“Yes, well, suppose you and I have a little smoke to begin with,” said the girl. “This isn’t going to be easy for me, either, you know. Give me a cigarette. I’ve used mine all up this afternoon.”
“Sorry,” said Barney haughtily. “I don’t have any. Had you forgotten I’m not a smoker?”
“Now, Barney Vance. You don’t mean to tell me that you’ve been away to war and haven’t learned to smoke yet?”
“Oh, does one have to learn to smoke?” said the young man amusedly.
“But I thought the army made real men out of boys,” said Hortense contemptuously. “I thought surely when you got away from your mother’s apron strings you’d turn out to be a real man.”
“Oh,” said Barney, with quizzical lifted brows, “does smoking make a real man out of a boy?”
“Don’t be silly,” said Hortense. “You know all men in the service smoke and drink.”
“Oh, no,” said the young soldier, “I know quite a number who don’t. But don’t let’s argue about that. You were going to tell me about yourself.”
Hortense flung him a sullen, furious look.
“Well, get me a drink then, and I’ll go on. I’ve got to have something to hearten me.”
“A drink? Why, certainly,” said the young man, rising. “Come back with me to the old pump. Roxy always keeps some nice clean glasses on the shelf by the door, and the water is ice cold, you remember.”
He rose and led her back to the old pump where they used to drink as children.
“Water?” said Hortense contemptuously. “I want something stronger than that. Get me some brandy or wine or something real. It isn’t easy for me to tell my story.”
“Sorry,” said Barney genially. “You’d better try the water. You’ll find it good and cold and quite heartening. I’m quite sure there isn’t any other kind of liquor in the house, unless you’d like a glass of milk, or I could make you a cup of tea.”
“Heavens! No,” said the girl in contempt.
She took a small sip of the clear cold water and flung the rest on the ground. He took the glass from her, and led the way back to the chairs where they had been sitting.
“But heavens! Barney! You aren’t going to stand for that sort of thing, are you, now your mother is gone? Of course I knew she was always a terrific temperance woman, but surely now you can have a mind of your own. You don’t have to live on her ideas after you are a man, do you? Don’t you realize that there is nobody left in this world that you have to obey anymore? Nobody who can force their ideas and doctrines upon you, nobody to say you have to do anything? I know your mother dominated you, but now you can do as you please.”
“And did you think I had no convictions of my own?”
“Of your own? Why, of course not. You never were allowed to do the things the rest of us did.”
“I beg your pardon. That is not true,” said the young man gravely. “I was taught to think things out for myself, and decide what was wise and right, after I had looked into the subject carefully. And I have not found that the army life has changed many of those convictions thus formed. But we are getting away from the subject. I believe when we came out here you were going to tell me of yourself. We did not come out here to talk about me and my principles, or convictions of right and wrong. Here’s a cushion in this other chair. Perhaps that will make you a little more comfortable. Now, sit down and begin. You do the talking. What are you? A defense worker? A nurse?”
Hortense laughed derisively.
“Me? A defense worker! Not on your life!” she drawled. “You couldn’t drag me into a thing like that. I couldn’t be bothered. I’m just myself, out to have a good time!”
Barney’s annoyed eyes studied her derisively for a moment, and suddenly he knew what it was in this girl that his mother had disliked. Mother had been keen. She had seen deep into the character of Hortense Revenal even when she was only a child, and had done her best to guard her son from contact with her.
And yet she was beautiful, in a bold way. She had the faculty for taking her own natural prettiness and developing it to its fullest extent, even when it meant bringing out her worst traits. She well knew how to lift her lashes and bring an appeal to her big, dark eyes. She was adept in all the arts of a woman who wants to appeal to men. And Barney saw now that Hortense was bringing to bear all her arts upon him.
She dropped gracefully into the chair that Barney had brought for her and gave him a ravishing smile.
“Yes?” said the young man. “Well, did you find the good time?”
