The girl in the blue dress (21 page)

"Is it a, very bad blow?" she asked
diffidently, after a moment.

"No man likes being jilted, " he replied
dryly

No, of course not. I suppose what I meant was,
did the whole thing come as a great shock, as
something
completely unexpected?" ,

He did not answer that immediately. Then he said slowly,
it did at first, Beverley. But, now that I'
ve
had time to think things over, I've looked back and
seen that there were,
signs of it coming. I have a feeling I've been a bit stupid about the whole
business, and that s not a feeling that any man likes to have either "

"No. I can understand that. It's a blow to
one's pride

But, she gave him a searching glance, "was it
a tearful blow to your affections too'?"

"I was, I am, very fond of Sara, " he
said quickly It wasn't just a question of wanting a beautiful wife to grace my
home, you know."

"Of course not. Though if that element was
there I think it was quite legitimate. But, forgive me if I'm jumping to
conclusions, you don't sound absolutely
heartbroken
to me."

"Don't I?" He
frowned. Then he gave her that flash
ing,
rather dangerous smile. "But I'm not sure that hearts do break in real
life, are you?"

"I don't know, " said Beverley soberly, and
she
wondered if she would feel less than
heartbroken if
she had to lose Geoffrey. "But I take it, from your
tone, that at least you have completely accepted
Sara's
decision?"

"Of course. What else
could I do?"

"I suppose some men would
have pleaded with her
to reconsider
things."

"I am not the pleading kind, " he replied
dryly. And since Beverley was sure this was all too true, there seemed nothing
more to say about the broken engagement.

There was a short silence. Then he said something about
Geoffrey's projected exhibition, and she roused herself to tell him of the new
development.

Franklin listened, with characteristically close
attention, and then said thoughtfully, "So Geoffrey has, overnight, been
transformed from
a struggling artist, with
little backing, into an approved only son of an influential father? Quite a big
change in
his life."

"Yes."

"And in yours too."

"Perhaps." She could
not imagine why it was that
she always
tended to show Franklin Lowell the real
state
of her thoughts, rather than the courageously
determined facade which
she presented to other people.

"Why do you say that?" he asked.
"What happens to, Geoffrey is bound to affect you too, isn't it?"

"I don't know." Inexplicably she was
impelled to be
frank with him. It even
soothed her, in some strange way, to allow herself the indulgence of putting
her
anxiety into words. "Do you remember, " she said slowly, "that
I told you once that I was afraid of someone else in his life? that I believed
he had been very fond of another girl?"

"Yes, of course. You saw him kiss her, that
night at the ball, and got the wind up enough to cry about it." His tone
was teasing, but it was not unkindly.

"So I did! I suppose that was silly of
me." She smiled faintly and bit her lip. "But, it was a bit of a
shock. Nowadays I think I can look at things more ob
jectively, "

"Oh, my dear! One never does, with the people
who really matter, you know, " he protested.

"Sara, .for instance?"

"Sara? We weren't talking about Sara."

"We were a little while back, and you have no
idea how objective you contrived to sound."

"Did I?" He gave a rather vexed little
laugh. "Well, go on with what you were saying about Geoffrey and his
changed circumstances. You were going to tell me
why they might not affect you."

"In one sense, they might affect me profoundly,
I suppose, " Beverley said deliberately. "But not in the way you
mean. He might decide he didn't want to marry me after all."

"He couldn't be such a fool!"

"Oh, " Beverley laughed slightly at his
vehemence , "I don't mean that he would think any less of me because his
own position had improved. But, I don't know why I'm telling you this, except
that I have to say it to someone other than myself! I think it was poverty and
his precarious position which put up the barrier between him and that other
girl. The barrier is gone now, " She stopped speaking, but she completed
her sentence with a gesture of her hands which seemed to indicate the infinity
of possibilities now presented.

"You forget one thing. He has chosen you to
share
his life. He didn't have to choose
anyone. If he was so
crazy about this other girl, I suppose he could
have just remained faithful, to her memory."

"Lots of men make themselves contented with a second-best,
" she replied doggedly, though it hurt badly to put that thought into
words.

"True, but, " he glanced at her dryly, "you
never struck me as any man's second-best."

"Oh, " she laughed a
little, "thank you."

"And there's one other
thing you have forgotten. I'd forgotten it too until this moment. You told me
that
other girl was married."

"Married?" For a
moment Beverley looked completely blank, for she had entirely forgotten how she
had invented this detail, in order to forestall any suspicions Franklin might have-
had of the real identity of the other girl in Geoffrey's life. "Married?
Oh, no
She___" Suddenly Beverley
stopped and put her hand
to her mouth in
dismay. "Oh, " she said, and then all
powers of inspiration or
invention seemed to dry up

"So she wasn't
married?" said Franklin thoughtfully.

"N-no."
 

"Odd that you should have
been so sure of that, when you last told me about her. Or did you just invent
that?

"I invented it. I didn't want you to start
guessing, it
, it wouldn't have been fair to
anyone, " Beverley ex
plained hastily.

"But was I at all likely
to guess? Do I know her?

"I, I'd rather not say."

But he went on, thinking aloud.

