I shall be so worried until I see you. If you don"t get here early tomorrow morning I shall come in after you."
"You couldn"t keep me away, you blessed child, if you are going to have no strangers there," Lillian returned. "I don"t mind the Durkees.
But I need you, my dear, very much. Now I must tell you something, don"t be shocked or surprised when you see me, for I shall be somewhat changed in appearance. Run along to d.i.c.ky now. I"ll be with you some time tomorrow forenoon. Good-by."
I almost forgot to hang up the telephone receiver in my bewilderment.
What trouble could have come to Lillian that she needed me? She was the last person in the world to need any one, I thought--she, whose sterling good sense and unfailing good-nature had helped me so many times. And what change in her appearance did she mean when she cautioned me against being shocked and surprised at seeing her?
My anxiety concerning Lillian stayed with me all through the evening.
I awoke in the night from troubled dreams of her to equally troubled thoughts concerning her. And my concern was complicated by a message which d.i.c.ky received the next forenoon.
We had barely finished breakfast when the telephone rang and d.i.c.ky answered.
"h.e.l.lo," I heard him say. "Yes, this is Graham. Oh! Mr. Gordon! how do you do?"
My heart skipped a beat.
"Why! that"s awfully kind of you," d.i.c.ky was saying, "but we couldn"t possibly accept, because we have guests coming ourselves. We expect to have a regular old-fashioned country dinner here at home. But, why do you not come out to us? Oh, no, you wouldn"t disturb any plans at all--they"ve been thoroughly upset already. We had planned to have my sister and her family, six in all, spend this holiday with us, but yesterday we found they could not come. So we"re inviting what friends we can find who are not otherwise engaged to help us eat up the turkey. You will be more than welcome if you will join us. All right, then. Do you know about trains? Yes, any taxi driver can tell you where we are. Good-by."
I did not dare to look at my mother-in-law as d.i.c.ky came toward us after answering Robert Gordon"s telephone message.
I think d.i.c.ky was a trifle afraid, also, of his mother"s verdict, for his att.i.tude was elaborately apologetic as he explained his invitation to me.
"Your friend, Gordon, has just gotten in from one of those mysterious voyages of his to parts unknown," he said. "He was delayed in reaching the city, only got in last night, too late to telephone us. Seems he had some cherished scheme of having us his guests at a blowout.
Wouldn"t mind going if we hadn"t asked these people here, for they say his little dinners are something to dream about, they"re so unique. Of course, there was nothing else for me to do but to invite him out. I thought you wouldn"t mind."
In d.i.c.ky"s tone there was a doubtful inflection which I read correctly. He knew of my interest in the elderly man of mystery who had known my parents so well, and I was sure that he thought I would be overjoyed because he had extended the invitation.
I was glad that I could honestly disabuse his mind of this idea, for I had a curious little feeling that d.i.c.ky disliked more than he appeared to do the attentions paid to me by Mr. Gordon.
It was less than an hour before the taxi bearing the first of our guests swung into the driveway and Lillian and Harry Underwood stepped out.
Lillian"s head and face were so swathed in veils that I did not realize what the change in her appearance of which she had warned me was until I was alone with her in my room, which I intended giving up to her and her husband while they stayed. Then, as she took off her hat and veils, I almost cried out in astonishment--for at my first, unaccustomed glance, instead of the rouged and powdered face, and dyed hair, which to me had been the only unpleasant things about Lillian Underwood, the face of an old woman looked at me, and the hair above it was gray!
There were the remnants of great youthful beauty in Lillian"s face.
Nay, more, there were wonderful possibilities when the present crisis in her life, whatever it might be, should have pa.s.sed. But the effect of the change in her was staggering.
"Awful, isn"t it?" she said, coming up to me. "No, don"t lie to me,"
as she saw a confused, merciful denial rise to my lips. "There are mirrors everywhere, you know. There"s one comfort, I can"t possibly ever look any worse than I do now, and when my hair gets over the effect of its long years of dyeing, and my present emotional crisis becomes less tense I probably shall not be such a fright. But oh, my dear, how glad I am to be with you. I need you so much just now."
She put her head on my shoulder as a homesick child might have done, and I felt her draw two or three long, shuddering breaths, the dry sobs which take the place of tears in the rare moments when Lillian Underwood gives way to emotion. I stroked her hair with tender, pitiful fingers, noticing as I did so what ravages her foolish treatment of her hair had made in tresses that must once have been beautiful. Originally of the blonde tint she had tried to preserve, her locks were now an ugly mixture of dull drab and gray. As I stood looking down at the head pillowed against my shoulder I realized what this transformation in Lillian must mean to Harry Underwood.
He it was who had always insisted that she follow the example of the gay Bohemian crowd of which he was a leader, and disguise her fleeting youth, with dye and rouge. It was to please him, or, as she once expressed it to me, "to play the game fairly with Harry" that she outraged her own instincts, her sense of what was decent and becoming, and constantly made up her face into a mask like that of a woman of the half-world. No one could deny that it disguised her real age, but her best friends, including d.i.c.ky and myself, had always felt that the real mature beauty of the woman was being hidden.
