A Home in Versailles
It was toward dusk.
In a large, low grate inside a French drawing-room a freshly lighted fire
was burning. Curtains of heavy, dark red silk were closely drawn over the
long windows.
Before the fire a young girl was seated in a chair beside a Madame
Recamier couch upon which an older woman was lying.
They were both apparently dressed for a late dinner, the girl in a
costume of dull blue crepe, her companion in what appeared to be a
combination of tea gown and dinner dress. The gown was of pale grey silk
and chiffon with a lining of rose. The sofa was piled with a number of
grey and rose colored cushions.
The drawing-room was a fashionable one revealing wealth and taste in its
furnishings and following the usual French design.
The walls were ivory in tone and embellished with garlands of cupids and
flowers. The larger rug, which covered the entire floor, was of French
tapestry, the furniture of the drawing-room had been copied from a set of
the furniture of the great Napoleon, preserved in the Louvre Gallery in
Paris.
On the white mantel there was a tall French clock and two beautiful
Sevres vases and a small crystal bowl of flowers.
The woman and girl evidently had been talking for some time.
“Well, Bettina,” Mrs. Burton continued, “after all perhaps you are fairly
fortunate to have gotten out of last night’s adventure as well as you
have! You look a little more rested since your sleep and you insist you
have not taken cold. Last night there was nothing which could occur in
the most sensational novel, which I did not imagine had happened to you.
Yet what did occur was more unexpected and more picturesque than any of
my fears!”
Bettina smiled.
“A pity, wasn’t it, that such a romantic experience should have befallen
me rather than one of the other Camp Fire girls! I am really such a
prosaic person! All night I did my best to entertain myself by composing
a long drawn out story for my own amusement, and yet all the time I knew
that I was cold and hungry and dreadfully homesick for you. I really
never shed a tear, although I should have liked to shed floods of them.
But I am sorry you had to suffer such anxiety. Small wonder that Aunt
Patricia received my return so ungraciously. I believe her first remark
when we met in the hall, was, that either I was to sail for home at once,
or you were, as she would not have you so harassed.
“I found it somewhat difficult under the circumstances to maintain my
dignity before my rescuer, when Aunt Patricia began her lecture. If I had
not showed signs of breaking down and demanded to be taken to you at
once, goodness knows what might not have happened!
“I was sorry to leave Mr. Hale with Aunt Patricia when he had been so
kind; I suppose he received the rest of the lecture which was intended
for me. At present I am grateful to possess a distinguished father; not
only did Mr. Hale know him, but when he explained to the French officials
that I was Senator Graham’s daughter, they became much more lenient in
their manner toward me. Perhaps though I am not yet through the
unfortunate results of my curiosity. It would not surprise me if I were
kept under surveillance for some time by the French authorities. They
must be convinced I had no sinister motive in concealing myself in the
secret garden. The old gardener helped me by explaining that he had
accidentally left the little gate open and closed it before dusk without
entering the garden again.”
Stretching out her hand Mrs. Burton now placed it on Bettina’s hair, lit
with gold from the flame of the fire.
“Promise me, Bettina, and each one of you Camp Fire girls must make me
the same promise, you are never to go out alone again while we are
together in France. I was worried over Sally’s coming back without you,
although I then supposed you to be with Peggy and Ralph. In fact I did
not know you had not returned with them until hours later. Aunt Patricia
insisted that the information be kept a secret from me and ordered me to
lie down in my own room under the usual pretence of my health. But I
think I was suspicious all evening. I always feel restless when anything
is going wrong with one of you Camp Fire girls, and hearing the talking
and confusion in the house later in the night I demanded to be told the
difficulty. You must forgive Aunt Patricia’s reception of you, however,
Bettina as she was wretched about you. You know she is devoted to your
mother and we both had visions of having to cable to your father and
mother that their beloved daughter had vanished, been swallowed up in
this foreign land.
“But don’t worry over Aunt Patricia’s treatment of your new acquaintance,
Mr. Hale. She is as grateful to him as you and I, rather more so, since
she has asked him to dine with us tonight when I should have preferred to
have you girls alone.”
At this moment Mrs. Burton leaned back upon the cushions of her couch,
while Bettina gazed into the fire without replying. She was more unhappy
over the events of the past night than she wished to confess.