"At the time of the ball,
it was so vitally necessary I should not know that you even invented-this
story. You were willing that I should regard Geoffrey as philandering with a
married woman rather than that I should identify the girl. And yet now it
matters so little that you even forgot you had ever told me that tale "

"Please don't bother to work
it out like that. It
doesn't matter.
It's not all that important. It, "

"Wait a minute." He drew the car to a
standstill at the side of the road and turned to regard her in a way that
agitated her. "I think it is important."

"No, really! Please don't think any more about
it.
I shouldn't even have told you so much.
I don't know
why I did. It's disloyal, in a way, and, "Of
course!" he explained suddenly, as though she
had not uttered a word of protest. "What a fool I've been not to
guess it before. The girl was Sara, wasn’t
it?"

"IT was Sara who was the girl in the
background of Geoffrey's life, wasn't it?" Franklin repeated, as Beverley
remained obstinately silent. "That was why you were so afraid I might
guess something, while she was still engaged to me."

"Yes, " Beverley said slowly at last.
"I suppose there's
no harm in telling
you now. But at the time of the ball
I just couldn't let you know. It
was bad enough to indulge in anxieties and suspicions myself, but I had no
right to communicate them to anyone else. Least of all, to- someone so
personally concerned. Besides, I
didn't even
know if the suspicions were well founded.

I don't even know now, come to that, " she
added, with a sigh.

"But what you really think is that Geoffrey
was the man Sara loved, only she wouldn't marry him so long as he was a poor
man?"

"It sounds so, brutal, put like that, but, "

"The truth often sounds brutal, "
Franklin assured her dryly.

"I think, in fact, I know, that Sara was greatly
attracted to Geoffrey. And I can't imagine that
he didn't feel something very deep for her. Otherwise,
why should
he kiss her even after he had become engaged to me? But I don't think marriage
was ever even discussed between them. It was not a practical possibility."

"And, now?" He bit his lip thoughtfully.

"Now it has become so, " said Beverley
simply. "That's all there is to it. I should be unrealistic if I didn't
face the fact."

He stared at her moodily for a moment, then those bold,
fine eyes of his softened, and he said, "You're a brave girl. Do you think
this was why Sara threw me over?"

"No. I'm sure it wasn't. She didn't know about
Geoffrey's changed circumstances until I told her, or, rather, Toni told her, an
hour ago. It was just one of those coincidences that happen only in real
life."

"I'm glad of that, " he said slowly.
"I'd have hated to
think she just
snatched shamelessly at the best of both
worlds. I'll be glad to
remember that she drew back from marrying "me simply because she couldn't
face the substitute thing, after all."

"It couldn't have been easy, " Beverley
agreed. I think the family are all pretty mad with her. Except Toni, of
course." And she smiled.

"Toni doesn't grind her own axe, " agreed
Franklin,
with a slight smile in his turn, allowing
by implication
that the others did. "Maybe she's too young to have
learned how."

"Oh, no. She is naturally and truly interested
in what happens to other people. She always will be, " Beverley asserted.
"But that doesn't mean that I'm criticizing
the rest of them. In fact, if it wouldn't sound impertinent
at
such a time, I'd say don't think too hardly of Sara."

"I don't." He turned his head and smiled
full at Beverley. "And if I-felt tempted to do so, I'd remind myself that
you don't appear to be thinking too harshly of Geoffrey, which must be more
difficult still, What
are you going to do
about this new turn of events,
Beverley?"

"I don't know."

"Just let things take their course?"

"Oh, not, that. I think I'll have to put the
issue to the test, in some way."

"It will take some courage."

"It would take more to
face the prospect of just going
on, for
ever wondering what the real truth was, "
Beverley retorted.
   
.

"Well, perhaps you're right." But he
frowned. I wish I could help you "somehow."

"Why, how nice of you!" She smiled at him,
a good deal touched. "I guess it's something I just have to tackle myself,
but it gives one a good feeling to know that someone sympathetic is in the
background."

"Anyway, " he started the car again, use
me if you
need me. I'm feeling a bit out on
a limb, at the moment,
and I suppose it would soothe my pride a bit to
know that I was essential to someone's planning. Selfish, of course, but you
may as well profit by it, if it's of any
use
to you."

"I will." Beverley laughed softly and
accepted his
casual explanation of his offer
at its face value. But
at heart she was touched afresh by what she
guessed to be his genuine sympathy.

He drove her home after that, but refused her invi
tation to come in.
"Your mother and
you will have enough to talk
about, without
a third person there, " he declared. And
she saw no reason to tell
him that she had chosen to keep her mother in happy ignorance of the complica
tions in her life.

Indeed, as soon as she re-entered the house, Beverley
found it necessary to resume the role of the happy fiancée whose future was
looking exceptionally rosy.

"How did you get on with him?" Aunt Ellen
wanted to know immediately, not even specifying who the all-important
"him" might be. And she followed
Beverley
into her mother's room, determined not to miss a word of the story.

"How is Mr. Revian, darling?" Beverley's
mother I looked at her anxiously. "You look a bit pale and I
strained."

"Oh, I'm all right." Beverley put up her
hands and rubbed some colour, into her cheeks, and Aunt Ellen said, "I'll
get you a cup of tea in a minute. But, what
|
happened?"

"Nothing very much. Except that I was taken to
see Mr. Revian, and he spoke kindly to me, and seemed quite, pleased with
Geoffrey's choice."

"I wouldn't call that 'nothing very much, '
" declared Aunt Ellen, "I'd call that very satisfactory. You mean that
he knows all about the engagement and he ap
proves?"