So Dear to My Heart

by Susan Barrie

  Among the people who dined with them during the first week of Virginia’s stay at the villa was Mrs. Van Loon, whose house and garden Dr.

  Hanson had pointed out to her. Mary Van Loon was American, and attractive in a way that appealed to Virginia. Although she appeared very young and alive and brilliant under the sparkling light of chandeliers, in daylight she seemed rather faded and there was a weariness in her smile that Virginia found touching. It was a whimsical smile, too, and she had a strong sense of humor that made her exceedingly likable. Her husband was not there; he collected art treasures from all over the world and was often away from her for months at a time, which might have accounted for the disillusioned look on her face.

  In coloring she was as fair as Carla Spengler, but there was nothing else of Carla about her.

  Virginia knew that she would never forget that afternoon when she had first arrived at the villa, and Carla had looked in on them unexpectedly to say goodbye before leaving for Italy. She had embraced Madame d’Auvergne with affection and turned and held out both her hands to Dr. Hanson, giving him a smile that was calculated to melt the bones of any man who admired her. Then she had turned to Virginia and studied her for a moment with upraised eyebrows, plainly trying to recall where she had seen her before.

  “Oh, of course! ” she exclaimed at last. “We have met before, haven’ t we? At the Milano! You bumped your head and Leon tried to help you. ”

  “Miss Holt didn’t bump her head,” Dr. Hanson interjected with a slight smile. “It was bumped for her! ”

  “Oh, yes, of course! Those appalling young men! One of them must have spent too much time in the bar.”

  “I don’t think so,” Virginia said quite gently. “It was purely an accident.”

  The Spengler eyebrows were lifted again. “It’ s nice of you to look at it in that way, but personally I would have been furious,” she declared. She looked at Leon Hanson. “Has Miss Holt become a patient of yours, then, Leon, as a result of that evening? And are you continuing to attend to the damage she received?”

  “Not at all,” he assured her, looking at Virginia whimsically. “Miss Holt is now more or less intact, but it is her sister who is a patient of mine. She is up at the clinic and Miss Holt was left stranded at the Milano. Aunt Heloise decided that it would please her immensely if Miss Holt would become her guest, and I brought her here barely a quarter of an hour ago. I think between us we have persuaded her that she is a welcome guest. ”

  “Really?” But there was a cool note in Carla’s sudden drawl. “Then you are fortunate. Miss Holt. This house is even more comfortable than the Milano.”

  “Yes, I realize that,” Virginia answered a little uncomfortably.

  “Nonsense! ” Aunt Heloise exclaimed. “Once upon a time, when I didn’ t have to bother about making the most of my income, as I do now, I did rather pride myself on being the sort of hostess my guests liked to stay with. But nowadays, what with the after effects of two wars and one thing and another, I just hope that they won’t be induced to leave me too soon.” She smiled very kindly at Virginia. “I am counting upon Miss Holt’s being my guest for several weeks.”

  Carla turned away as if the subject had ceased to interest her, and she slid

  one of her slender white hands inside Dr. Hanson’ s arm.

  “Leon, cheri, what are we going to do tonight to celebrate my departure? Something special because I will not see you again for weeks! ”

  “In that case a celebration seems uncalled for,” he replied.

  She regarded him with softened eyes for several seconds. “Nevertheless, we must do something! ”

  “Must we?” He looked down at her with a faintly caressing light in his own eyes, or so Virginia thought. “How do you expect me to survive during your absence?” he asked.

  She smiled at him, a light like a tiny, flickering blue flame leaping up and down behind her long eyelashes.

  “Darling,” she told him, “I do not wish you to find it very easy to survive without me. It would upset me very much if I thought that absence would not make your heart yearn for me a little.”

  He obeyed an obvious impulse and very lightly touched her cheek. “But even so you will not be persuaded to change your plans?”

  She shook her head very decidedly. “No, darling—not even for you! ”

  When they left. Dr. Hanson with his hand beneath Carla’s elbow as he guided her out to her car, Virginia and her hostess stood side by side in the window and watched their departure. Madame d’Auvergne sighed a little.

