"But my dear, it"s dreadful! People are beginning to ask questions; a reporter--we don"t know who he was--telephoned Gardner. Of course Gardner hung up--"
"I can say no more than I have said," Rachael observed thoughtfully. "What authority have I? Clarence could influence her, I think, but she lies simply and flatly to Clarence."
Mrs. Haviland winced at the ugly word.
"Joe drinks," Rachael went on, "but he doesn"t drink as much as her adored Daddy does. Joe is thirty-nine and Billy is seventeen-- well, that"s not his fault. Joe is divorced--well, but Carol"s mother is living, and Clarence"s second wife isn"t exactly ostracised by society! A clergyman of your own church married Clarence and me--" The little scornful twist of the beautiful mouth stung a church woman conscious of personal integrity, and Mrs. Haviland said:
"A great many of them won"t! The church is going to take a stand in the matter. The bishops are considering a canon. ..."
Mrs. Breckenridge shrugged her shoulders indifferently. Theology did not interest her.
"And as Billy is too young and too blind to see that Joe isn"t a gentleman," she continued, "or to realize that Lucy got her divorce against his will, to believe that her money might well influence a gentleman of Joe"s luxurious tastes and dislike for office work--why, I suppose they will be married!"
"Never!" said Florence Haviland, with some heat, "DON"T!"
"Unless Clarence shoots him," submitted Rachael. A look of intense anxiety clouded Mrs. Haviland"s eyes.
"I believe he would," she said, in a wretched whisper, with a cautious glance about.
"He might," his wife said seriously. "If ever it comes to that, we shall simply have to keep them apart. You see Billy--the clever little devil--"
"Oh, Rachael, DON"T use such words!" said the church woman.
"Father Graves was saying only the other day that one"s speech should be "yea, yea" and--"
"I daresay!" Mrs. Breckenridge"s smile was indulgent. It had been many years since Florence had succeeded in ruffling her. "Billy, then," she resumed, "keeps her father happy in the thought that he is all the world to her, and that her occasional chats with Joe are of an entirely uplifting and impersonal character."
"Impersonal! Uplifting!" Mrs. Haviland repeated indignantly.
"There wasn"t very much uplift about them the other night. Gardner and I stopped in to see if we couldn"t take you to the Hoyts", but you"d gone. Carol had on that flame-colored dress of hers, her hair was fluffed all over her ears in that silly way the girls do now; Joe couldn"t take his eyes off her. The only light they had in the drawing-room was the yellow lamp and the fire; it was the coziest thing I ever saw!"
"Vivvy Sartoris was here!" Rachael said quickly.
"Don"t you believe it, my dear!" Mrs. Haviland returned triumphantly. "Carol was very demure, "Tante" this and "Tante"
that, but I knew right away that something was amiss! "Oh," I said right out flatly, "are you alone here, Carol?" and she answered very prettily: "Vivian was to be here, but she hasn"t come yet!"
This was after half-past seven."
"I understood Vivian WAS here," said Rachael, flushing darkly.
"Let me see--the next morning--where was I? Oh, yes, it was your luncheon, and Billy had gone out for some tennis when I came downstairs. I supposed of course--but I didn"t ask. I DID ask Helda what time she had let the gentleman out and she said before eleven--not much after half-past ten, in fact."
"You see, we mustn"t go on suppositions and halftruths any more,"
said Mrs. Haviland in delicate reproach. "When we have that wonderful and delicate thing, a girl"s soul, to deal with, we must be SURE."
"I suppose I"d better tell Clarence that--about Wednesday night,"
Rachael said, downing with some effort an impulse to ask Florence not to be so smug.
"Well, I think you had," the other agreed, with visible relief.
"As for me," Mrs. Breckenridge said, nettled by her sister-in- law"s att.i.tude, and mischievously interested in the effect of her thunderbolt, "I"m just desperately tired of it. I can"t see that I"m doing Clarence, or Billy, or myself, any good! I"d like to resign, and let somebody else try for a while!"