Undoubtedly her mother would be seriously annoyed when the story of her
escapade reached her. Before the present occasion Bettina had offended
her mother’s ideas of conventional propriety, and she had really so
little excuse for last night’s proceeding. Was there a possibility that
the French authorities at Versailles might report the matter and that her
father might be asked to substantiate her story?
Without realizing what she was doing, Bettina sighed.
“Don’t worry, Bettina,” Mrs. Burton answered, divining her train of
thought. “I will write your mother immediately and explain the situation.
It was my fault to have allowed you girls to go into the Park too
independently. Your mother is always convinced of my innate
unconventionality and that I need some one to look after me as much as
you do.
“Besides, don’t let us take a simple circumstance too seriously. I much
prefer there be as little discussion as possible of your recent
adventure. I mean to speak of this to Mr. Hale when he dines with us
tonight and I am sure he will agree with me. We do not wish any gossip in
the village, or any chance for the newspapers to get hold of the story.
“I am rather amused over Aunt Patricia. It is my idea that we are to have
rather a superior dinner tonight in order to impress this Mr. David Hale,
who by the way has an extremely nice name and agreeable manners. Aunt
Patricia may protest that our present elegance is a reward to you Camp
Fire girls for the simplicity and hard work at our farmhouse on the
Aisne, and also to restore me more speedily to health. But I don’t think
she is above enjoying our temporary grandeur herself and of showing off
just the least little bit to other people. I have also observed that
violent as her attacks are upon men in a general fashion, she is always
apt to take their side in a personal situation. I never have the least
hope of her assuming I am ever right in any argument I may have with my
husband. Now she and Captain Burton are determined to send me back to the
United States as soon as our stay at Versailles is ended, while I want
very much to spend the summer in England before we return home.”
As Mrs. Burton had intended it should be, Bettina’s attention was
diverted from her own difficulty.
“Don’t try to explain Aunt Patricia to any one of her present family at
this late date,” she replied, smiling reminiscently. “I think your group
of Camp Fire girls has come to understand her fairly well by this time.
At least we feel we owe your life to the splendid fight she made for your
life after you were wounded by the German shell. When both the surgeon
from Paris and Captain Burton had no further hope, she would fight on.
“Then think of all she has done for us since our arrival in glorious
France, first at our farmhouse on the Aisne and now as guests in this
charming French house! Why, we are actually wearing the clothes she has
insisted upon having made for us, not only that we may be dressed in a
proper holiday fashion to celebrate the approach of peace, but that she
may keep her little French dressmaker Marguerite Arnot, her latest
protégé, constantly employed. What an artist Marguerite is! If I could
persuade her to return to Washington with me, mother would forgive me
every fault.
“I suppose you also know that she rented this house in Versailles not
alone for our pleasure and because it is such a charming home, but
because she heard that Madame Forêt, whom we met at our pension in Paris,
had no other income left since the war save the income from this house.
She has two little girls to support; both her sons were killed in the
war!”
Mrs. Burton nodded.
“Yes, Aunt Patricia’s kindness leaves one nearly defenceless. It is
dreadfully difficult sometimes to be forced to disagree with her.”
She was silent a moment and then added:
“Sometimes, do you know, Bettina, I feel it is selfish even to rejoice
over the approach of peace! There is still so much sorrow and suffering
in the world! Only this morning I received a letter from my sister, Mrs.
Webster, saying that her son, Dan Webster, is still a prisoner in
Germany. I am glad not to have heard of his imprisonment until the war
was over; I suppose now he will be released very soon. Moreover, Yvonne
continues to worry over not receiving a letter from her brother,
Lieutenant Fleury, although she knows he is only doing border duty with
the Army of Occupation. I presume she fears he has not completely
recovered from the injury through which Sally Ashton nursed him in such a
surprising fashion.”
A moment Bettina gazed at the older woman, hesitating to ask a question.
Then she said slowly and with some embarrassment:
“I know it is one of our Camp Fire rules not to gossip about one another.
But do you mind telling me, Tante, what do you think has caused the
change in Sally Ashton? She is so unlike the Sally we formerly knew! Yet
she declares there is nothing the matter and is angry if one suggests she
is ill. The doctor Sally saw in Paris said she had suffered a nervous
breakdown. Perhaps it is absurdly sentimental of me, but I have wondered
if she could have fallen in love with Lieutenant Fleury after her care of
him?”
