He laughed back. He felt that it would be unbearable for Hilda to go hungry, to spoil her red and white with abstinence.
"My dear girl," he said, "what did you mean when you spoke of going away?"
"Haven"t you been thinking of going?"
The color came up in his cheeks. "Yes, but how did you know it?"
"Well, a woman knows. Why don"t you make up your mind?"
"There"s Jean to think of."
"Emily Bridges could take care of her. And you ought to go. Men are seeing things over there that they"ll never see again. And women are."
"If my country needs me--"
Hilda was cold. "I shouldn"t go for that. As I told Jean, I am not making any grand stand plays. I should go for all that I get out of it, the experience, the adventure--."
He looked at her with some curiosity. Jean"s words of the afternoon recurred to him. "She"s a ghoul--"
Yet there was something almost fascinating in her frankness. She tore aside ruthlessly the curtain of self-deception, revealing her motives, as if she challenged him to call them less worthy than his own.
"If I go, it will be because I want to become a better nurse. I like it here, but your practice is necessarily limited. I should get a wider view of things. So would you. There would be new worlds of disease, men in all conditions of nervous shock."
"I know. But I"d hate to think I was going merely for selfish ends."
She shrugged. "Why not that as well as any other?"
He had a smouldering sense of irritation.
"When I am with Jean she makes me feel rather big and fine; when I am with you--" He paused.
"I make you see yourself as you are, a man. She thinks you are more than that."
All his laughter left ham. "It is something to be a hero to one"s daughter. Perhaps some day I shall be a little better for her thinking so."
She saw that she had gone too far. "You mustn"t take the things I say too seriously."
The bell of the telephone at her elbow whirred. She put the receiver to her ear. "It is General Drake"s man; he thinks you"d better come over before you go to bed."
"I was afraid I might have to go. He is in rather bad shape, Hilda."
She packed his bag for him competently, and telephoned for his car.
"I"ll have a cup of coffee ready for you when you get back," she said, as she stood in the door. "It is going to be a dreadful night."
The streets were icy and the sleet falling. "You"d better have your overshoes," Hilda decided, and went for them.
As he put them on, she stood under the hall light, smiling. "Have you forgiven me?" she asked as he straightened up.
"For telling me the truth? Of course. You take such good care of me, Hilda."
Upstairs in her own room Jean was writing a letter. It was a very pretty room, very fresh and frilly with white dimity and with much pink and pale lavender. The night-light which shone through the rose taffeta petticoats of a porcelain lady was supplemented at the moment by a bed-side lamp which flung a ring of gold beyond Jean"s blotter to the edge of the lace spread. For Jean was writing in bed. All day her mind had been revolving around this letter, but she had had no time to write. She had spent the afternoon in the Toy Shop with Emily, and in the evening there had been a Red Cross sale. She had gone to the sale with Ralph Witherspoon and his mother. She had not been able to get out of going. All the time she had talked to Ralph she had thought of Derry. She had rather hoped that he might be there, but he wasn"t.
The letter required much thought. She tore up, extravagantly, several sheets of note-paper with tiny embossed thistles at the top. Doctor McKenzie was intensely Scotch, and he was ent.i.tled to a crest, but he was also intensely American, and would have none of it. He had designed Jean"s note-paper, and it was lovely. But it was also expensive, and it was a shame to waste so much of it on Derry Drake.
The note when it was finished seemed very simple. Just one page in Jean"s firm, clear script:
"Dear Mr. Drake:--
"Could you spare me one little minute tomorrow? I shall be at home at four. It is very important--to me at least. Perhaps when you hear what I have to say, it will seem important to you. I hope it may.
"Very sincerely yours,
"JEAN MCKENZIE."
She read it over several times. It seemed very stiff and inadequate.
She sealed it and stamped it, then in a panic tore it open for a re-reading. She was oppressed by doubts. Did nice girls ask men to come and see them? Didn"t they wait and weary like Mariana of the Moated Grange--? "He cometh not, she said?"
New times! New manners! She had branded a man as a coward. She had condemned him unheard. She had slighted him, she had listened while others slandered--why should she care what other women had done? Would do? Her way was clear. She owed an apology to Derry Drake, and she would make it.
So with a new envelope, a new stamp, the note was again sealed.
It had to be posted that night. She felt that under no circ.u.mstance could she stand the suspense of another day.
She had heard her father go out. Hilda was coming up, the maids were asleep. She waited until Hilda"s door was shut, then she slipped out of bed, tucked her toes into a pair of sandals, threw a furry motor coat around her, and sped silently down the stairs. She shrank back as she opened the front door. The sleet rattled on the steps, the pavements were covered with white.
The mail-box was in front of the house. She made a rush for it, dropped in the precious letter, and gained once more the haven of the warm hall.
She was glad to get back to her room. As she settled down among her pillows, she had a great sense of adventure, as if she had travelled far in a few moments.
As a matter of fact, she had made her first real excursion into the land of romance. She found her thoughts galloping.
At the foot of the bed her silver Persian, Polly Ann, lay curled on her own gray blanket.
"Polly Ann," Jean said, "if he doesn"t come, I shall hate myself for writing that note."
Polly Ann surveyed her sleepily.
"But it would serve me right if he didn"t, Polly Ann."
She turned off the light and tried to sleep. Downstairs the telephone rang. It rang, too, in Hilda"s room. Hilda"s door opened and shut.
She came across the hall and tapped on Jean"s door. "May I come in?"
"Yes."
"Your father has just telephoned," Hilda said from the threshold, "that General Drake"s nurse is not well, and will have to be taken off the case. I shall have to go in her place. There is a great shortage at the hospital. Will you be afraid to stay alone, or shall I wake up Ellen and have her sleep on the couch in your dressing room?"