"Good afternoon. You startled me," said Lane.
"I called you twice."
"Indeed? I beg pardon. I didn"t hear."
"Don"t you remember me?" Her tone was one of pique and doubt.
Then he remembered her. "Oh, of course. Bessy Bell! You must forgive me. I"ve been ill and upset lately. These bad spells of mine magnify time. It seems long since the Junior Prom."
"Oh, you"re ill," she returned, compa.s.sionately. "You do look pale and--won"t you come in? It"s dusty and hot there. Come. I"ll take you where it"s nice and cool."
"Thank you. I"ll be glad to."
She led him to a green, fragrant nook, where a bench with cushions stood half-hidden under heavy foliage. Lane caught a glimpse of a winding flagged path, and in the distance a cottage among the trees.
"Bessy, do you live here?" he asked. "It"s pretty."
"Yes, this is my home. It"s too d.a.m.n far from town, I"ll say. I"m buried alive," she replied, pa.s.sionately.
The bald speech struck Lane forcibly. All at once he remembered Bessy Bell and his former interest. She was a type of the heretofore inexplicable modern girl. Lane looked at her, seeing her suddenly with a clearer vision. Bessy Bell had a physical perfection, a loveliness that needed neither spirit nor animation. But life had given this girl so much more than beauty. A softness of light seemed to shine round her golden head; smiles played in secret behind her red lips ready to break forth, and there was a haunting hint of a dimple in her round cheek; on her lay the sweetness of youth subtly dawning into womanhood; the flashing eyes were keen with intellect, with fire, full of promise and mystic charm; and her beautiful, supple body, so plainly visible, seemed quivering with sheer, restless joy of movement and feeling. A trace of artificial color on her face and the indelicacy of her dress but slightly counteracted Lane"s first impression.
"You promised to call me up and make a date," she said, and sat down close to him.
"Yes. I meant it too. But Bessy, I was ill, and then I forgot. You didn"t miss much."
"Hot dog! Hear the man. Daren, I"d throw the whole bunch down to be with you," she exclaimed.
At the end of that speech she paled slightly and her breath came quickly. She looked bold, provocative, expectant, yet sincere. Child or woman, she had to be taken seriously. Here indeed was the mystery that had baffled Lane. He realized his opportunity, like a flash all his former thought and conjecture about this girl returned to him.
"You would. Well, I"m highly flattered. Why, may I ask?"
"Because I"ve fallen for you," she replied, leaning close to him.
"That"s the main reason, I guess.... But another is, I want you to tell me all about yourself--in the war, you know."
"I"d be glad to--if we get to be real friends," he said, thoughtfully.
"I don"t understand you."
"And I"ll say I don"t just get you," she retorted. "What do you want?
Have you forgotten the silver platter?"
She turned away with a restless quivering. She had shown no shyness.
She was bold, intense, absolutely without fear; and however stimulating or attractive the situation evidently was, it was neither new nor novel to her. Some strange leaven worked deep in her. Lane could put no other interpretation on her words and actions than that she expected him to kiss her.
"Bessy Bell, look at me," said Lane, earnestly. "You"ve said a mouthful, as the slang word goes. I"m sort of surprised, you remember.
Bessy, you"re not a girl whose head is full of excelsior. You"ve got brains. You can think.... Now, if you really like me--and I believe you--try to understand this. I"ve been away so long. All is changed. I don"t know how to take girls. I"m ill--and unhappy. But if I could be your friend and could help you a little--please you--why it"d be good for me."
"Daren, they tell me you"re going to die," she returned, breathlessly.
Her glance was brooding, dark, pregnant with purple fire.
"Bessy, don"t believe all you hear. I"m not--not so far gone yet."
"They say you"re game, too."
"I hope so, Bessy."
"Oh, you make me think. You must believe me a pill. I wanted you to--to fall for me hard.... That bunch of sapheads have spoiled me, I"ll say. Daren, I"m sick of them. All they want to do is mush. I like tennis, riding, golf. I want to do things. But it"s too hot, or this, or that. Yet they"ll break their necks to carry a girl off to some roadhouse, and dance--dance till you"re melted. Then they stop along the river to go bathing. I"ve been twice. You see, I have to sneak away, or lie to mother and say I"ve gone to Gail"s or somewhere."
"Bathing, at night?" queried Lane, curiously.
"Sure thing. It"s spiffy, in the dark."
"Of course you took your bathing suits?"
"Hot dog! That would be telling."
Lane dropped his head and studied the dust at his feet. His heart beat thick and heavy. Through this girl the truth was going to be revealed to him. It seemed on the moment that he could not look into her eyes.
She scattered his wits. He tried to erase from his mind every impression of her, so that he might begin anew to understand her. And the very first, succeeding this erasure, was a singular idea that she was the opposite of romantic.
"Bessy, can you understand that it is hard for a soldier to talk of what has happened to him?"
"I"ll say I can," she replied.
"You"re sorry for me?" he went on, gently.
"Sorry!... Give me a chance to prove what I am, Daren Lane."
"Very well, then. I will. We"ll make a fifty-fifty bargain. Do you regard a promise sacred?"
"I think I do. Some of the girls quarrel with me because I get sore, and swear they"re not square, as I try to be. I hate a liar and a quitter."
"Come then--shake hands on our bargain."
She seemed thrilled, excited. The clasp of her little hand showed force of character. She looked wonderingly up at him. Her appeal then was one of exquisite youth and beauty. Something of the baffling suggestion of an amorous expectation and response left her. This child would give what she received.
"First, then, it"s for me to know a lot about you," went on Lane.
"Will you tell me?"
"Sure. I"d trust you with anything," she replied, impulsively.
"How long have you been going with boys?"
"Oh, for two years, I guess. I had a pa.s.sionate love affair when I was thirteen," she replied, with the nonchalance and sophistication of experience.
It was impossible for Lane to take this latter remark for anything but the glib boldness of an erotic child. But he was not making any a.s.surances to himself that he was right. Bessy Bell was fifteen years old, according to time. But she had the physical development of eighteen, and a mental range beyond his ken. The lawlessness unleashed by the war seemed embodied in this girl.
"With an older boy?" queried Lane.
"No. He was a kid of my own age. I guess I outgrew Ted," she replied, dreamily. "But he still tries to rush me."