Girl to Come Home To (15 page)

“Then you didn’t go with the rest to the Sandersons’?”

There was just a fraction of hesitancy before the answer. “
Sander
sons’? Did they
all
go to the Sandersons’? Heavens, no! I wouldn’t be seen drunk with those people. I despise them.
Did
they all go to Sandersons’?”

“Apparently,” said Louella in a mortified tone. “That is, they suddenly all disappeared together, out through the back of the church somewhere. I heard them say they were going to see a picture of one of Rodney’s buddies in the war, but they went, definitely, and didn’t return. Then the janitor began to put out the lights, so we came out and drove over to the Graemes’ and waited till now, and yet they hadn’t come home.”

“So they went to Sandersons’, did they? Hm, well! I suppose that means something. But if I couldn’t compete with that little washed-out Diana, I definitely would give up. But since I’ve heard that religious twaddle, I don’t know as I’m interested anymore, anyway. I feel that this has been an utterly wasted evening. I really do. I don’t know why I ever got the idea of coming back to Riverton. It is always disappointing, don’t you think, to go back to the little primitive country hometowns? The things and the people that used to interest you seem very tame after you’ve been in a city and got used to city ways.”

“Well, yes, I suppose they do,” said Louella. “Still, you’ve only been in Chicago, and that’s almost a little West, don’t you think?” said Louella. “While Riverton is decidedly East, you know. Not too far from New York to run up a little while very often.”

“Yes, New York, of course! But it’s not what it used to be, I understand.”

“Oh, my dear child! Who’ve you been listening to? You’re all wrong, you know. New York is definitely the tops, of course.”

“Well, if you want to pose as belonging to the East of course. But say, what did you find out this afternoon? You thought you were going to have something worthwhile to listen to. Did you find out what the boys are going to do as soon as they are out of the service?”

“Well, I found out that they are not going out of the service. That was stated as a fact.”

“You don’t mean they’re going back overseas, Louella?”

“Well, no, not that, but they are to have some very responsible position here at home, I believe, and still be in uniform.”

“You don’t say!” said Jessica, all interest. “Well, that’s quite exciting, isn’t it? It might be really worth my while to play up to Rod and get to find out a lot of information I could write up for my editor. I’ll have to look into that. You don’t know what branch of the service they are to be in?”

“Well, no, they seemed very reluctant to say. Perhaps Margaret Graeme didn’t know, but she’s not so dumb. She probably was just keeping her mouth shut about it. You know so many of those things are being kept secret these days. It seems ridiculous.”

“Why, that sounds really exciting,” said Jessica. “I was thinking of seeing if I could get reservations for tomorrow night, but in that case, maybe I’ll stay a day or two more and see if I can find out where he is and what he is doing. It might help me in my writing. You know, if I could get into something really new and thrilling I would just be on easy street.”

“Well, why don’t you stay awhile, and I’ll do my best to find out what it’s all about.”

“All right, Louella, maybe I will. I’ll think it over. But make it snappy, won’t you? I’ll have to be sure there’s something worthwhile in all this, for I mustn’t waste my time.”

“All right, Jessica. I’ll do my best and call you up and let you know as soon as I find out anything,” said Louella.

Louella cast a quick eye at the clock, wondering if she should venture to telephone Margaret Graeme tonight, make up some plausible excuse for disturbing her, but she decided against it. She would begin the first thing in the morning. That would be better and not get everybody in the family up-in-arms against her, as so often happened. It really wasn’t good policy, for one could never find out facts from people who were angry and disturbed at you.

So very early in the morning Louella began. “Is that you, Margaret? Oh, so you did get home at last, didn’t you? I was really worried last night. We drove over to congratulate Jerry, and we waited until after midnight, thinking you would surely be home pretty soon, and then after I got home I got to worrying about you lest you might have had an accident on the way home from the meeting and been taken to the hospital. Are you all right?”

“All right? Why certainly! Why shouldn’t I be all right, Louella?” said Margaret Graeme with a touch of asperity in her tone.

“Well, you were so late getting home last night, I was really afraid something had happened to you, an accident or something.”

