This feeling was deepened by the fact that Conny seemed to be specially bent on defeating Ramons ambition to be alone with the girl. If no one else joined them at the end of a dance, Conny was almost sure to do so, and to occupy the intermission with one of his ever-ready monologues, while Ramon sat silent and angry, wondering what Julia saw to admire in this windy fool, and occasionally daring to wonder whether she really saw anything in him after all.
But a sufficiently devoted lover is seldom wholly without a reward. There came an evening when Ramon found himself alone with her. And he was aware with a thrill that she had evaded not only Conny, but two other men. Her smile was friendly and encouraging, too, and yet he could not find anything to say which in the least expressed his feelings.
Are you going to stay in this country long? he began. The question sounded supremely casual, but it meant a great deal to him. He was haunted by a fear that she would depart suddenly, and he would never see her again. She smiled and looked away for a moment before replying, as though perhaps this was not exactly what she had expected him to say.
I dont know. Gordon wants mother and me to go back East this fall, but I dont want to go and mother doesnt want to leave Gordon alone. We havent decided. Maybe I wont go till next year.
I suppose youll go to college wont you?
No; I wanted to go to Va.s.sar and then study art, but mother says college spoils a girl for society. She thinks the way the Va.s.sar girls walk is perfectly dreadful. I offered to go right on walking the same way, but she said anyway college makes girls so frightfully broad-minded.
Ramon laughed.
What will you do then?
Ill come out.
Out of what?
Make my dbut, dont you know?
O, yes.
In New York. I have an aunt there. She knows all the best people, mother says.
What happens after you come out?
You get married if anybody will have you. If not, you sort of fade away and finally go into uplift work about your fourth season.
But of course, youll get married. I bet youll marry a millionaire.
I dont know. Mother wants me to marry a broker. She says the big financial houses in New York are conducted by the very best people. But Gordon thinks I ought to marry a professional mana doctor or something.
He thinks brokers are vulgar. He says money isnt everything.
What do you think?
I havent a thought to my name. All my thinking has been done for me since infancy. I dont know what I want, but Im pretty sure I wouldnt get it if I did. Come on. Theyve been dancing for ten minutes. If we stay here any longer itll be a scandal.
She rose and started for the hall. He suddenly realized that his long-sought opportunity was slipping away from him. He caught her by the hand.
Dont go, please. I want to tell you something.
She met his hand with a fair grip, and pulled him after her with a laugh.
Some other time, she promised.
CHAPTER VIII
In most of their social diversions the town folk tended always more and more to ape the ways of the East. Local colour, they thought, was all right in its place, which was a curio store or a museum, but they desired their town to be modern and citified, so that the wealthy eastern health-seeker would find it a congenial home. The scenery and the historic past were recognized as a.s.sets, but they should be the background for a life of culture, refinement and modern convenience as the president of the Chamber of Commerce was fond of saying.
Hence the riding parties and picnics of a few years before had given way to aggressively formal b.a.l.l.s and receptions; but one form of entertainment that was indigenous had survived. This was known as a _mesa_ supper. It might take place anywhere in the surrounding wilderness of mountain and desert. Several auto-loads of young folk would motor out, suitably chaperoned and laden with provisions. Beside some water hole or mountain stream fires would be built, steaks broiled and coffee brewed. Afterward there would be singing and story-telling about the fire, and romantic strolls by couples.
It was one of these expeditions that furnished Ramon with his second opportunity in three weeks to be alone with Julia Roth. The party had journeyed to Los Ojuellos, where a spring of clear water bubbled up in the centre of the _mesa_. A grove of cottonwood trees shadowed the place, and there was an ancient _adobe_ ruin which looked especially effective by moonlight.
The persistent Conny Masters was a member of the party, but he was handicapped by the fact that he knew more about camp cookery than anyone else present. He had made a special study of Mexican dishes and had written an article about them which had been rejected by no less than twenty-seven magazines. He made a specialty of the _enchilada_, which is a delightful concoction of corn meal, eggs and chile, and he had perfected a recipe of his own for this dish which he had named the Conny Masters junior.
As soon as the baskets were unpacked and the chaperones were safely anch.o.r.ed on rugs and blankets with their backs against trees, there was a general demand, strongly backed by Ramon, that Conny should cook supper.
He was soon absorbed in the process, volubly explaining every step, while the others gathered about him and offered encouragement and humorous suggestion. But there was soon a gradual dispersion of the group, some going for wood and some for water, and others on errands unstated.
Ramon found himself strolling under the cottonwoods with Julia. Neither of them had said anything. It was almost as though the tryst had been agreed upon before. She picked her way slowly among the tussocks of dried gra.s.s, her skirt daintily kilted. A faint but potent perfume from her hair and dress blew over him. He ventured to support her elbow with a reverent touch. Never had she seemed more desirable, nor yet, for some reason, more remote.
Suddenly she stopped and looked up at the great desert stars.
Isnt it big and beautiful? she demanded. And doesnt it make you feel free? Its never like this at home, somehow.
What is it like where you live? he enquired. He had a persistent desire to see into her life and understand it, but everything she told him only made her more than ever to him a being of mysterious origin and destiny.
Its a funny little New York factory city with very staid ways, she said. You go to a dance at the country club every Sat.u.r.day night and to tea parties and things in between. You fight, bleed and die for your social position and once in a while you stop and wonder why. Its a bore.
You can see yourself going on doing the same thing till the day of your death.
Her discontent with things as they are found ready sympathy.
Thats just the way it is here, he said with conviction. You cant see anything ahead.
Oh, I dont think its the same here at all, she protested. This countrys so big and interesting. Its different.
Tell me how, he demanded. I havent seen anything interesting here since I got back,except you.
She ignored the exception.
I cant express it exactly. The people here are just like people everywhere elsemost of them. But the country looks so big and unoccupied.
And blue mountains are so alluring. There might be anything beyond them adventures, opportunities.
This idea was a bit too rarefied for Ramon, but he could agree about the mountains.
Its a fine country, he a.s.sented. For those that own it.
Its just a feeling I have about it, she went on, trying to express her own half-formulated idea. But then I have that feeling about life in general, and there doesnt seem to be anything in it. I mean the feeling that its full of thrilling things, but somehow you miss them all.
I have felt something like that, he admitted. But I never could say it.
This discovery of an idea in common seemed somehow to bring them closer together. His hand tightened gently about her arm; almost unconsciously he drew her toward him. But she seemed to be all absorbed in the discussion.