"You see," the American went on, "We"re not the stay-at-home-and-mind-Auntie kind that come here to study. What we want is to learn to paint and to have a good time in between. Don"t you make any mistake, Miss Desmond. This time in Paris is _the_ time of our lives to most of us. It"s what we"ll have to look back at and talk about. And suppose every time there was any fun going we had to send around to the nearest store for a chaperon how much fun would there be left by the time she toddled in? No--the folks at home who trust us to work trust us to play. And we have our little heads screwed on the right way."
Betty remembered that she had been trusted neither for play nor work.
Yet, from the home standpoint she had been trustworthy, more trustworthy than most. She had not asked Vernon, her only friend, to come and see her, and when he had said, "When shall I see you again?"
she had answered, "I don"t know. Thank you very much. Good-bye."
"I don"t know how _you_ were raised," Miss Voscoe went on, "but I guess it was in the pretty sheltered home life. Now I"d bet you fell in love with the first man that said three polite words to you!"
"I"m not twenty yet," said Betty, with ears and face of scarlet.
"Oh, you mean I"m to think n.o.body"s had time to say those three polite words yet? You come right along to my studio, I"ve got a tea on, and I"ll see if I can"t introduce my friends to you by threes, so as you get nine polite words at once. You can"t fall in love with three boys a minute, can you?"
Betty went home and put on her prettiest frock. After all, one was risking a good deal for this Paris life, and one might as well get as much out of it as one could. And one always had a better time of it when one was decently dressed. Her gown was of dead-leaf velvet, with green undersleeves and touches of dull red and green embroidery at elbows and collar.
Miss Voscoe"s studio was at the top of a hundred and seventeen polished wooden steps, and as Betty neared the top flight the sound of talking and laughter came down to her, mixed with the rattle of china and the subdued tinkle of a mandolin. She opened the door--the room seemed full of people, but she only saw two. One was Vernon and the other was Temple.
Betty furiously resented the blush that hotly covered neck, ears and face.
"Here you are!" cried Miss Voscoe. She was kind: she gave but one fleet glance at the blush and, linking her arm in Betty"s, led her round the room. Betty heard her name and other names. People were being introduced to her. She heard:
"Pleased to know you,--"
"Pleased to make your acquaintance,--"
"Delighted to meet you--"
and realised that her circle of American acquaintances was widening.
When Miss Voscoe paused with her before the group of which Temple and Vernon formed part Betty felt as though her face had swelled to that degree that her eyes must, with the next red wave, start out of her head. The two hands, held out in successive greeting, gave Miss Voscoe the key to Betty"s flushed entrance.
She drew her quickly away, and led her up to a glaring poster where a young woman in a big red hat sat at a cafe table, and under cover of Betty"s purely automatic recognition of the composition"s talent, murmured:
"Which of them was it?"
"I beg your pardon?" Betty mechanically offered the deferent defence.
"Which was it that said the three polite words--before you"d ever met anyone else?"
"Ah!" said Betty, "you"re so clever--"
"Too clever to live, yes," said Miss Voscoe; "but before I die--which was it?"
"I was going to say," said Betty, her face slowly drawing back into itself its natural colouring, "that you"re so clever you don"t want to be told things. If you"re sure it"s one of them, you ought to know which."
"Well," remarked Miss Voscoe, "I guess Mr. Temple."
"Didn"t I say you were clever?" said Betty.
"Then it"s the other one."
Before the studio tea was over, Vernon and Temple both had conveyed to Betty the information that it was the hope of meeting her that had drawn them to Miss Voscoe"s studio that afternoon.
"Because, after all," said Vernon, "we _do_ know each other better than either of us knows anyone else in Paris. And, if you"d let me, I could put you to a thing or two in the matter of your work. After all, I"ve been through the mill."
"It"s very kind of you," said Betty, "but I"m all alone now Paula"s gone, and--"
"We"ll respect the conventions," said Vernon gaily, "but the conventions of the Quartier Latin aren"t the conventions of Clapham."
"No, I know," said she, "but there"s a point of honour." She paused.
"There are reasons," she added, "why I ought to be more conventional than Clapham. I should like to tell you, some time, only--But I haven"t got anyone to tell anything to. I wonder--"
"What? What do you wonder?"
Betty spoke with effort.
"I know it sounds insane, but, you know my stepfather thought you--you wanted to marry me. You didn"t ever, did you?"
Vernon was silent: none of his habitual defences served him in this hour.
"You see," Betty went on, "all that sort of thing is such nonsense. If I knew you cared about someone else everything would be so simple."
"Eliminate love," said Vernon, "and the world is a simple example in vulgar fractions."
"I want it to be simple addition," said Betty. "Lady St. Craye is very beautiful."
"Yes," said Vernon.
"Is she in love with you?"
"Ask her," said Vernon, feeling like a schoolboy in an examination.
"If she were--and you cared for her--then you and I could be friends: I should like to be real friends with you."
"Let us be friends," said he when he had paused a moment. He made the proposal with every possible reservation.
"Really?" she said. "I"m so glad."
If there was a pang, Betty pretended to herself that there was none.
If Vernon"s conscience fluttered him he was able to soothe it; it was an art that he had studied for years.
"Say, you two!"
The voice of Miss Voscoe fell like a pebble into the pool of silence that was slowly widening between them.
"Say--we"re going to start a sketch-club for really reliable girls. We can have it here, and it"ll only be one franc an hour for the model, and say six sous each for tea. Two afternoons a week. Three, five, nine of us--you"ll join, Miss Desmond?"
"Yes--oh, yes!" said Betty, conscientiously delighted with the idea of more work.
"That makes--nine six sous and two hours model--how much is that, Mr.
Temple?--I see it written on your speaking brow that you took the mathematical wranglership at Oxford College."