Gloria went back into the sunroom, and picked up a magazine,
wondering how to present May's very weak case to her mother-in-law.
"That was May Seymour on the phone," she began.
"I wish you wouldn't see so much of that woman," Mrs. Gregory
replied. "As I've told you before, she's a thoroughly bad woman. I
heard some dreadful stories about her and that good-for-nothing
Carewe the other day. She doesn't deserve that nice husband of hers.
And as for Carewe, he ought to be tarred and feathered!"
She shook out the paper vigorously.
"I suppose it's from her you got your idea of driving all over the
country-side with that actor you were with the other day!" Mother
Gregory continued. "She seems to think she can gad all over with
Carewe, and never have a word whispered against her! Well, she
can't. One of Dr. John's patients brought her name up before the
Home Women's Club the other day ... and it was voted down quicker
than it went up, let me tell you!"
Gloria saw how utterly hopeless May's case was.
A burning thread of terror went through her like a dart of
lightning.... This was what women could do to one of their own sex
who stepped over the boundary of good behavior that they have laid
down for themselves throughout the centuries!
Women had made May a pariah--an outcast! They had kept her out of
their clubs--given her the cold shoulder.
They had shown her that if she wanted to defy them, she would have to
walk alone ... as other foolish and defiant women had walked alone,
and worn the scarlet letter of shame and solitude.
Gloria wondered what would happen to her if her women friends knew
that she had been seeing Stanley Wayburn alone!
She wondered what they would do when they did find out ... if they
ever did. For Gloria knew she could never refuse to see Wayburn so
long as he wanted to see her.
Soon after May's tearful telephone message, Mother Gregory got up to
go. She wrapped herself in her black broadcloth and furs that always
smelled of moth balls, and pecked Gloria on her cheek.
"Good-by," she said severely. "And I hope that your friend, Mrs.
Seymour, will be an example to you of what happens to foolish wives
who go traipsing around with men who wouldn't marry them if they had
the chance! ... Decent women simply won't have anything to do with
them. And you can tell May Seymour for me that until she gives up
that Carewe, she can whistle and wait to get into the Home Women's
Club, or any other club where I'm a member! For I'll vote her down
every time! She's a disgrace to this town!"
Mother Gregory jerked her veil down over her Roman nose, and swept
out of the house like a ship in full sail.
... So, Gloria thought, it was Mother Gregory who had kept May out of
the club! What a hateful woman Dick's mother was!
And how dreadful for May to know that hundreds of women were against
her, wanted to have nothing at all to do with her! To know that
dozens of tongues were wagging about her and her affair with Jim
Carewe! ... And yet, Gloria knew that but for the grace of
Providence, she might be in the same boat with May Seymour, this very
minute!
For some one, besides Mother Gregory, might have seen her and Stan
Wayburn in her car, just as people had seen May and Jim together!
And there would be talk and talk ... until the whole town would be
talking about her and Stan....
Gloria shivered as she picked up the telephone and gave May's number.
"Maysie, dear, I just finished talking to Dick's mother," Gloria
began unhappily when May answered her ring. "I did my very best for
you ... but it's no use! She says there's not a ghost of a chance
for you to get into the club.... You're right, there has been a lot
of talk about you and Jim! At least, Mother Gregory says there
has..."
"The old hypocrite!" May broke in harshly. "I'll bet she's at the
bottom of the whole thing! She's always hated me the way a lot of
other women in this town have ... because I married their dear, dear
doctor! ... Women always have a cozy corner in their hearts for the
family doctor. And they sure do hate him to have a wife. I've found
that out!"
Gloria laughed in spite of herself.
"But not Mother Gregory!" she protested. "Why, she's old enough to
be Dr. John's mother..."
"Oh, I don't mean she's in love with him, you poor prune!" May broke
in. "That's absurd. But just the samey, women like to think that
their sympathetic doctor takes a personal interest in all their aches
and pains. They love to go to him with their troubles.... Oh, I
could tell you a thing or two about being a doctor's wife, if I
wanted to! You don't know the half of it, dearie!"
May paused for breath. Then she went on in her high voice:
"Well, even if I can't get into a woman's club, I suppose the stores
are still open to me.... How would you like to go shopping with me
this morning?"
"I can't leave the house to-day. I'm busy," Gloria fibbed.
She wondered how May would feel if she knew the truth ... that Dick
had forbidden her to be seen anywhere with May? ... Not that that
would have stopped Gloria, if she had wanted to be seen with May!
But she didn't ... she was afraid of being talked about, along with
her. She didn't want to be classed as a "bird of a feather" with May
Seymour. No, indeed!
... Gloria began to perceive, dimly, that neither law nor law makers
rule this world of ours, but that four little words do ... "What Will
People Say?"