  “They are a handsome pair,” she remarked, “but—” She shook her impressive white head.

  “Are they—engaged?” Virginia asked a little hesitantly.

  “No. At least not officially, although everyone is expecting an announcement of their engagement at any time. They have known one another for years, ever since they were boy and girl together, and he has always adored her and protected her against every form of unpleasantness that came her way. She adores him, too, but—I don’t know!” She sighed again.

  “Is it her career that is coming between them?” Virginia suggested with the clear-sightedness of an onlooker.

  “It could be that,” Aunt Heloise admitted. “And perhaps in time they will find a solution.” Then she turned and looked at Virginia a little curiously. “My nephew was greatly concerned about you,” she said. “He disliked the thought of your being alone at the Milano very much. He will be happier now that you are here.”

  “Will he?” Virginia murmured and wondered why the dark self-possessed surgeon, with all the demands of his profession and the preoccupations of a love affair that was not running with the maximum amount of smoothness, should spare any thought for her.

  Two days later when she visited Lisa at the clinic she found her entertaining—or being entertained by, she was not quite sure which—a strange young man. He was seated in a negligent manner on the balcony rail, appeared very long-limbed and athletic, and had his right arm in a sling. He also had very blue eyes and light hair that curled a little.

  Lisa looked up at Virginia with sparkling eyes. “This is Clive Maddison, Jinny.” she said. “Mr. Maddison. this is my sister!”

  “How do you do?” He disentangled himself with infinite grace from the balcony rail, moved forward and extended his good hand to Virginia. She was

  not altogether surprised when she felt her fingers all but reduced to pulp.

  “Are you a patient here, too?” Virginia asked, regarding him curiously and then examining her fingers with a faintly rueful expression on her face.

  “For only another couple of days,” he told her, “and then it’s heigh-ho for the cruel hard world again for me! ” He looked as if he normally regarded the world as anything but a cruel, hard place. He dragged forward a chair for her and then resumed his former perch on the rail. “Your sister’ s balcony and mine adjoin,” he explained, “so I saw no reason why I shouldn’t pop in occasionally and visit her, provided she raised no serious objection. ” He glanced for an instant at Lisa’s vivid and animated face. “I haven’t made myself too much of a nuisance, have I, Miss Holt?”

  “On the contrary,” she assured him, “you’ve had a tonic effect on my spirits. It’s a little lonely here sometimes—’’ she looked almost apologetically at Virginia “—and one is inclined to brood. But having a chat with another victim does a lot to restore one’s morale. Mr. Maddison,” she added for her sister’ s information, “got himself very badly smashed up in a skiing accident, and it’s only after a good many weeks that he’s able to get about like this.”

  “Oh, I’ m sorry,” said Virginia, regarding him. “But you look very fit again now. ”

  “I’m more than fit,” he answered, “in fact I’m an absolute sham. But you know how it is with these hospital johnnies. They have to be a hundred percent certain.” In his turn he was regarding Virginia, and he thought secretly that, considering the two were sisters, they were extraordinarily unalike
, but that in their differing ways they were remarkably attractive. “In a couple of days I’ll be free of this splint on my arm and then there’ll be no excuse whatsoever for anyone to feel in the least sorry for me. Not that a certain amount of sympathy sometimes isn’t welcome.” There was a faint, humorous sparkle in his eyes.

  “And will you be staying on in Switzerland or are you going home to England?”

  “I don’ t quite know yet. I had thought of staying on for the summer as a tennis pro, working for one of the hotels, but whether I can wangle that sort of job after this accident remains to be seen. In any case. I’ ll need a lot of overarm practice before they’ll be likely to take me on.”

  “I see,” Virginia said, and then a nurse appeared wheeling a tea cart and he stood up prepared to take his departure.

  “No cup for me, I see,” he observed. “I’ll leave you two to have a heart-to-heart talk.”

