Stranger within the Gates (19 page)

"Oh, you little tin god!" she hissed furiously. "You thought I was an angel! You thought I would stand for anything you chose to put over on me, didn't you? You thought I'd be so glad to get away from that miserable little hash house that I'd just smile and take any old thing you handed me! And you never thought how you were deceiving me! Taking me out of a good job where I had my freedom and played around wherever I liked. Where I was independent, with nobody telling me what I should wear and how I was to act and whether I could smoke or drink or not."

"Florimel! You never either smoked or drank in my presence! I thought you were different from other girls. I thought you were good and pure and well brought up. You gave me the impression that you disliked such things. You didn't even wear makeup the way you've got it on now. I thought you didn't do things like that! I thought you were a dear little lonely girl, with no mother and no home and--"

"Oh, yeah?" mocked Florimel. "And what did you look like yourself? A million dollars! Ready to give all that you had to make me happy! Ready to take me on and take care of me! Ready to spend plenty on me! You wore good clothes and took me to see shows and let on you were no end wealthy. You--"

"Florimel! Look here, did I ever say I was wealthy? Did I ever talk about money?"

"
Sure
you did!" The battleship-gray eyes were flashing now like hot metal, the lips curling wide, the teeth with a snarl in their tiny white points. "You told me to wait till you got me and you'd see that I never wanted for anything! You told me you had an allowance and we'd never need worry. You said you would always want me to have the best. And when I asked you, you said, yes, your father had been well off and you'd have plenty! You said someday I should have a limousine and diamonds."

Rex's dark eyes were wide with amazement.

"Why, Florimel! We were only kidding that night. I thought you knew I was only telling you what I would do in the future years. I thought you loved me, Florrie! I didn't know you thought so much about money and automobiles and jewels and things. I was only trying to tell you what I meant to do for you in the future years. Oh, Florrie, don't talk that way! Don't spoil all our dreams!"

"Dreams, bah! It's you that's spoiling our dreams. You made me think you're rolling in wealth and I was going to live in a palace on easy street, and then you bring me to a dump like this, with weird old sticks of furniture that must have come out of the ark. Look at that bed. Did you ever see a bed like that in any of the big department furniture stores?"

Rex cast a glance at the rare old colonial furniture with which the room was filled.

"What do you mean, Florimel? Don't you know that's a very specimen of antique mahogany? That's fairly priceless. It belonged to my great-great-grandmother."

"I should think it did!" Florimel burst into loud ridiculing laughter. "That's just what I'm saying. Putting your wife into a room where the furniture came practically out of the ark. Antique-your-grandmother! Not for
me
! I want everything up to date. I just adore modern things. I like those modern beds that practically don't have any legs at all and are set up on a platform. Dais, they call it. They have them in the movies. I like the mirrors done in sort of steps up, and when I plan a bathroom, it's going to be all done in black and red! The bath and washstand black, you know, and the trimming and walls red, with mirrors set in. This room is what they call 'Victorian,' all little bunches of pale pink flowers and washed-out colors. It makes me sick! I just screamed to myself when I saw it. There seems to have been practically nothing done to it for thousands of years. Everything old style! Gosh, I'd go mad if I had to stay here!"

Rex gave a hurt look around the room that had always seemed to him the height of refinement and perfection.

Then he turned back and looked at the sharp, petulant little face of his furious wife, and suddenly she seemed a great deal older to him than she had ever looked before. It came to him in a flash of wonder how he had ever thought her sweet and pitiful. How had he ever supposed her gentle and refined? Just because she had told him her pitiful story and seemed to dread an evil man, he had thought her so superior to everybody else. He had supposed she would be one who could appreciate his lovely home and mother and all that they as a family held dear.

And now, how was he ever to get over this thing that had happened this morning? Those things she had done and said? How could his sweet mother ever take her in and make her a real daughter as he had hoped? Oh, surely,
surely
this was some horrible mistake. Somehow Florimel had misinterpreted the family and the lovely way they had treated her. She thought she ought to resent everything. If only he could get her calmed down and quieted and make her understand that the things she was raving about were fine and precious. Poor child, she just hadn't been taught right in the first place! She hadn't had proper friends and companions!