He watched her as one would watch and study a brazen child, although there was nothing at all about Hortense that was childlike. But she quickly snatched the role offered her and began to act it out.
“No,” she said dolefully. “I didn’t! I did the best I could, but the fates were against me.”
“Oh, how is that?” asked the soldier, with a quizzical lifting of his brows.
“Well, you see, Barney, I got married,” she confessed with down-drooping lashes and an upward quick glance to see what effect that fact would have upon him.
But Barney, not by so much as the flicker of an eyelash let it be known that this was no news to him. He took it quite calmly, as if he had not heard it before, and as if it made no difference in the world to him.
“Yes?” he said in a matter-of-fact tone. “Well, surely that gave you happiness, a good time, didn’t it? That is something that is generally supposed to make people very happy.”
The black lashes continued to droop; the cheeks were deeply flushed—or was that just the makeup? Had they been as red as that before he and Hortense came out to the porch? Barney wasn’t sure.
Then the pouting lips spoke, reluctantly, drawlingly. “That is what I thought, too,” said Hortense dramatically. “But I found it makes all the difference in the world who you marry.”
“Well, yes, of course,” said the young soldier, amused, “but I would have supposed that you would have looked out for that little matter before you married.”
“Well, I thought I did,” the girl drawled. She wasn’t so good in the role of humility, shameful shyness, but she was attempting it artfully. “He was a rather swell person. At least, I thought he was. And reported to be very wealthy in his own right. I couldn’t see anything the matter with him, except that he wasn’t the man I was in love with. But he had gone off to war and there wasn’t anything I could do about that, so I thought I would take the next best thing that offered. You see, Barney, it was really you I cared for, but when you went off that way without making me marry you, I was terribly hurt, and I felt I must do something else. Life was simply unbearable without you, and I thought if I could go places and do things and have a good time I would forget you.”
“Well now, that’s too bad, Hortense. I didn’t know that I had had such an unfortunate effect upon you. It never entered my mind that you and I were more than mere acquaintances, sort of playmates, schoolmates, neighbors. But I think you were very wise if you found someone else who was worthy, who might take your mind off of one who wasn’t interested in you; you were very wise to marry. Where is he now? Overseas? Is that why your marriage didn’t bring you happiness?”
“I’m sure I don’t know where he is now,” said Hortense sullenly. “That was the first difference we had. I found he was determined to go in the service, and I did simply everything to stop him, but he wouldn’t give it up.”
“But of course,” said the soldier, “anybody that was worth anything would feel that way.”
“Oh, of course you would have to say that. You’re a soldier yourself. But look at you. You came home as quick as they would let you, didn’t you?”
“No,” said Barney steadily, “I was sent home because I wasn’t able to do the job for a while, and much against my will I was ordered home to recuperate. I’m only anxious to get back and help finish my job as soon as they will let me. But we’re not talking about me now. Go on with your story. So he went, did he?”
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“Yes, he went. But before he went I found out that he wasn’t the wealthy person I had been told he was at all, and he could settle hardly anything on me, and I was about as badly off as I was before. So before he went I got a divorce, but that didn’t help me, either. It didn’t bring me any money at all. And now I’m up a tree, and I thought I’d come to you and see if you wouldn’t help me. You were always kind, Barney, and I knew I had to have some real man, someone I could really trust. Will you help me, Barney?” She gave him a languishing, pleading look. “Will you?”
Barney drew a deep breath. What kind of a situation was this going to be for him to get into? What was this girl aiming for anyway? Did she want to borrow money?
Then suddenly he heard a step in the hall, coming from the direction of the back door, and Roxy marched out on the porch and stood like a Nemesis looking at the drooping girl.
“And what is all this?” asked Roxy sternly. “How did you come here?”
Hortense looked up, brushed a few false tears from her eyes, and gave Roxy a casual glance, as if she were scarcely worth noticing.