  “No, don’t please,” Lisa begged to Virginia’s surprise, looking up at him with a sudden little rush of color to her cheeks. “I’ m sure another cup can be brought if you’ll only stay. And Jinny won’t mind.” She caught the eye of the attractive Swiss nurse, who seemed to be smiling with faint amusement under her stiffly starched cap. “Mr. Maddison can have tea on this balcony, can’t he, nurse?”

  “But, of course.”

  The matter was settled and another cup was brought, and the pretty nurse looked at Clive Maddison with a positive sparkle of amusement in her bright

  brown eyes. It was clear that she was not altogether surprised by his conquest.

  He grinned up at her.

  “Thank you, nurse! I won’t forget,” he told her.

  But on her way back to Aunt Heloise’s villa Virginia felt distinctly surprised, and she thought over the events of the afternoon with still mounting astonishment. Lisa, who had never been known to display the slightest interest in any man, to request one who was virtually a complete stranger to stay and have tea with her! It was almost unbelievable!

  Even if he was an extremely attractive young man, with the gift of making himself charming and a fellow patient at the clinic ... it was still extraordinary...

  CHAPTER FIVE

  As it happened, Virginia was able to congratulate Clive Maddison on his resumption of a more or less normal life on the very morning of the day that he was released from the clinic. She was emerging from a shop where she had just purchased a length of broderie anglaise that she proposed to try her skill at making up into an afternoon dress for herself, and an adorable little fleecy bed jacket that she had at last found for; Lisa, and both neat parcels were under her arm when she saw Clive standing and waiting for her on the sidewalk.

  He had obviously watched her go into the shop. He was grinning amiably and looked very debonair in a gray flannel suit.

  “Hello!” he said, “I hope you’ve left yourself a little money to spend on some other occasion?”

  Virginia’s apple-blossom color deepened, and her eyes sparkled. “I find shopping in Switzerland absolutely ruinous to my pocket,” she confessed, “but I can’ t resist the lure of the shop windows. ” She gazed up at him with interest. “Are you a free man now or do you have to report for a checkup occasionally?”

  “Oh, no, I’ m quite free, and staying at the Milano as symbol of my freedom! ”

  “But isn’ t that rather expensive?”

  “Dreadfully expensive, but I’ m hoping it will lead to better things. The manager is getting to know me and in time I trust he will reward me with the position as coach that I so badly need, and which, if I catch him in a sufficiently expansive mood, he may hand out to me. When that much is achieved I shall find somewhere cheaper and mark time modestly until the season starts. And now I want you to do something for me.”

  He put his hand under her elbow and led her up to a flower shop. “Are you visiting your sister this afternoon?”

  “Yes. I’ve got something to take to her.”

  “Good! Then you can take her something from me, too.” When they came out of the shop Virginia was carrying an enormous bouquet of exotic hothouse flowers over which her small white chin just managed to peep, and Clive was carrying her parcels and a ribbon-tied basket of luscious fruits. But

  although they were thus loaded he was not happy until he had purchased another large box of choicest Swiss chocolates, also secured with an enormous satin bow, and Virginia was horrified by the amount of money he had spent. She remonstrated with him as he led her to an open-air cafe where he ordered coffee for the two of them, but he merely looked at her with a lazy, amused smile in his eyes and shook his head.

  “Never spoil a ship for a ha’porth of tar,” he recommended. “Likewise, if you want to do a good deed, do it well! So long as you can manage them and don’ t mind presenting my compliments to your sister with these evidences of my earnest desire for her complete and speedy restoration to health?”

  “Of course, I don’t mind,” she assured him. “But Lisa will be cross with you for being so extravagant. ”

  “I don’t think she will,” he returned. The smile in his blue eyes faded and they grew rather more serious. “Your sister is rather a wonderful young woman. Miss Holt.”

  “Oh, Lisa’s tremendously plucky.” Virginia agreed at once.

  “It isn’t only her pluck I’m thinking of,” he murmured, absentmindedly throwing away his half-smoked cigarette and

  lighting another. “It’s everything about her.... She’s very intense, I know, but then she’ s also very brilliant—a musical genius, I should say. It takes something more than pluck to be prepared to sacrifice all that one can sacrifice for the sake of a dream, a burning ambition.”