Steel leaped into Mrs. Haviland"s light-blue eyes. She felt the shock in every fibre of body and soul, but she flung herself gallantly into the charge. Her large form straightened, her expression achieved a certain remoteness.
"What do you mean by that?" she asked sharply.
"The usual thing, I suppose," Rachael answered indifferently.
The older woman, watching her closely, essayed a brief, dry laugh.
"Don"t talk absurdities," she said boldly. But Rachael saw the uneasiness under the a.s.sured manner, and smiled to herself.
"It"s not absurd at all," she protested, still with her smiling, half-negligent air; "I"ve put it off years longer than most women would; now I"m getting rather tired."
"It"s a great mistake to talk that way, whether you mean it or not," Mrs. Haviland said, after an uncomfortable moment, during which her face flushed, and her breath began to come rather fast.
"But you"re joking, of course; you"re too sensible to take any step that would only plunge you into fresh difficulties. Clarence is very trying, I know--we all know that--but let"s try to face the situation sensibly, and not fly off the handle like this! Why, Rachael dear, I can hardly believe it"s your cool-headed, reasonable self talking," she went on more quietly. "Don"t--don"t even think about it! In the first place, you couldn"t get it!"
"Oh, yes, I could. Clarence wouldn"t contest it," Rachael said.
"He"d agree to anything to be rid of me. If not--if he wouldn"t agree to my filing suit under the New York law, I could establish my residence in California or Nevada, and bring suit there. ..."
Mrs. Haviland gasped.
"Give up your home and your car and your maids for some small hotel?" she questioned, with her favorite air of neatly placing her fingertip upon the weak spot in her opponent"s armor. "No clubs, no dinners, none of your old friends--have you thought of that?"
"You may imagine that I"ve thought of it from a good many angles, Florence," Rachael said coldly, finding that what had been a mere drifting idea was beginning to take rather definite form in her mind. It was delightful to see the usually complacent and domineering Florence so agitated and at a loss.
"I never dreamed--" Mrs. Haviland mused dazedly. "How long, in Heaven"s name, have you been thinking about it?"
"Oh, quite some time," said Rachael.
"Well, it"s awful!" the other woman said. "It"ll make the most awful--and as if poor Clarence hadn"t been all through it all once! I declare it makes me sick! But I can"t believe you"re serious. Rachael, think--think what it means!"
"It"s a very serious thing," the other a.s.sented placidly. "But Clarence has no one but himself to blame."
"Only Clarence won"t BE blamed, my dear; men never are!" Mrs.
Haviland suggested unkindly. Rachael reddened.
"_I_ don"t care what they say or whom they blame!" she answered proudly.
"Ah, well, my dear, we aren"t any of us really indifferent to criticism," the older woman said, watching closely the effect of her words. "People are censorious--it"s too bad, it"s a pity--but there you are. "There must have been something we didn"t understand," they say, "there must be another man!""
Rachael raised her head a little, and managed a smile.
"That"s what they say," Mrs. Haviland went on, mildly triumphant.
"And no matter how brave or how independent a woman is, she doesn"t like THAT." There came to the speaker suddenly, under her smooth flow of words, a sickening shock of realization: it was of Rachael and Clarence she was speaking, her nearest relatives; it was one of the bulwarks of her world that was threatened! Without her knowledge her tone became less sure and more sincere. "For G.o.d"s sake, think what you are doing, dear," she said pleadingly; "think of Carol and of us all! Don"t drag us all through the papers again! I know what Clarence is, poor wretched boy; he"s always had too much money, he"s always had his own way. I know what you put up with week in and week out--"
Mrs. Haviland"s usual att.i.tude of a.s.sured superiority never impressed her sister-in-law. Her pompous magnificence was a source of unmitigated amus.e.m.e.nt to Rachael. But now the older woman"s emotion had carried her on to genuine and honest expression in spite of herself, and listening, Rachael found herself curiously stirred. She looked down, conscious of a sudden melting in her heart, a thickening in her throat.
"I"ve always been so fond of you, Rachael," Florence went on.
"I"ve always stood your friend--you know that--"
"I know," Rachael said huskily, her lashes dropped.