“Oh, hello, Roxy,” she said unconcernedly. “What are you? A special kind of watchdog? You lied to me, didn’t you, when I asked you when you expected Barney? But I was too smart for you, and you’ll find out I can always outsmart you, Roxy. Run along now. We were right in the middle of a confidential talk that’s very important. I’ve been asking for some advice. Hurry along and leave us to ourselves, won’t you?”
This interlude was just long enough to give the young soldier a chance to think just what he should do, and when Hortense dismissed Roxy so summarily, and she grimly stood there looking at him questioningly, he turned toward her pleasantly with his old smile.
“Yes, Roxy, I know that I’m off my schedule a bit, but I’m going to lie down right away. I just want to give Hortense an address and then I’ll go right upstairs, and perhaps you will give the young lady a bit of your lovely cake and a cup of tea after I’m gone.”
Roxy stood there grimly looking as if she would like to say “I’ll do nothing of the kind,” but Barney took out his pencil and a card and wrote an address on the card, handing it over to the girl with another smile.
“I’m sorry, Hortense. I’m afraid I’m not up to giving you any advice or help this time, but here is the address of an old friend of mine who is a very wise man, and kindly. Just tell him I sent you to him, and I know he will do all he can for you. Now, good afternoon, and we’ll probably be meeting again before I go back overseas. So nice to have seen you. I know you’ll excuse me under the circumstances!” The tall young soldier made his way quickly upstairs, quietly locking his door when he reached the haven of his own room.
And Hortense stood looking at the card he had given her, and then she looked up at Roxy and made a face at her. “So! You think you won this time, don’t you? But you can’t always tell. I got here first, and after this I’ll thank you to keep out of my affairs. You certainly can’t think you’re still Barney Vance’s nurse, can you? Surely you know he’s grown up, and his mother isn’t here anymore to back you up.”
Roxy held her head high and said in her grimmest tone, “Will you have your tea with lemon or cream?”
“Neither!” said Hortense with a lofty look. “I’m going where I can get something stronger than I can find in this antique dwelling, but you needn’t think you can keep that young man under your thumb any longer. He’s grown up, and I have my plans for the future.”
Then she pranced across the porch and down the steps to her car, and Barney, watching out the window above, to his great relief, saw her drive away.
And Roxy, down on the porch where Hortense had left her, stood and shook a menacing fist at the back of the car as it disappeared in the distance.
Chapter 6
When the car was out of sight down the road, Barney suddenly found himself greatly shaken. It wasn’t only that this girl had barged in on him when he was just about to get a message from the dead, although that of course was the beginning of it. But by this time he was so outraged at what had followed that he had almost forgotten that precious letter, which he had managed to thrust inside his coat before she saw it. It was the whole affair. To think that one of his former associates had turned into such a girl— That she had actually dared to disparage his precious mother’s memory, that she had declared herself in love with him, and claimed a former engagement. He was enraged by the whole matter.
He went and sat down in the big easy chair and closed his eyes. He drew a deep breath, and then another, and realized that he was more shaken than he lied to own even to himself. This was no way for a soldier to feel, just because of a silly girl, who was really half drunk and said a few foolish things. He should be above caring about things like this. The doctor must have been right after all about his physical condition. If he wanted to get ready to go back to the front, he must be able to meet such trifling emergencies and vanquish them. And it was not a victory just to excuse himself and say he must take a nap because it was in his schedule. He didn’t do that when the submarine attacked the ship and for a time they were all in danger of going to the bottom of the sea. Why should he fall before a silly, unscrupulous girl? He must get over this. He must go to his stronghold and get strength.
And there in his quiet room, he leaned his head on his uplifted hand and prayed in his heart for a way to meet this situation. For somehow he sensed that this was not just a brief attack by a person outside of his serious world. It was the beginning of a siege, and his experience as a soldier had taught him not to go into combat with any enemy, no matter how harmless he seemed, without orders from his commanding officer. So now Barney was asking for orders.
