“Excuse me a moment,” she said, “I’ll have to call Mother.” She slipped out of the room, leaving no choice for Victor but to sit down and talk with the guests.
When she returned she found Victor seated on the couch with Bernice Brandon, eagerly engaged in a lively conversation, proving beyond a doubt that he could be entertaining if he chose. That was the meanness of him—that he could be agreeable and didn’t often choose to be.
Mrs. Kingsley came down in a moment, and as they engaged in general conversation, Lisle watched her sometime lover being agreeable to the other pretty girl. So Victor was still easily influenced by beauty. She smiled to herself as she watched him furtively, saw his handsome eyes light, saw his alluring smile. And suddenly it came to her how unpleasant it might be to have a man like Victor for a husband. In more ways than one he would be hard to live with.
As she thought back now in quick retrospect over the past, she recalled how Victor had always wanted his own way about everything. If he didn’t get it, he just wouldn’t play and would manage to break up the whole game for everybody and make an unpleasant state of things all around.
No, decidedly she wouldn’t ever marry him. Not even if she loved him, which she was suddenly sure she did not. It would be horrible to marry a man who thought he was always right in everything and who would brook no difference of opinion nor allow his wife to do as she pleased in anything.
So it was a great relief to her to sit smiling and talking with Arthur Brandon, really enjoying his conversation. He was little more than a shy boy yet, but he had read a great deal, and he knew what he was talking about. He was really interesting. He was not only well read, but he was well versed in music and a number of scientific subjects, and before long they were launched into some truly deep discussions that made Lisle entirely forget that Victor was present.
He, however, appeared entirely satisfied with Bernice Brandon and did not seem to notice that the girl whom he had just been saying was engaged to him was deep in conversation with another fairly personable young man. And somehow it gave Lisle great relief to realize that when the time came to make him definitely understand her own decision, she need not feel that he would suffer in any way. Unless perhaps it was from his pride, that any girl whom he had honored would reject his hand. Well, that was a relief to know, for now she felt beyond the shadow of a doubt that he did not love her, and never had. She doubted if he knew what love meant. And it was no wonder that he called it “Oh that mush!”
In the midst of these thoughts, she managed to keep fairly well in touch with the conversation she was having with Arthur. Then her mother spoke.
“Lisle, dear, did you know that these people are fine musicians? Don’t you think it would be nice if we were to have a little music?”
“Oh, lovely!” said Lisle. “Do you play or sing or both?” she asked Bernice.
“Oh, a little of both, although we mainly sing,” laughed the other girl. “My older sister usually plays our accompaniments when she’s around, and our little sister plays the violin. But they are neither of them here, of course. I’m not much on accompaniments, and so Arthur and I seldom sing much when we are away from home. It is so hard to find a good accompanist. But my aunt says you are a fine pianist.”
“I play,” said Lisle modestly, “but I never was much on singing. I haven’t a great voice. And not caring for my own voice makes me shy of singing. But, come on, let’s have some music!” She went over to the piano and sat down, pointing to a pile of music. “What shall we begin with?”
Bernice hesitated. Then she said, “The other gentleman? He’s musical, isn’t he? We’ve been talking about the symphony orchestra.”
Lisle looked at Victor.
“Yes, Victor sings, sometimes, when he wants to,” she said with a smile.
And so presently the four young people were singing. Victor lifting a lazy tenor and joining in with the other voices, and Lisle coming in with a soft true alto.
Mrs. Kingsley sat and watched them all, studying Victor and thinking with relief that he was acting quite like his better self. Perhaps after all, he would mature and come into his own, come back to the promise of his younger days. It had been such a happy thought to feel that Lisle’s future was to be laid in pleasant pastures, with a good young man for her companion. Such a terrible shock to hear him talk as he had that day in the store restaurant. Could Lisle ever forget that? And yet as she looked at the young man now, it seemed incredible that he could ever honestly have meant those sentiments he had expressed.
Victor, with grace and dignity, accompanied Bernice to her aunt’s, all of them expressing the joy they had had in the companionship, and especially the music. Their voices had proved to blend well together, and even Victor had come around and said how good they all were and how well their voices “went with” his.
So that night when Lisle at last went to her rest, she was well content with the way the evening had worked out. Nevertheless, she was firmly resolved that she and Victor would not go shopping together in the morning.
Chapter 6
When Victor came to the house the next morning to get Lisle, she was gone. She had arranged to go out with two other members of a committee who were making arrangements for a nursery school to care for the young children of the women who were going into the factories and defense plants to work. It was a wonderful plan, and Lisle was deeply interested in it. So she was very glad that the rest of the committee chose this special morning to get started with the work.
Lisle did not have much opportunity to talk with her mother before she left, and it had been quite late when the guests left the evening before, so Mrs. Kingsley had not heard any report of what had passed between her daughter and Victor. She did not know that the whole wartime situation had been entirely changed for the young man. When Victor came in and asked for Lisle, he was told that she was out on committee work and that no one knew exactly where that work was located.