  Virginia nodded her head somberly.

  “Yes.” she said, “I know. But Lisa’s like that. She never did believe in half measures.”

  “If—if this operation is not a success what do you think will happen to her?”

  “I hardly dare to think,” Virginia confessed in a husky whisper.

  He looked at her keenly for a moment and then away. “This fellow Hanson, who operates at the Clinic—have you a great deal of confidence in him?”

  Virginia stared down at the cream floating in great, rich puffs on the top of her cup of coffee, and she asked herself: Had she a great deal of confidence in Leon Hanson? The answer was that she had—for some reason she had tremendous confidence in him as a surgeon who could do great things for Lisa.

  “Speaking from my own experience,” Clive continued while she was silent, “and because I know that I owe such a lot to him myself, I really do think that he is the one man who can help your sister. But even so, she’s not exactly like me—I was badly smashed up, but I’m tough and I suppose I could put up even with more than I did have to put up with. But Lisa—she’s so fragile—She doesn’t look to me as if she could stand very much more. She’s already had to go through quite a bit, and those eyes of hers—they’re so shadow-haunted, so enormous! If she’s going to be badly disappointed and this operation is not a success, wouldn’t it be better—”

  He broke off, grinding his cigarette into the ashtray.

  “Wouldn’ t what be better?” Virginia asked gently.

  “Wouldn’t it be better to get Hanson to tell her that he can’t perform miracles—that is, if he has any doubt at all, and you probably know whether

  he has—and try to talk her into, well, a different frame of mind about her future?”

  Virginia shook her head.

  “There is only one future for Lisa.” she said with conviction.

  Maddison gazed rather ruefully into her face, and to her surprise, he sighed suddenly, a curiously ragged little sigh.

  “I was afraid you’d say that,” he told her. He stared at the enormous bouquet of flowers that was resting on her lap. “And I’m afraid I’m inclined to agree with you....”

  A large car was crawling slowly past along the lakeshore—a large, gleaming, black car—and as she glanced up and noticed it Virgin
ia instantly recognized the man they had so recently been talking about sitting behind the wheel. There was a slight blockage of traffic just then and the car came to a halt. Dr. Hanson looked around and Virginia automatically lifted her hand and waved to him, but the Swiss surgeon did not even reply with a nod. He seemed to look through her and her companion. And then the stream of traffic moved evenly on and Virginia, with an unaccountable little pink flush in her cheeks, felt Clive’s eyes studying her again.

  “That was Hanson,” he said—as if she could have had the slightest doubt! “He’ s a moody chap sometimes, but then I suppose his sort of job would make a man moody, it would me—seeing so much of the seamy side of life....”

  “I don’t think he noticed us,” Virginia said.

  “Don’t you?” He smiled curiously, thinking, as he studied her wide white how and her light brown hair that sparkled in the sunshine, her gentle gray eyes and her sensitive mouth, that, had he not fallen so badly for Lisa, her sister, he must have been attracted by Virginia! “Well, perhaps he didn’ t,” he agreed.

  But that night, Virginia learned that both of them had made a mistake.

  It was one of those rare nights that Aunt Heloise looked forward to, when her nephew accepted an invitation to dine with her, and she was careful to invite no other visitors. She adored having him to herself, and Virginia being a guest in the house—and a guest for whom she had already formed a very genuine attachment—it was almost as good as having him to herself.

  He arrived early and Virginia was alone in the salon when he walked in. She gave him her rather shy but very friendly smile and he shook hands with her briefly. It was the first time he had shaken hands with her. she recollected, and somehow the touch of his warm, firm fingers left her with the curious sensation of having made contact with something strangely vital.

  He walked into the wide window embrasure and stood looking out at the dreamy enchantment of the garden in the light of the setting sun. and as she joined him and they stood discussing the splendor of the evening and the perfection of the view, she thought that the expression of his face was grave and a little reserved. For one moment she wondered whether something was wrong with her sister.