really think me worth your while, of course. I don't see how you
can--an ill-tempered, ignorant, uninteresting woman, whom you've run
across in a hotel and been good to.'
'I don't think of you like that, as you know. I think you a strangely
lovely and strangely interesting person. From the first moment I saw you
you appealed to me. I felt that you needed something--love and sympathy,
perhaps. The fact that it's been a sort of chance--our meeting--makes
it all the sweeter to me.'
Again Helen was silent for a moment, and again Althea, sitting with
downcast eyes, knew that, though touched, she was uncomfortable. 'You
are too nice and kind for words,' she then said. 'I can't tell you how
kind I think it of you.'
'Then we are friends? You do feel me as a friend who will always be
interested and always care?'
'Yes, indeed; and I do so thank you.'
Althea put out her hand, and Helen gave her hers, saying, 'You _are_ a
dear,' and adding, as though to take refuge from her own discomposure,
'much too dear for the likes of me.'
The bond was thus sealed, yet Aunt Julia's shaft still stuck. It was she
who had felt near, and who had drawn Helen near. Helen, probably, would
never have thought of keeping in touch. She was Helen's friend because
she had appealed for friendship, and because Helen thought her a dear.
The only comfort was to know that Helen's humility was real. She might
have offered her friendship could she have realised that it was of value
to anybody.
It was a few evenings after this, and perhaps as a result of their talk,
that, as they sat in Althea's room over coffee, Helen said: 'Why don't
you come to England this summer, Althea?'
Aunt Julia had proposed that Althea should go on to Bayreuth with her
and the girls, and Althea was turning over the plan, thinking that
perhaps she had had enough of Bayreuth, so that Helen's suggestion,
especially as it was made in Aunt Julia's presence, was a welcome one.
'Perhaps I will,' she said. 'Will you be there?'
'I'll be in London, with Aunt Grizel, until the middle of July; after
that, in the country till winter. You ought to take a house in the
country and let me come to stay with you,' said Helen, smiling.
'Will you pay me a long visit?' Althea smiled back.
'As long as you'll ask me for.'
'Well, you are asked for as long as you will stay. Where shall I get a
house? There are some nice ones near Miss Buckston's.'
'Oh, don't let us be too near Miss Buckston,' said Helen, laughing.
'But surely, Althea, you won't give up Bayreuth,' Aunt Julia interposed.
'It is going to be specially fine this year. And then you know so few
people in England, you will be very lonely. Nothing is more lonely than
the English country when you know nobody.'
'Helen is a host in herself,' said Althea; and though Helen did not
realise the full force of the compliment, it was more than satisfactory
to have her acquiesce with: 'Oh, as to people, I can bring you heaps of
them, if you want them.'
'It is a lovely idea,' said Althea; 'and if I must miss Bayreuth, Aunt
Julia, I needn't miss you and the girls. You will have to come and stay
with me. Do you know of a nice house, Helen, in pretty country, and not
too near Miss Buckston?' It was rather a shame of her, she felt, this
proviso, but indeed she had never found Miss Buckston endearing, and
since knowing Helen she had seen more clearly than before that she was
in many ways oppressive.
Helen was reflecting. 'I do know of a house,' she said, 'in a very nice
country, too. You might have a look at it. It's where I used to go, as a
girl, you know, and stay with my cousins, the Digbys.'
'That would be perfect, Helen.'
'Oh, I don't know that you would find it perfect. It is a plain stone
house, with a big, dilapidated garden, nice trees and lawns, miles from
everything, and with old-fashioned, shabby furniture. Since Gerald came
into the place, he's not been able to keep it up, and he has to let it.
He hasn't been able to let it for the last year or so, and would be glad
of the chance. If you like the place you'll only have to say the word.'
'I know I shall like it. Don't you like it?'
'Oh, I love it; but that's a different matter. It is more of a home to
me than any place in the world.'
'I consider it settled. I don't need to see it.'
'No; it certainly isn't settled,' Helen replied, with her pleasant
decisiveness. 'You certainly shan't take it till you see it. I will
write to Gerald and tell him that no one else is to have it until you
do.'
'I am quite determined to have that house,' said Althea. 'A place that
you love must be lovely. Write if you like. But the matter is settled in
my mind.'
'Don't be foolish, my dear,' said Aunt Julia. 'Miss Buchanan is quite
right. You mustn't think of taking a house until you see it. How do you
know that the drainage is in order, or even that the beds are
comfortable. Miss Buchanan says that it is miles away from everything,
too. You may find the situation very dismal and unsympathetic.'
'It's pretty country, I think,' said Helen, 'and I'm sure the drainage
and the beds are all right. But Althea must certainly see it first.'
It was settled, however, quite settled in Althea's mind that she was to
take Merriston House. She bade Helen farewell three days later, and they
had arranged that they were, within a fortnight, to meet in London, and
go together to look at it.
And Althea wrote to Franklin Winslow Kane, and informed him of her new
plans, and that he must be her guest at Merriston House for as long as
his own plans allowed him. Her mood in regard to Franklin had greatly
altered since that evening of gloom a fortnight ago. Franklin, then, had
seemed the only fact worth looking at; but now she seemed embarked on a
voyage of discovery, where bright new planets swam above the horizon
with every forward rock of her boat. Franklin was by no means dismissed;
Franklin could never be dismissed; but he was relegated; and though, as
far as her fondness went, he would always be firmly placed, she could
hardly place him clearly in the new and significantly peopled
environment that her new friendship opened to her.