Still, that didn't excuse her present attire. Wherever did she get those awful garish pajamas? And how did she dare to wear them downstairs before his lady-mother! Nor did it excuse her insolent remarks to his mother.

His thoughts were interrupted by the distant tinkle of a silver bell. He was alert at once, rising from the chair where in his feeling of helplessness he had dropped down in a moment. He assumed the attitude of command.

"There!" he said. "There goes the dinner bell, and you aren't ready! Hurry, Florimel, and take off those outlandish clothes. Put on something decent, if you have such a thing!"

"There you go! Criticizing my clothes! When I spent almost a whole month's salary on these perfectly spiffy lounging pajamas, just to please you."

"Well, you needn't bother wasting money on togs like that to please me!" said Rex thoroughly disgusted. "It wouldn't be so bad if you wore them when it was just you and I, though I think a perfectly simple plain nightgown would be much more attractive on
any
body. But when it comes to putting on clothes that were meant for night wear and going into the family circle with 'em, I draw the line at that! Get up and get something decent on right away! And make it snappy! I don't like this business of your not being down to meals on time. You can't ever win over my family acting like that!"

"Oh, you and your
family
!" sniffed Florimel. "If I ever saw such misplaced devotion! I ought to have known better than to come here with you! I told you we'd better keep this thing quiet for a year or two, and now look what a mess you've got me into! But you just might as well understand now as later that I don't intend to be ordered around and made to go in a certain pattern. I'm coming to meals when I like, or have them sent to my room if I choose! And you're not going to bring them, either. Those lazy servants will have to do it. And as for my clothes, I'll wear what I like! What do
you
know about what a young woman should wear, anyway? I suppose your ideal is that dowdy Sylvia. My, I wouldn't look the way she does for a million dollars!"

"Suppose we leave my sister's looks out of the conversation!" said Rex severely. "Get up and get dressed this minute! And another thing, if you ever smoke again in this house, you'll have me to settle with! You never smoked before in my presence. What do you mean by doing it? Was that just a gesture you had planned today to annoy my mother and mortify me?"

"Oh, didn't I?" laughed Florimel. "Well, I've smoked for years, so you don't need to get on edge about that. Every woman that is a woman smokes nowadays."

"My mother doesn't, and my sister doesn't, and the girls I have known all my life don't."

"Oh, they don't, don't they? Well, why didn't you marry one of them instead of roping me into an outfit like this?"

A stern look came into Rex's face that made him seem a great deal older than he really was, a dawning disillusionment that was to him scarcely credible.

"You have a strange way of looking at things," he said grimly. "It wasn't my remembrance that I roped you in. You represented to me that you were in a terrible situation and needed protection! However, if that was your understanding in the matter, never mind. We won't talk about it now. The important thing is that we have to go down to dinner and you are not dressed! You can't possibly go down to dinner in that rig!"

"
Why
can't I?" demanded Florimel angrily, her eyes snapping. "You'll see if I can't!" She flounced up from the bed where she had thrown herself and marched toward the door defiantly.

Rex whirled upon her and took her by the arm firmly.

"Because, however it came about,
you
happen to be
my wife
, and I
won't stand for it
! You've got to treat my family with decency! Whether you like them or not, you've married into a family that has always been considered respectable, and we don't go around in the house in nightclothes!"

"Nightclothes!" she burst into mocking laughter. "These are not nightclothes. They are very expensive, awfully smart garments for high teas and that sort of thing. In fact, I consider this about the best outfit in my wardrobe. I put it on in honor of your precious family that you are so afraid of, and I don't intend to change it."

"Then you won't come down to dinner!" said the young husband firmly. "And I'm not bringing you anything up, either. You're perfectly able to come down."