“Oh, no! Nothing happened. We were with friends for a while.”

“Friends?” said Louella in a tone that asked a question, pointedly if ever a simple word did.

“Yes, Louella. We do have a few friends, you know.”

“Oh,” said Louella and waited for an explanation, but none came.

“It was kind of you to call, Louella,” said Margaret Graeme as the pause grew irksomely extended. “By the way, are you going to the Red Cross meeting this morning? If so, I’ll meet you there. It’s almost time to start, and I have two or three things to do before I leave.”

“Oh,
well
,” said Louella offendedly, “if you haven’t time to talk to me, of course I’ll get off the line. Good-bye!” And Louella hung up sharply.

It was just about that time that Beryl Sanderson and her guest, Diana Winters, got up from a late breakfast and went slowly into the sunny sitting room, settling down with businesslike knitting bags, and took out their knitting, socks and sweaters for servicemen.

“Now,” said Beryl, settling herself comfortably and pulling out her work, “let’s have a real old talkfest. We haven’t had a minute for one since you came. And first let’s begin with yourself. Are you really engaged to that splendid-looking officer I saw when I was at your house? I had a letter from Rose Alters, and she said that it seemed to be a settled thing, although you hadn’t announced it yet. Is that so?
Are
you engaged?”

Diana’s lovely face flushed a little, and a troubled frown rumpled her delicate brow. She didn’t answer at once but spent time straightening out her yarn, which had tangled itself around her needles. Then she said slowly, almost hesitantly, “Well, no, not definitely.”

Beryl laughed. “Will you tell me how you would manage to be
in
definitely engaged?”

“Well,” Diana said, laughing amusedly, “that is a funny way to put it, isn’t it? But the fact is, Bates Hibberd has been hanging around a lot, insisting on an answer, insisting on being at least engaged, and I didn’t seem to be ready with an answer yet. In fact, he wanted to be married right away before he has to go overseas, but I just couldn’t see that. I don’t really know him well enough to be sure I want to spend the rest of my life with him. I told him I had to have more time to decide, and I ran away to you here to think it over. I knew if there was any place in the world where quiet and sanity reigned and one would have a chance to really think, it would be here.”

“Thanks, Diana,” said Beryl. “I consider that a great compliment. And does that mean that you would rather not be questioned about this matter while you are thinking it over?”

“Oh, no,” said Diana. “I shall need your help to make a sane decision.”

“Say, that’s a pretty big order. I don’t know that I’m equal to advise on a subject like that. I know so little about the man.”

“Oh, I can easily tell you. He’s rich, handsome, has personal charm, he’s well educated, and he comes of a good family, one of the best. Several signers of the Declaration are in his family, several noted writers, scientists, a poet, an essayist, even two millionaires and one preacher among his forebears. He’s bright and smart, a man full of good ideas and fine morals and manners, a leader in society, and popular everywhere. Before the war he had some thought of going in for politics. But I don’t know what he’ll do when the war is over. Well, I guess that’s about the picture. What do you think I ought to do about it?”

“What’s the matter with him?” asked Beryl matter-of-factly.

“Matter with him?” questioned Diana perplexedly. “Why, there is nothing the matter with him. That’s it. That’s why I can’t decide what to do. There is
nothing
whatever the matter with him!”

“Well, then, why don’t you marry him?”

“Well, I don’t quite understand it, but I’m not just sure I
want
to marry him. Isn’t that silly?”

Beryl looked at the other girl keenly. “Do you mean you don’t love him?”

There was a long pause before Diana answered. Then she said slowly as if she were considering each word as momentous, “
Love
him? I don’t know. No, I don’t suppose I really
love
him. But nice people don’t really
love
one another before they are married, do they? I mean that emotional, demonstrative kind of love.”

“Why,
Diana
, where did you get such an idea as that? Of course nice people love one another. If they do not, why should they ever marry? And if they are not
sure
, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that they love each other with all their hearts, how
could
they ever bear to live intimately with one another? How perfectly terrible to be tied for life to a man you did not love and honor and respect with all your heart!”