... Well, people never would say the things about her and Stan that
they were saying about May and Jim, that reckless pair! She would
never give them the chance ... she would be too clever for them,
Gloria made up her mind. There must be ways ... ways of seeing Stan
without any one being the wiser! The thought of not seeing him at
all did not occur to her.
She went clip-clopping upstairs in her blue satin mules.
Ranghild was cleaning out Gloria's clothes-closet.
The sight of all her dresses hanging there in neat, colorful rows
made Gloria think suddenly of Myra Gail.
Lucky Myra! ... With clothes to burn, here she was getting ready to
run over to Paris for two or three more trunksful of them!
And she would come back not only with clothes ... but with the latest
thing in make-up and hair-cuts, too, no doubt! No wonder she was
fascinating!
Gloria picked up the extension-telephone that stood beside the
night-lamp. She gave Myra Gail's number.
"I saw by the public print this morning that you're going abroad,
Myra," she said gayly when Mrs. Gail's cool voice answered. "How
soon are you sailing, dear?"
"In ten days. Why, were you thinking of going along?" There was
thinly veiled humor in Myra's tone.
"As a matter of fact, I was thinking of doing that very little
thing!" Gloria said with spirit. "I'm tired, and I think a sea trip
would be the very thing for me."
"Nothing like it for brushing the cobwebs out of your brain!" Myra
commented as she hung up. "Better make up your mind to go along.
Love to have you!"
Now, what did she mean by that, Gloria wondered ... by that phrase of
hers, "brushing the cobwebs out of your brain?"
Did Myra think there were cobwebs in her brain? Had she recognized
the troubled mental state Gloria was in over Stanley Wayburn?
... That was the trouble with Myra, the thing that made Gloria hate
and fear her. She seemed to see everything that was going on
everywhere, with those cold, gray eyes of hers. She never missed a
trick!
Glory turned to Ranghild.
"If I went away for a few weeks, do you think you could manage the
house alone?" she asked.
Ranghild went on brushing a green sports suit as she reflected. She
was thinking that she had done every bit of work in the house all
alone from the minute she had stepped into it!
"I think I could, Mrs. Gregory," was all she said.
"Because I may be going away in a week or so ... to Europe," Gloria
went on.
The sound of her own words excited her. Going to Europe! Of course
she was!
She was sure that she could make Dick scrape up the money for the
trip, somehow or other. She would be very sweet and appealing with
him ... and he would give her the money. Honey caught more flies
than vinegar ... that was the big idea!
With Ranghild's help, Gloria dragged her wardrobe trunk from the
guest-room closet, and dusted it off.
Gloria spent the rest of the day washing out silk stockings and
handkerchiefs with soap-chips in her bathroom. She couldn't wait for
washday, to get these things packed in her trunk. She was in a fever
of excitement.
When Dick came home at half-past five, she was still hard at work,
her hair tousled and her cheeks flushed.
Dick looked around the room in blank astonishment. Bureau drawers
were flung open. Dresses were flung across the bed. A pile of
lingerie lay, white as a cloud, on a chair.
Wordlessly, Gloria smiled at him across the chaos ... a siren smile
from half-lowered eyelids and dimpling mouth.
"What do you think you're doing now?" Dick asked.
"Packing the things that I'm going to take with me," his wife
answered.
"Take with you! What are you doing, leaving me?" He sat down on the
lingerie piled on the nearest chair.
"Well, I should say not!" Gloria cried. "Did you think I'd leave you
just because you were so angry and jealous, yesterday? Why, I like
you to be jealous ... 'cause then I know you still love me ... see?"
She pattered across the room to him, and knelt beside his chair.
"Would you miss me terribly if I went away for a little while ...
with Myra Gail?" she asked.
Dick sat up with a jerk.
"With Myra Gail? But, good Lord, she's going to Europe!" he gasped.
Gloria nodded.
"So am I," she said calmly, "if you'll let me?"
Dick made a gesture of despair.
"Honey," he said, "you can't go. I haven't enough money in the bank
to pay for a one-way ticket ... Look here, let me show you!"
He took his check book from his inside coat pocket.
"Less than two hundred bucks!" he said. "Hardly enough to pay the
current bills! You know, you've been hitting me pretty hard lately
with these new clothes you bought, and your automobile ... and
Ranghild's wages."
Gloria walked away toward the windows.
"Oh, sure, it's my fault we never have any money," she tossed back
over her shoulder. "I suppose you never spend a cent on those
special cigarettes you're forever smoking, or on taxicabs, do you?"
Gloria laughed impudently.
"Why don't you fire Miss Briggs, and get a stenographer who doesn't
expect a small fortune in the way of salary, if you're so terribly
poor?" she asked. "Sometimes I think you must be in love with that
woman! Honestly, I do!"
Dick stood up.
"You can't go to Europe," he said quietly, and went downstairs.