"Oh, well, I'm not hungry, anyway. When I get hungry, I'll call down to Selma to bring me what I want."

"No, you won't do that, either!" said Rex, his eyes growing stormy. She hadn't known he could look fierce and angry like that. "You'll get dressed and come down right away and not keep them waiting any longer, that is, if you want anything before suppertime. And I
mean
it! I'm not waiting for you, either, anymore." And Rex stalked out of the door and shut it hard behind him.

Rex, until now, had been most courteous to her. She had felt that she had him pretty well in hand and could venture to show her power, for to tell the truth, it irked her sorely to pose as a sweet, virtuous young woman who needed protection. It wasn't in the least in her line. She could hear his footsteps going downstairs briskly, almost hurriedly as he neared the hall below. She could envision the family waiting for him at the foot of the stairs, and she grinned to herself triumphantly and waited. They would probably send him back to say they would wait for her.

But instead, she heard them all go into the dining room, and presently the quiet tinkle of silver and glass betokened that they were seated around the table beginning their meal, without further delay. Her eyes grew angry; her whole body trembled with her young fury. Her hands were clenched, and she set her sharp little white teeth together with rage. Once she even stamped her foot. But the sound was instantly muted by the heavy velvet rug, and the quiet pleasant voices coming up distantly from below were uninterrupted. She hadn't made the slightest impression. She had expected to hear Rex come flying up the stairs when she stamped her foot, but if he had heard her, he was ignoring it. Her turbulent spirit resented his indifference.

Very cautiously she went over to the door, turning the knob silently, and opened the door a crack, putting her ear close. But the sounds from below were quite calm and normal. They were talking together as if nothing at all had happened. Yes, and Rex was talking, too! Then he laughed, just a quick, casual laugh, but it didn't sound in the least as if he were all stirred up about her. It sounded rather as if he was relieved that she was not present. He was having a good time enjoying his dinner and his family.

Her brow darkened.

Yes, his words came clearly.

"Mom, could I have another slice of that roast beef? I haven't tasted roast beef like that since I went away to college. They don't furnish dinners like this in an institution of learning."

"I should say not!" said Paul. "Sometimes I just get so hungry for a piece of homegrown bread and butter I don't know what to do."

"Here, too!" growled Rex, like a little boy, and then a ripple of laughter went around the table.

"Poor, undernourished little boys!" mocked Sylvia.

"Well, I'm glad you appreciate your home!" said Mary Garland.

"I should say we do!" said Paul warmly.

It was a pleasant sound of comfort and friendliness that came to the angry girl upstairs, and something else came up. The appetizing aroma of well-cooked food. Florimel was hungry, in spite of her anger. She was baffled, too. She wasn't gaining the dominance she had expected over this family. All her daring had but served to alienate Rex from her, to cool his devotion, which had really been lovely when they started out on this trip and which had been the only reason she had consented to come to his home.

But now suddenly a look of determination went over her hard, young face. She closed the door, marched over to the closet where she had hung her gaudy wardrobe the night before, and surveyed the lot. What should she put on?

She decided on a frilly negligee of pale blue chiffon with long ruffles of white and blue falling back from almost bare arms. No stockings, and barefoot sandals of silver with blue satin straps. It was most effective and had the added advantage of taking only a jiffy to don. She gave a glance of self-approval as she passed the mirror, putting up one of the rampant fat yellow curls of hair in the bunch just over her forehead. Then she swung out the door and downstairs.

She had the satisfaction of hearing a stir of surprise from the dining room. As she suddenly arrived in the room the three boys arose politely, with a sudden assumed formality and, she fancied, quick annoyance.

"Oh!" said Mary Garland, lifting serious eyes to greet her. "You are feeling better? That's good! I'm glad you came before everything got cold. I never care for warmed-up food. Selma, you needn't take the meat out yet. Perhaps you'll need to bring some more hot vegetables!"

Rex drew Florimel's chair out for her and seated her coldly. It was then that her costume dawned upon the family.