He smiled a little.
"Not so thrilling as this lady. She carried the crowd, absolutely."
Natalie turned and stared at Audrey, who was flushed with annoyance.
"You!" she said. "Do you mean to say you have been talking from that wagon?"
"I haven"t said it. But I have."
"For heaven"s sake!" Then she laughed and glanced at Rodney. "Well, if you won"t tell on me, I"ll not tell on you." And then seeing Audrey straighten, "I don"t mean that, of course. Clay"s at a meeting to-night, so I am having a holiday."
She moved on, always with the soft rustle, leaving behind her a delicate whiff of violets and a wide-eyed clergyman, who stared after her admiringly.
"What a beautiful woman!" he said. There was a faint regret in his voice that Audrey had not presented him, and he did not see that her coffee-cup trembled as she lifted it to her lips.
At ten o"clock the next morning Natalie called her on the "phone.
Natalie"s morning voice was always languid, but there was a trace of pleading in it now.
"It"s a lovely day," she said. "What are you doing?"
"I"ve been darning."
"You! Darning!"
"I rather like it."
"Heavens, how you"ve changed! I suppose you wouldn"t do anything so frivolous as to go out with me to the new house."
Audrey hesitated. Evidently Natalie wanted to talk, to try to justify herself. But the feeling that she was the last woman in the world to be Natalie"s father-confessor was strong in her. On the other hand, there was the question of Graham. On that, before long, she and Natalie would have, in one of her own occasional lapses into slang, to go to the mat.
"I"ll come, of course, if that"s an invitation."
"I"ll be around in an hour, then."
Natalie was unusually prompt. She was nervous and excited, and was even more carefully dressed than usual. Over her dark blue velvet dress she wore a loose motor-coat, with a great chinchilla collar, but above it Audrey, who would have given a great deal to be able to hate her, found her rather pathetic, a little droop to her mouth, dark circles which no veil could hide under her eyes.
The car was in its customary resplendent condition. There were orchids in the flower-holder, and the footman, light rug over his arm, stood rigidly waiting at the door.
"What a tone you and your outfit do give my little street," Audrey said, as they started. "We have more milk-wagons than limousines, you know."
"I don"t see how you can bear it."
Audrey smiled. "It"s really rather nice," she said. "For one thing, I haven"t any bills. I never lived on a cash basis before. It"s a sort of emanc.i.p.ation."
"Oh, bills!" said Natalie, and waved her hands despairingly. "If you could see my desk! And the way I watch the mail so Clay won"t see them first. They really ought to send bills in blank envelopes."
"But you have to give them to him eventually, don"t you?"
"I can choose my moment. And it is never in the morning. He"s rather awful in the morning."
"Awful?"
"Oh, not ugly. Just quiet. I hate a man who doesn"t talk in the mornings. But then, for months, he hasn"t really talked at all. That"s why"--she was rather breathless--"that"s why I went out with Rodney last night."
"I don"t think Clayton would mind, if you told him first. It"s your own affair, of course, but it doesn"t seem quite fair to him."
"Oh, of course you"d side with him. Women always side with the husband."
"I don"t "side" with any one," Audrey protested. "But I am sure, if he realized that you are lonely--"
Suddenly she realized that Natalie was crying. Not much, but enough to force her, to dab her eyes carefully through her veil.
"I"m awfully unhappy, Audrey," she said. "Everything"s wrong, and I don"t know why. What have I done? I try and try and things just get worse."
Audrey was very uncomfortable. She had a guilty feeling that the whole situation, with Natalie pouring out her woes beside her, was indelicate, unbearable.
"But if Clay--" she began.
"Clay! He"s absolutely ungrateful. He takes me for granted, and the house for granted. Everything. And if he knows I want a thing, he disapproves at once. I think sometimes he takes a vicious pleasure in thwarting me."
But as she did not go on, Audrey said nothing. Natalie had raised her veil, and from a gold vanity-case was repairing the damages around her eyes.
"Why don"t you find something to do, something to interest you?" Audrey suggested finally.
But Natalie poured out a list of duties that lasted for the last three miles of the trip, ending with the new house.
"Even that has ceased to be a satisfaction," she finished. "Clayton wants to stop work on it, and cut down all the estimates. It"s too awful. First he told me to get anything I liked, and now he says to cut down to nothing. I could just shriek about it."
"Perhaps that"s because we are in the war, now."
"War or no war, we have to live, don"t we? And he thinks I ought to do without the extra man for the car, and the second man in the house, and heaven alone knows what. I"m at the end of my patience."
Audrey made a resolution. After all, what mattered was that things should be more tolerable for Clayton. She turned to Natalie.
"Why don"t you try to do what he wants, Natalie? He must have a reason for asking you. And it would please him a lot."
"If I start making concession, I can just keep it up. He"s like that."
"He"s so awfully fine, Natalie. He"s--well, he"s rather big. And sometimes I think, if you just tried, he wouldn"t be so hard to please.
He probably wants peace and happiness?"
"Happiness!" Natalie"s voice was high. "That sounds like Clay.
Happiness! Don"t you suppose I want to be happy?"
"Not enough to work for it," said Audrey, evenly.
Natalie turned and stared at her.