"Of course, this is terribly rough on Harry," Lillian said at last, raising her head from my shoulder, and speaking in as ordinary and unruffled a tone as if she had not just gone through what in any other woman would have been a hysterical burst of tears.
"It really isn"t fair to him, and under any other conditions in the world I would not do it. He"s pretty well cut up about it, so much so that he cannot always control his annoyance when he is speaking about it. But I know you will overlook any little outbreaks of his, won"t you? He wanted to come down here with me, you know he"s always anxious to see you, or I would have run away by myself."
Her tone was anxious, wistful, and my heart ached for her. I could guess that when Harry Underwood could not "control his annoyance" he could be very horrid indeed. But I winced at her casual remark that her husband was always anxious to see me. Harry Underwood held in restraint by his very real admiration for his brilliant wife had been annoying enough to me. I did not care to think what he might be when enraged at her as I knew he must be now.
Nothing of my feeling, however, must I betray to the friend who had come to me for help and comfort. I drew closer the arms that had not yet released her.
"Dear girl," I said softly, "don"t worry any more about your husband or anything else. Just consider that you"ve come home to your sister.
I"m going to keep you awhile now I"ve got you, and we"ll straighten everything out. Don"t even bother to tell me anything about it until you are fully rested. I can see you"ve been under some great strain."
"No one can ever realize how great," she returned. "You see--"
What revelation she meant to make to me I did not then learn, for just at that moment a knock sounded on the door, and in answer to my "come in," Katie appeared and announced the arrival of the Durkees and Richard Gordon.
x.x.xVIII
"NO--NURSE--JUST--LILLIAN"
"Tell me, Madge," d.i.c.ky"s tone was tense, and I recognized the note of jealous anger which generally preceded his scenes, "are you going to have that old goat take you out to dinner? Because if you are--"
He broke off abruptly, as if he thought an unspoken threat would be more terrifying than one put into words. I knew to what he referred.
As hostess, I, of course, should be escorted in to dinner by the stranger in our almost family party, Robert Gordon, who was also the oldest man present. Ordinarily, d.i.c.ky would have realized that his demand to have me change this conventional arrangement was a most ill-bred and inconsiderate thing. But d.i.c.ky sane and d.i.c.ky jealous, however, were two different men.
Always before this day d.i.c.ky had regarded with tolerant amus.e.m.e.nt the strange interest shown in me by the elderly man of mystery who had known my mother. But the magnificent chrysanthemums which Mr. Gordon had brought me, dozens of them, costing much more money than the ordinary conventional floral gift to one"s hostess ought to cost, had roused his always smouldering jealousy to an unreasoning pitch.
Fear of hurting Robert Gordon"s feelings was the one consideration that held me back from defying d.i.c.ky"s mandate. Experience had taught me the best course to pursue with d.i.c.ky.
"If, as I suppose, you are referring to Mr. Gordon, it may interest you to know that I have not the faintest intention of going in to dinner with him," I retorted coolly. "Lillian wants to talk with him about South America, and I shall have your friend, Mr. Underwood, as my escort."
"Gee, how happy you"ll be," sneered d.i.c.ky, but I could see that he was relieved at my information. "You"re so fond of dear old Harry, aren"t you?"
"To tell you the truth, I have to fight all the time against becoming too fond of him," I returned mockingly. "He can be dangerously fascinating, you know."
d.i.c.ky laughed in a way that showed me his brainstorm over Robert Gordon had been checked. But there was a startled look in his eyes which changed to a more speculative scrutiny before he moved away.
"Oh, old Harry"s all right," he said. "He"s my pal, and he never means anything, anyway." But I noticed that he said it as if he were trying to convince himself of the truth of his a.s.sertion.
When I told Harry Underwood that he was to take me in to dinner, and we were leading the way into the dining room, his brilliant black eyes looked down into mine mockingly, and he said:
"You see it is Fate. No matter how you struggle against it you cannot escape me."
"Do I look as if I were struggling?" I laughed back, and saw a sudden expression of bewilderment in his eyes, followed instantly by a flash of triumph.
Everything that was cattishly feminine in me leaped to life at that look in the eyes of the man whom I detested, whom I had even feared.
I could read plainly enough in his eyes that he thought the a.s.siduous flatteries he had always paid me were commencing to have their result, that I was beginning to recognize the dangerous fascination he was reputed to have for women of every station. I had a swift, savage desire to avenge the women he must have made suffer, to hurt him as before dinner he had wounded Lillian.
So instead of turning an impa.s.sive face to Mr. Underwood"s remark, I listened with just the hint of an elusive mischievous smile twisting my lips.
"No, you don"t look very uncomfortable. You look"--he caught his breath as if with some emotion too strong for utterance, and then said a trifle huskily:
"Will you let me tell you how you look to me?"