“Oh, I could honor and respect him, of course,” said Diana. “But I doubt if I could
love
anybody that wasn’t really a saint, a real angel of a person, you know.”

“But, my dear, doesn’t he seem that way to you?”

“No,” said Diana thoughtfully, “he doesn’t, and I’m sure I
don’t
love him, not now. But I supposed I’d grow into loving him if I lived with him.”

“You
never would
,” said Beryl out of her deeper teaching from a mother who knew how to instruct her daughter in the intimate things of life. “Don’t marry him, dear, not unless the time comes when you feel as if you would die if you could not be with him always. Do you feel that way about him?”

“Mercy no,” said Diana. “Sometimes I’m really bored with him, and I wish I could get away.”

“Then don’t marry him, Diana! That’s not love. You’ll never be happy with a man who bores you. Say, tell me something: Is there anybody else you love, or ever did love?”

“No, not anyone.”

“Are you
sure
?”

“Yes, positive. Oh, there was an ugly little boy in school when I was in the third grade. He was always getting into trouble with the teacher and getting a whipping, and I used to feel sorry for him, and wished I could comfort him. It went on for several years till he left school and moved away somewhere, and I never saw him again. But that wasn’t real love, I suppose. Anyway, I was only a child. And the last I ever heard of him was that he died in the war. I haven’t thought of him in years, except when I heard of his death. And then there was another boy in high school. I thought I adored him till I heard he had run away with the worst little rat of a girl who lived down in the slums. Oh, Beryl! How can you ever tell about
any
body?”

Beryl looked at her pityingly. “You
can
tell,” she said positively. “That is,” she added, “if you turn down the man you
aren’t
sure you love and just wait till the man God has planned for your life comes along.”

“Do you think God does that?
Plan
somebody for your life?”

“Yes,” said Beryl with her eyes cast down and her cheeks a little more rosy than usual.

“Well, but suppose you don’t like the man God picks out.”

“Oh, but you would, I’m sure you would, Diana. God would understand and send the right one.”

The visitor gazed at her perplexedly. “Beryl, how long have you thought God cared what became of us?” she asked. “You never used to talk this way.”

“Well, perhaps not. But Diana, I was very early taught that God cared about us in every little detail. Perhaps I never paid much attention to it when I was a child, but I think in the back of my mind I have always
believed
it. But anyway, Diana, I’m quite sure you ought
not
to marry that man whom you do
not
love. Don’t tie your life up with someone before God has shown you what you might have.”

“Well, perhaps you’re right. I don’t know, Beryl, but somehow you have impressed me. But tell me, Beryl, are you in love with anyone?”

Beryl looked at her friend with a startled glance, her cheeks grown rosy. “Why, no, Diana, not in love. There is someone I admire very much, but I’m not sure he’s ever looked at me. We are just good friends, that’s all, but it’s very pleasant to have even a good friend that you really like and feel at home with, even for just a few minutes’ talk.”

“Yes,” said Diana thoughtfully. “Do you know, it’s odd, but I felt that way, just a little, last night when I was talking to that nice Rodney Graeme. I had a feeling that I would like to know him better and that I could really enjoy his company. But of course he’s a perfect stranger and is probably very much engaged to someone else.”

“Oh, yes—Rodney. He’s nice, isn’t he? Those brothers are both nice. They couldn’t belong to that family and not be, of course. But no, I don’t think Rod is engaged now. It seems to me I heard he was once engaged to some girl he had known since childhood. But I thought I heard that was all off and she is married to someone else. But now,
there’s
a man that a girl could trust.
He
would never bore you.”

“But Beryl, I’m afraid a man like that would be too far above me,” said Diana. “A man who could pray like that! I shall never forget that prayer. It was like a creed, so brief and yet so very clear and comprehensive.”

“Yes, wasn’t it?” said Beryl. “My dear, if war does that to all the boys who have been over, what will the world be like when they all get home? We shall have to look to ourselves, or we won’t be good enough to company with them even now and then. Do you know I was thinking that while Jeremy was talking. He has grown up so wonderfully. Although he was always a wonderful boy, even in his school days.”