Naturally, Victor was much annoyed. Not only had his girl ignored his suggestions and turned down his plans, but she had gone away and made it practically an impossibility for him to get in touch with her. This, regardless of the fact that it was now impossible for him to be at the jeweler’s at a certain arranged time to look over diamonds under expert advice. He was so upset at this change in his plans that he finally demanded to see Lisle’s mother, and complained in no uncertain language about her daughter’s conduct.
Mrs. Kingsley’s reaction was quiet dignity.
“Suppose you sit down, Victor, and talk quietly. Let me understand this whole matter. You see, I have not heard anything about it at all. Do you say that Lisle promised to go out with you this morning?”
“Well, not exactly promised,” said the young man haughtily. “But she knew I wanted her to go, for we had been talking about it, and she knew why, and then those people came in and we had no further opportunity to talk. But she knew perfectly well what I wanted, and now she has gone and done this! Gone off without leaving any word for me. I didn’t think Lisle would treat me that way.”
“I’m very sorry if you think she has been unfair to you,” said Lisle’s mother, “but I am sure there is some reasonable explanation. I know she has been appointed on this committee, and of course it is important that it get its work started immediately. She perhaps tried to explain this to you and thought she had done so, not realizing that you would not understand why she could not go with you this morning.”
“No, she didn’t say a word about her old committee,” said Victor crossly. “She just didn’t want to go. In fact, she said she wouldn’t. But I thought she was kidding. You see, I had an appointment with a very important man, and I wanted her to go with me. Well, I may as well tell you, we were to select the diamond for her engagement ring. I naturally wanted her to choose the one she liked the best and to take the advice of this expert. And if a thing like that isn’t more important than any old war committee, I’d like to know the reason why.”
; Mrs. Kingsley looked at the young man with startled worry in her eyes.
“Wait, Victor. I’m afraid I don’t understand. You say you asked her to go with you to choose her engagement ring? Did she understand that? Are you sure?”
“Why, of course,” said the boy with his old cross tone. “I told her.”
“Well, but I don’t understand, Victor. Had you asked her if she would marry you? When were you engaged?”
“You heard me tell her we were going to be married the other day at the store.”
“But telling her you are going to marry her is not asking her if she is willing. What makes you think she is willing? What did she say when you asked her?”
“Oh, she just laughed and gave me a lot of backtalk that she didn’t want to marry anybody, and all that, but I knew she didn’t mean it. Girls never mean things like that. We’ve always been expected to get married, ever since we were kids. And I don’t like the way she is acting. Now I’m in a heck of a fix. Got a diamond expert coming all the way from New York to meet us, and Lisle won’t be there! If that isn’t standing me up, then I don’t know what is.”
“Victor, have you ever told my daughter that you love her?” Mrs. Kingsley’s voice was very clear. Her eyes searched the boy’s face as she spoke, and the young man lifted his chin in offended haughtiness.
“Mrs. Kingsley, you and I have always been good friends, but I think you are going a little too far this time. I think that matter is strictly between Lisle and myself.”
Mrs. Kingsley looked at him in perfect amazement for an instant, and then she rose and said quietly, “Oh, very well, then, I suppose the matter of how Lisle decides to treat you will be another thing strictly between Lisle and yourself. Therefore I shall not need to trouble any more about it. I’ll ask you to excuse me now. I have important matters to attend to at once. Good morning!” And she turned to go out of the room. But Victor quickly intercepted her.
“But that isn’t all,” he said, still in his complaining voice. “I offered to go along with Lisle and help her select her dress for the party at our house. There isn’t much time, you know, and I want to be sure she looks just right.”
“Oh, indeed!” said Lisle’s mother. “Well, I don’t wonder that Lisle went away without explanation, if you said that to her. Certainly we won’t need to trouble you to pass censorship on Lisle’s clothes. I think you had better go home and think over the things you have been saying and doing, and you may possibly find out why Lisle did not care to wait for you.”
“But don’t you think we ought to decide such things together, Mrs. Kingsley?”
“Why no, I don’t see that it is a matter that you have anything to do with. A woman selects her own garments.”
“Well, what is she going to wear? I want to know. I think I have the right. What is the color and style? I thought I’d like to suggest some ideas to her. She hasn’t bought her dress yet, has she? Or has she?”
“Why, Victor, I’m not sure, but I think whatever she decides upon, it is already bought. You see, we felt very uncertain as to whether that party would ever come off—at least at this time. I understood that you were to be called to war any day now.”
“That’s all off,” said Victor coldly. “I’m not going to war at all. I’m needed at home for defense purposes. I’m to take over the management of my father’s business. He hasn’t been well, and the government has awarded some very important work to our plant. I’m to take over in the office as soon as my majority party is over. So you can see why I’m anxious to get everything settled up and my life started the way it ought to be, and I don’t think Lisle had any right to stand me up this way.”