Back in those last few weeks of his strenuous war life, those weeks during which he had done all that “noble work” in battle that the world over here was beginning to prate about and plan to lift him up as a hero, there had been a comrade, one who though he wore the insignia of high rank, went by the endearing name to his comrades of “Stormy” Applegate.
Almost at once when Stormy came among their company he and Barney had become friends, had also recognized that both gave allegiance to a higher power than any on earth, had often held brief, sweet converse of heavenly ways in the midst of an earthly tumult, to the great heartening of both their spirits. Barney thought of him now as he bent his head to ask for orders, for it was Stormy who had first brought this idea to mind.
“For you know, fella, there are spiritual enemies that come on us unawares, snipers and sharpshooters, hiding behind every tree and shadow, and we’re almost apt to think they are one of our own numbers sometimes, unless we always have our eyes to the Captain. We’ve just got to ask for orders, and then rest it there, knowing we’ll be guided right.”
Barney half smiled with a tender curve to his lips as he thought of this, and rested his soul about the whole matter. He wished with all his heart that Stormy were there now to talk with him.
For it was Stormy who had been there the night he got his worst wound, that almost finished him and left him lying in the dark among a nest of enemies, dying he thought, and unable to get to his knees and creep away to safety. It was Stormy who, just back from a noteworthy mission of his own, weary and hungry and all in, Stormy who had gone out to hunt him. Against odds almost impossible he went, and found him, quite unconscious, all but dead, and putting him on his shoulder, went toiling back to camp. Stormy had saved his life. Yet when he came back to consciousness Stormy was gone again, out on a secret mission of great danger. For Stormy was a special man, detailed for mysterious missions, seldom expected to return when he went among the enemy. Yet time and time again he had come back, quietly, stepping in among them, greeting them as if he had only been out for a walk, and ready to go again whenever he was sent. When they asked their chaplain how it was he was able to come back, he smiled quietly and said, “Because he goes in the strength of the Lord.”
Barney had not seen Stormy now f
or months. For Stormy had gone away while Barney was still unconscious, on the most dangerous mission of all. Barney had not even been able to thank him for saving his life. And this time he had not come back! It was generally supposed that he had been captured by the enemy, or even killed, or he might be languishing in a concentration camp, or even tortured by the enemy. If they found out in what capacity he had served they would surely wreak vengeance upon him.
“But I don’t believe it,” Barney had said when they told him about it afterward. And when they asked him why he didn’t believe it, he answered with a confident smile: “Because he went in the strength of the Lord.”
“Yes, but,” said a doubtful listener, “suppose the Lord had something else for Stormy to do this time instead of coming back?”
And Barney had answered thoughtfully, “That might be so. But sometime I believe he will come back. I wish it could be before I start for home. I want to thank him for bringing me back to camp. You’ll tell him, boys?” And they had promised. Yes, they would tell him.
Barney was wishing for him now. He longed for his understanding companionship, in this new world to which he had come back, where people did not all seem to know there was a war, and that life was real. And more than anything he longed to be well enough and allowed to go back to search for Stormy, who had searched for him and brought him back from almost certain death. Now if he might only find his friend, and bring him back!
Of course it had been long days since he had left the place from which Stormy had gone out on his mission. And it had been some time that he had been on the way home, and had had no word. There would be no way perhaps that he could find out if Stormy had come back until he got back overseas again. Or would there? He must look into that. But oh, if he only might go and find Stormy!
These thoughts helped to turn Barney’s mind away from his afternoon caller, until his spirit was quieted, and his muscles and emotions had ceased to tremble. Little by little, he went back over the happenings of the afternoon. It was then he remembered this mother’s letter, the letter he had not read. His hand went quickly to its hiding place, within the breast pocket of his coat, suddenly anxious lest he might have dropped it in coming up the stairs. No, it was there safely.