The Beloved Stranger (19 page)

But Arla was resenting her husband’s attitude. A sudden loyalty for the hometown and the people and things that used to be dear to her surged over her. Carter had no call to insult this well-meaning but ignorant youth who stood there red and hurt and wondering over the unnecessary coolness in Carter’s tone. She knew that Carter was venting upon him all the injury and indignation he felt for her, and she turned lightly away from the command and answered, “All right, Carter, I’ll be down presently. I want to finish my talk with Hurley first. He’s been telling me all about the people at home.”

Carter could scarcely believe his senses. Arla was standing out against him. He stared at her in consternation a moment with an icy look, then turned on his heel and marched away.

She did not look after him as he went. She did not dare to think what effect her attitude would have upon him. It was the first time in her acquaintance with him—which had dated from her very young childhood—that she had ever defied him. She had pled with him, she had wept, she had been sweet and submissive, but she had never openly defied him before, and she was trembling over it. She found herself almost panic stricken. Perhaps he would never speak to her again. Perhaps he would divorce her. Yet it was what she had resolved in those morning hours of meditation that she would do, defy him, show him that he could not order her about. Would she be able to carry it out?

For another half hour she asked questions about the people at home, questions in which she had not the slightest interest, but which she knew would bring forth voluble answers, long enough to protect her from having to say much back. Hurley was delighted. In all his acquaintance with her taken altogether, he had never had this much speech of her. He admired her greatly and was tremendously flattered that she had stayed to talk with him. He was so flattered that he forgot Carter’s insulting tone.

When Arla had finally ceased to tremble and felt that she had sufficient control of herself to carry out the program she had planned for herself, she arose sweetly.

“Well, now, I really must go to that longsuffering husband of mine,” she said, smiling. “It’s been so nice to meet you again, to hear all the news from home, and to know you’re going to have such a lovely trip.” And then she was gone, and Hurley knew that he was dropped as definitely as she had always dropped him in the old days when he brought her candy and she accepted it graciously, but always had a reason why she couldn’t go to the movies with him.

Hurley went and stood by himself, staring off at the sea and wondering why it was. Here he had been having as nice a time with her as anyone would need to ask to have, and all of a sudden he was out of it, just out! That was all! He knew as well as if she had told him that he wouldn’t likely come in contact with either of them the rest of the voyage. Oh, maybe meet and bow or something like that, but nothing more. And here he had been fool enough to fancy that now that he had money enough to take a trip abroad, they would be friendly and he would have somebody to talk to now and then, just be friendly with anytime he liked! Well, maybe it was just his imagination. He decided he’d forget it. Probably they’d be all right the next time he met them. Maybe he’d try to get at their table, and then they’d have to be friendly.

When Arla reached the stateroom, Carter was not there. She was likely being punished. So she put on one of Sherrill’s prettiest negligees and lay down to rest. That is, her body was resting, but her mind was madly working. She was looking life in the face, realizing all sorts of possibilities. Well, that other girl had been right. It was no enviable path she had chosen for herself, but having chosen it, being married, the thing she had so much desired, she must make it a success if that were a possible thing to do. She had not attained her wish unless she was able to hold him. And she saw keenly enough that this was the crucial time. What she did now would count through the years. Oh, for wisdom to know what was the best thing to do!

Carter did not return to the stateroom until it was nearly time for dinner. He found Arla attired in black satin and looking fairly regal, putting the last touches to her facial expression. She turned an indifferent glance at him, and in spite of his smoldering anger, he was startled at her beauty. Sherrill had never been more beautiful! Arla certainly was a stunning-looking woman. There was some satisfaction in that for the future. If he ever pulled through this hard time, he could be proud of her. There was an air about her that he had never seen before, a certain smartness that he had always admired in Sherrill. He did not realize that Arla was wearing one of Sherrill’s outfits which was the work of an artist and had cost a fabulous sum. He simply saw that Arla was looking more wonderful than he had ever seen her look before. For a moment he was almost ready to forgive her and take her into his arms. Then she turned and gave him a haughty indifferent glance and his anger boiled again.

“What are you all rigged up like that for?” he snarled, even while his eyes gloated over the lovely curves of her throat and white shoulders. “You’re not planning to do what I forbade you to do—?”

“Forbade?” said Arla with slightly uplifted eyebrows. “Really! I shouldn’t recognize any such word as that between us! That isn’t what marriage means. Not in this age and generation! If you mean am I going down to dinner, I certainly am. If you don’t want to go with me, that’s entirely up to you. I am sure Hurley Kirkwood will be delighted to take me in to dinner. I can tell people you are seasick, you know. But as this is the first ocean voyage I’ve ever had, and maybe the last one I’ll ever get, I intend to enjoy every minute of it in spite of your disagreeableness.”

“You don’t care what happens to me and my business, then? I thought you professed to love me!” he said after a long silence during which he went and stared out the porthole.

“Why, I supposed I did, too,” said Arla lightly, “but as for caring what happens to you and your business at such a price as you demand, I’m not so sure that I do.”

He was still a much longer time now, staring out at the endless waves of the ocean.

“Then do I understand that you refuse to comply with my request and stay out of sight during the voyage?”

“Yes, I do!” said Arla coolly, taking up her hand and mirror and examining her profile carefully and the wave of her lovely gold hair.

“But why, Arla? You have always wanted me to get on. You know I want it for you as much as for myself—!”