“Oh!” said Mrs. Kingsley, with a sound in her voice as if it were a lovely balloon that had suddenly been pricked. “Oh! Well in that case, I’m afraid I can’t help you any. And about the matter of Lisle’s dress, I think that is entirely her own affair, to wear whatever seems suitable to her. Good-bye!” And Mrs. Kingsley went out of the house, walking swiftly down the street in the direction of her morning errands. By the time she had gone the first block, she began to feel that Lisle had better sense than she thought she had. This young man was not a person to whom she wanted to trust her only daughter’s life. Not the way he was now, anyway. She had thought, she had hoped, that Victor had not really changed, that he just experienced a small season of aberration at the store that day and that he would soon come around to his old self. But the way he talked today, Mrs. Kingsley could see that he had really changed, taken on new ideas, new views of life, that were quite impossible. She could not blame Lisle for turning against him, for running away from a shopping expedition with him, for running away even from a gorgeous diamond ring—for anything that a Vandingham would purchase would of course be gorgeous. But, decidedly, with his present attitudes, he was anything but desirable.
Victor stood watching her go down the street with amazement and utter incredulity in his face. He had not dreamed that again he would encounter such unbelievable Victorianism in the people he had been sure were his devoted slaves. Always Mrs. Kingsley had been so kind to him, always suggesting pleasant things that Lisle might do to make happy times for him. He could not understand it that they did not want his advice about Lisle’s dress on such an important occasion, and that they actually seemed to resent his suggestions as if he were interfering.
And as for the ring and the marriage, they were actually ignoring the idea, as he were a child and had no right to ask her to marry him. And making so much of that antique idea of love, as if that were important. Well, if they insisted on living on traditional ideas, he might have to give in and give them a line of talk. But it would go sadly against the grain to back down on the ways he had been learning the last four years, and he would hate to think afterward that he had to get his wife by such an ancient method. Where had Mrs. Kingsley been that she didn’t know that romance and all that was bunk? Couldn’t she look around her and see how many divorces there were and remarriages? Why, people didn’t think anything of it today. They married because they enjoyed each other’s company for a while, and when they got tired of each other and found someone they had a better time with, they got a divorce and annexed somebody else. Well, it wasn’t easy to teach elderly people new ideas, and he supposed he would have to give in for a while until he and Lisle were married, for he could see that Lisle was in no state to give up her early beliefs and standards. She would need to live in a modern world for a while, away from her people, before she found out what a little fanatic she was becoming.
Well, probably the best way to bring her to her senses would be to ignore her for a few days. Even bring another girl around and let her see him going steady with her. That Bernice that he’d met last night would do as well as anyone perhaps. She was pretty and quite interesting. He had heard she was due to go back to Boston in a few days, but perhaps if his mother invited her to the party, she would stay for it. He would see about that at once. Go right home and tell his mother to send that girl an invitation. And perhaps there were other girls he could think of that would put Lisle on her toes to bring him back to her. But he wouldn’t be too quick to do that, either. He must get her good and anxious before he gave in and returned to her side.
So Victor hurried home to get an invitation sent off to Bernice and her brother. Of course the brother was a bit young for a coming-of-age party, but as he and his sister were visiting here, it was probably the proper thing to do to invite him.
It was on his way home that Victor caught his first glimpse of another girl, a girl he had never seen before. She must be a stranger in town. She certainly was a glamour girl, all right, if there ever was one. Exquisite complexion, lovely eyes, silver-blonde hair low on her shoulders in the very latest roll, daring make-up. Ah! That was sophistication! He wished he had Lisle there to point it out to her, his ideal of the way she ought to dress and make up herself. Would there be any way to get Lisle to see her? That was the kind of girl who could bring Lisle to her se
nses if any girl could, and make her see how she would lose him if she kept on in her present old-fashioned style.
He looked so hard at the new girl, really staring at her, that she stared back at him and finally gave a slow, understanding smile, with a lifting of her long gold lashes that the boys at college used to call a “come-hither look.”
As he came nearer to her, her eyes said things, and he half hesitated then came forward quickly with his wholly engaging smile. Lifting his hat he said, “Say, I’ve met you somewhere before, haven’t I? Tell me where, glamour girl. It certainly seems that we are old friends.”
The girl turned on a warmer light in her eyes and a subtler smile.
“It does seem that way, doesn’t it?” she said easily, pausing as if they were old acquaintances.
“Well, say, this is great!” said Victor. “You’re just the one I was longing to meet. How about a date with me? Going anywhere for lunch?”
“No, not definitely.”
“Good! Then we’ll make it a definite. Ever try the Dark Star restaurant? Then come, I’ll show you something new.”
The girl looked him straight in the eye with a quizzical expression, and hesitated.