If I had not had the vague uneasiness concerning d.i.c.ky I could have been perfectly happy in spite of the loneliness. But my uneasiness concerning d.i.c.ky"s friendship with Grace Draper was deepening to real alarm and anger. I had nothing more tangible than the neighborhood gossip, which I had so thoroughly repulsed when it was offered me by Mrs. Hoch and her daughter. But d.i.c.ky was becoming more and more distrait, and when he would allow nothing to keep him from taking the morning train on which Miss Draper traveled to the studio, I remembered that when we had first come to Marvin he had taken any forenoon train he happened to choose.
The second morning after his mother"s departure, d.i.c.ky almost missed kissing me good-by in his mad haste to catch his train. He rushed out of the door after a most perfunctory peck at my cheek, and I saw him almost running down the little lane bordered with wild flowers that led "across lots" to the railroad station.
"I cannot bear this any longer," I muttered to myself, clenching my hands, as I saw the Hochs, mother and daughter, watching him from their screened porch, and imagined their satirical comments on his eagerness to make the train.
I sat listlessly on the veranda for an hour. Then the ringing of the telephone roused me. As I took down the receiver I heard the droning of the long distance operator: "Is this Marvin, 971?" and at my affirmative answer the husky voice of Lillian Underwood.
"h.e.l.lo, my dear." Her voice had the comforting warmth which it had held for me ever since the memorable day when by her library fire we had resurrected the secret which her past life and d.i.c.ky"s shared.
We had buried it again, smoothed out all our misunderstandings in the process and been sworn friends ever since.
"Oh, Mrs. Underwood!" My voice was almost a peal of joy. "I am so glad to hear your voice."
"Are you very busy? Is there anything you cannot leave for the day?"
She was direct as usual.
"Only the dog and cat and Katie," I answered.
"Good. Then what train can you get into town, and where can I meet you? I want you to lunch with me. I have something important to talk over with you."
I hastily consulted my watch. "If I hurry I can catch the 10:21. Where can I see you? The train reaches the Pennsylvania at 11 o"clock."
"I"ll be in the woman"s waiting room at the Pennsylvania, not the Long Island; the main waiting room. Look for me there. Good-by."
As soon as I caught sight of Lillian I knew that something was the matter, or she would not look at me in that way. Impulsively I laid my hand on hers.
"Tell me, Mrs. Underwood, is anything the matter?"
She imprisoned my hand in both of hers and patted it.
"Nothing that cannot be helped, my dear," she said determinedly. "Now I am going to forbid asking another question until we have had our luncheon. I decline to discuss the affairs of the nation or my own on an empty stomach, and my breakfast this morning consisted of the juice of two lemons and a small cup of coffee."
"Why?" I asked mechanically, although I knew the answer.
"The awful penalty of trying to keep one"s figure," she returned lightly. "But I certainly am going to break training this noon. I am simply starved."
Her tone and words were rea.s.suring, although I still felt there was something behind her light manner which intimately concerned me. But I had learned to count on her downright honesty, and her words, "Nothing that cannot be helped, my dear," steadied me, gave me hope that no matter what trouble she had to tell me, she had also a panacea for it.
We discussed our luncheon leisurely. Under the influence of the bracing air, the beautiful view, the delicious viands, I gradually forgot my worries, or at least pushed them back into a corner of my brain.
As we lingered over the ices, Lillian leaned over the table to me.
"Will you do me a favor?" she asked abruptly.
"Try me," I smiled back at her.
"Ask me to your home for a week"s stay. I have an idea you need my fine Italian hand at work about now."
I looked at her wonderingly, then I began to tremble.
"Don"t look like that," she commanded sharply. "Nothing dreadful is the matter, but that d.i.c.ky bird of yours needs his wings clipped a bit, and I think I am the person to apply the shears."
So there was something wrong with d.i.c.ky after all!
"Of course, it"s that Draper cat," said Lillian Underwood, and the indignation in her voice was a salve to my wounded pride.
"Then you know," I faltered.
"Of course, I know, you poor child; know, too, how distressed you have been, although d.i.c.ky doesn"t dream that I gathered that from his ingenuous plea for the lady."
My brain whirled. d.i.c.ky making an ingenuous plea to Lillian Underwood for his protege, Grace Draper! I could not understand it.
"If d.i.c.ky has spoken of my feeling toward Miss Draper, even to you," I began stormily, feeling every instinct outraged.
"Don"t, dear child." Mrs. Underwood reached her firm, cool hand across the table, and put it over my hot, trembling fingers. "You can"t fight this thing by getting angry, or by jumping at conclusions. Now, listen to me."
There was a peremptory note in her voice that I was glad to obey. I resolved not to interrupt her again.
"Don"t misunderstand me," she went on, "and please don"t be angry when I say you are about as able to cope with the situation as a new born baby would be. That"s the reason why I want you to let me come down and be a big sister to you. Will you?"
"Of course. You know I will," I returned. "But won"t d.i.c.ky resent--"
"d.i.c.ky won"t dream what I"m doing," she retorted tartly, "and when he does wake up I"ll take care of him."
Always the note of domination of d.i.c.ky! Always the calm a.s.sumption, which I knew was justified, that no matter what she did he would not, remain angry at her! It spoke much for the real liking I felt for Lillian Underwood that the old resentment I felt for this condition of things was gone forever. I knew that she was my friend even more than d.i.c.ky"s, and her history had revealed to me to what lengths she would go in loyalty to a friend.
"You see," she went on, "If the Draper woman were the ordinary type of model there would be no problem at all. d.i.c.ky has always been a sort of Sir Galahad of the studios and he had been too proud to engage in even a slight flirtation with any girl in his employ. He is very sincerely in love with you, too, and that safeguards him from any influence that is not quite out of the ordinary.
"But I tell you this Draper girl is a person to be reckoned with.
She is hard as nails, beautiful as the devil, and I believe her to be perfectly unscrupulous. She is as interested in d.i.c.ky as she can be in any one outside herself, and I think she would like to smash things generally just to gratify her own egotism."
"You mean--" I forced the words through stiff lips.
"I mean she is trying her best to make d.i.c.ky fall in love with her, but she isn"t going to succeed."
"But I am afraid she has succeeded!" The wail broke from me almost without my own volition.
"Why?" The monosyllable was sharp with anxiety.
I knew better than to keep my part of the story from her. I told her of d.i.c.ky"s growing coldness to me, his anxiety to get the train upon which Miss Draper traveled, the neighborhood gossip, his determination not to have me meet her sister. I also laid bare the coldness with which I had treated the girl, and my determination never to say a word which would lead d.i.c.ky to believe I was jealous of her.
When I had finished Lillian leaned back in her chair and laughed lightly.
"Is that all?" she demanded. "I thought you had something really serious to tell me. If you"ll do exactly as I tell you we"ll beat this game hands down."
"I"ll do just as you say," I responded, although it humiliated me to be put in the position of trying to beat any game, the stake of which was my husband"s affections.
"Well, then, that is settled," she said, rising. "Now, for the first gun of the campaign. Call d.i.c.ky up, tell him you just lunched with me, and you are ready to go home any time he is."