Sitting up a second time and resting her chin upon her hands, with the
palms folded together in a characteristic attitude, Mrs. Burton answered:
“No, we must not gossip, Bettina dear. Yet I must say I am as much in the
dark as you can be over Sally. So far she has not taken me into her
confidence. If anything has made her unhappy in the past, or is troubling
her now, Aunt Patricia alone may have some idea of the cause. I saw the
transformation in Sally on the very day we met along the roadside during
our retreat with the French refugees toward Paris. At that time I did not
like to ask Sally what had affected her so seriously and I have never
asked her since then.
“It is my own impression that something unfortunate must have occurred in
the few days which Sally spent with Vera Lagerloff and Aunt Patricia at
the farmhouse, after the rest of us started on in advance to the Château
Yvonne. Sometimes I wonder if any of you girls will go back to your own
country in the least like you were when we came to France to organize the
first French Camp Fire? I suppose not, you have seen too much of courage
and suffering among the French people. But I hope you will spare me any
other engagement than Peggy’s and Ralph’s. I do wish you children were
not growing up and away from our Camp Fire life together. You make me
feel so dreadfully old these days!”
“But geniuses never grow old, do they?” Bettina asked, and then as Mrs.
Burton smiled at her tactful rejoinder, Bettina added: “Don’t worry over
me. But there is something I wish to suggest. Suppose we have a Camp Fire
meeting as soon as there is an opportunity and discuss what work we
should undertake in the next few months, while we await the coming of
peace! Now the war has ended we must begin to make other plans. I was
thinking of this last night as well as of my French romance in the long
hours I was alone.”
Just as the Camp Fire guardian was about to reply, suddenly the
drawing-room door opened and two persons entered the room. They were Miss
Patricia Lord and Sally Ashton.
Immediately Miss Patricia switched on the electric lights so that the
room, which had been in semi-darkness the instant before, at once became
illuminated.
“What in the world are you and Bettina doing here in the dark, Polly? I
never can endure darkness. I presume you are exchanging confidences and
rejoicing over Bettina’s last night’s adventure, since you both are more
romantic than sensible. Personally I am very much ashamed of such an
escapade, and as a Camp Fire guardian you should be equally so. However,
I do wish you and Bettina would both go to your rooms and dress for
dinner. I hope to induce Mr. Hale to realize we are not the character of
people he must suppose us to be. The young man tells me he is associated
with the work of the Peace Conference. I presume he has heard that you
are an actress, Polly Burton, and so naturally expects to find us all
Bohemians.”
Always sensitive to any criticism of her career, Mrs. Burton flushed, but
answered good naturedly:
“Very well, Aunt Patricia, I shall try to be as conventional tonight as
possible, to persuade Bettina’s rescuer that we do not ordinarily permit
our Camp Fire girls to spend their nights alone in secret gardens. But so
far as dressing is concerned, why Bettina and I are both under the
impression we are already dressed. We had our tea together in my room,
where we were both lying down, and dressed afterwards.”
Miss Patricia Lord, who was wearing a dingy black costume which she had
purchased at a reduced price some months before at the Bon Marché and had
worn almost constantly since, now eyed Mrs. Burton’s grey and rose
colored gown with extreme disfavor.
“You were not intending to appear at dinner in your dressing gown, were
you, Polly Burton? Is that your idea of making a suitable impression upon
our guest? I had a gown sent to you today from a shop in Paris. It is now
on your bed ready for you to put on. If you do not happen to like it, it
does not matter as I admire it very much. It will make you look older
than the absurd clothes you ordinarily wear and is also more appropriate
for a Camp Fire guardian. Sally Ashton will go to your room with you and
help you to dress. Not that you should require assistance, or that your
maid Marie is ever occupied with useful work, but because Sally has
something she wishes to say to you alone.”
Miss Patricia’s manner then became slightly more gracious.
“You are looking fairly well, Bettina. Marguerite seems to have a gift
for understanding the style of costume each one of you Camp Fire girls
should affect. You need not change your dress unless you like. Dinner is
to be served at eight.”