“Oh!” interrupted Arla in a surprised voice. “No, I didn’t know that!” Her tone was sweet and innocent. “Did you want it for me as much as for yourself when you were going to marry Sherrill Cameron?”

He gave a quick angry exclamation.

“Can’t you leave her out of the question now we’re definitely done with her?” he asked desperately.

“I’m sorry,” said Arla. “I’d like to, but the trouble is she somehow won’t be left out. You see, she was there, and I’m not so sure she’s definitely out of it either.”

“Well, then, if you must bring her in, yes, I did do it for your sake as much as my own. I thought an alliance with her would bring the needed funds and position, and later, well—there are such things as divorces, you know!”

She turned a steely eye to him.

“Carter, if you had been brought up in the social world of today, there might be some excuse for your daring to say a thing like that to me, but both you and I had decent mothers who didn’t believe in such things, and when you say that, you are insulting both Miss Cameron and myself. You said something of that sort last night, I remember, just before you flung me off in the corner and went out to marry your other bride. I don’t know how I ever forgave it in you enough to be willing to marry you except that I thought you were beside yourself and didn’t realize what you were saying. It was preposterous, you know! And if I didn’t think you were still rather beside yourself, I certainly wouldn’t stay here with you now and listen to such talk.”

“Very well, now, if you are so interested in me and my business,” he said at last, “what would you suggest that we do? You know the facts, that I need a large sum of money to tide me over, and if I can get it I can keep my business floating till this depression is past. If I don’t, I either have to give up and lose everything or else probably go to jail!”

“I would
not
go to jail!” said Arla. He gave her a sudden quick startled look. But Arla went steadily on talking, not looking at him. “I would take the next boat back as soon as I landed and arrange to give over my business interests in such a way that while it might be a total loss of all that has been gained through the last three years, your name would be cleared, and you could go honorably into some more modest business and have a chance of making good. You will remember I happen to have been present in the office when an offer was made to you which would have made that possible!”

“Oh!” exclaimed the man angrily. “I’m not an utter fool!”

“Are you sure?” asked the woman. “Sometimes I wonder!”

After a long silence the man spoke again in a voice of smoldering wrath: “Well, come on. I suppose you’ve got to have it your way and go down to dinner even if it wrecks everything! It was bad enough before, but now that the situation is further complicated by the appearance of that country bumpkin from home, I don’t see how we can possibly get by without trouble. How in the world are you going to explain him to people if he chooses to barge in on us?”

“I don’t expect to explain him or anybody else we may happen to meet. This is not a private boat, and anybody has a right on board who pays his fare. Please remember that I had nothing whatever to do with his being here. As far as I am concerned, I see no reason why we shouldn’t go about our business as anybody else does. If your business were on an honest basis, we could go about freely and enjoy ourselves without watching out for what people think.”

“Women know nothing about business!” glowered Carter. “Well, come on, let’s get this over.”

So Arla in Sherrill’s costly lace gown from an exclusive Paris house walked regally beside her husband and never showed by the flicker of an eyelash that she had recognized across the saloon another two people from home, a young man and his wife who had been in the same class in high school with Carter and Arla. It would be time enough for Carter to know they were on board when he had to meet them. They would be another element in this problem she was trying to solve.

Chapter 14

T
here was a sense of peace in Sherrill’s room the next morning. The fragrance of the pansies pervaded the place. The delicate perfume spoke to her at once even before she opened her eyes. It brought the memory of the pleasant stranger, as if his presence were still lingering not far away to help.

Then she opened her eyes to see the pansies on the low bedside table where she had placed them. She reveled in their soft brightness and was glad they were just pansies, not any of the more conventional flowers. They seemed to emphasize the simple frank friendship that had begun on the street, just plain honest friends helping one another. Pansies might grow in anybody’s garden, only these of course were sort of glorified pansies. But it was a comfort that they did not recall the bridal bouquet nor any of the flowers in the church. Just simple pansies that she might love and lay her face against.

She reached out for the card that lay beside them on the table. Somehow that hastily penned line seemed to have a deeper meaning than just a wish that she was rested physically. It seemed to carry a desire that she might be healed in spirit from the deep hurt to her life that he could not help knowing that wedding must have been to her.

Little memories of the kindness in his eyes, merry eyes that yet held tenderness, came back to her; the turn of a sentence that made her laugh when he must have seen the tears were very near to coming; his pleasant grin. They all filled her with a warmth and comfort that were restful and almost happy.

She lay there thinking about him. How kind he had been! She was rejoicing in the presence of the pansies in their lovely fern setting when Gemmie tapped at the door and entered with a breakfast tray.

“Miss Patricia said you better eat before you get up,” she announced, setting her tray down on a low table and drawing back the silk curtains.

Gemmie brought her negligee and put it about her, adjusting her pillows. Then she bustled over to the hearth and lighted a fire that was ready, though it was scarcely needed that bright spring morning. Sherrill began to perceive that Gemmie had something on her mind. She never bustled unless she was ill at ease. But Sherrill was too comfortable just at that moment to try to find out what it was, so she let Gemmie go on setting things straight on the dressing table and then setting them crooked again. At last she spoke.

“It’s right awful about that necklace being gone, Miss Sherrill!”

Boom! A great burden of stone seemed suddenly to land back again in Sherrill’s heart, just where it had been the day before, only a trifle heavier if possible.

“Yes,” quavered Sherrill, pausing in her first comforting swallow of coffee.