by Susan Barrie
However, if you’re feeling very adult all at once and the pink does strike you as a wee bit little-girlish—”
“It does! ” Virginia exclaimed almost fiercely. “It would make me look like a fairy on a Christmas tree.”
“Mademoiselle would look quite delightful in the pink,” the saleswoman murmured, visualizing those nut-brown curls, and those clear pink cheeks that were only a shade deeper than the pink of the dress itself above the wild-rose draperies. “Will she not try it on?”
But Virginia shook her head, suddenly determined.
“No, I’ ve made tip my mind to have the black! ”
Not only did she buy the black dress but she bought herself dizzily high-heeled silver sandals to wear with it and some long, black net gloves that would come well above her white elbows. Lisa was regarding her with a faintly amused look on her face when at last they emerged from the shop.
“You are determined to cut a dash! ” she exclaimed. “Is all this to impress Dr. Hanson?”
“Of course not! ” Virginia exclaimed almost too hastily, and then was relieved to catch sight of a by now familiar figure on the sidewalk, who seemed to have chosen exactly the right moment to relieve them of the number of small parcels with which they were burdened. It was Clive Maddison. He was wearing white flannels and a blazer, which proclaimed that he had recently been playing tennis, and he had an unselfconscious grin on his face that Virginia liked the look of.
“But it does seem strange,” she observed to him after he had announced that he was going to regale them both with the largest icecream sundae that they ever had in their lives, “that you always appear when you’re most needed, as I’m quite sure Lisa has had opportunity to notice.”
“Ah, but Lisa isn’t the only one I make myself useful to,” he defended himself, although his eyes were all for Lisa, looking rather like an ice-cream sundae herself in striped candy-pink linen with an enormous hat of white linen shading her piquant features. “I do occasionally make myself useful in other directions! ”
This was so indisputably true that Virginia had to admit it at once, for of all the new friends she had made in that part of the world he was the only one who had endeavored to see to it that her decision to take up employment in their midst should not isolate her altogether from the life she had been leading. Mary Van Loon had a kind of genuine affection for him and whenever he appeared at her house he always sought out Virginia, and more than once he had come to her rescue when the children had been slightly above themselves while she had them out walking. He had even taken them off her hands while she kept an appointment at the hairdresser’ s.
He had an easy way with children, it was not quite the same thing as the way Dr Hanson had with them, but at least he could make them obey him and he could keep them entertained, too.
So Virginia smiled at him in the friendly way she had when she liked anyone, and Lisa sat happily listening to him while he told them how full the hotel where he was now employed as an official tennis coach was becoming, and how little free time he expected to have to himself in the future—which was one reason why he was making so much of it now, looking meaningly at Lisa.
Lisa blushed and then didn’t look quite so happy when the talk drifted to the forthcoming dance and her departure for home that was to follow it almost immediately. It had been arranged that, as her parents were anxious to have her at home again as soon as possible, her finger exercises should be continued in London under the supervision of an expert, and just as soon as permission was granted to her she would begin to test the results on her piano. Which did not mean as much to her as it would once have done; although for quite a different reason she was anxious to pick up the threads of her career where they had been forcibly dropped so many weary months ago now.
Virginia had a shrewd suspicion that her sudden desire to go ahead with her musical career was not unconnected with Clive Maddison and his own unsatisfactory attempts to carve out a career for himself. For if ever their friendship was to develop—as Lisa plainly wished it to develop, although what was in Clive’s mind Virginia could only guess—then one of them must do something about making the future a little more secure. So Lisa was plainly fired with an enthusiasm that might otherwise never have taken possession of her again!
For all her liking for Clive, Virginia sometimes wished that he had not made his appearance on her sister’ s horizon at just this particular phase of her life.
He hired a taxi to drive them both back to their respective temporary homes, and having dropped Lisa at Madame d’Auvergne’s villa— where both he and Virginia were persuaded to remain for a brief while and chat with Madame d’ Auvergne—he went on to the Van Loon’ s with Virginia. At the foot of the terrace steps, with the children waving to them excitedly from the big glassed-in veranda, he said rather quickly, “One of these days I’m going to ask you to do something for me, if you will, Virginia. ”
“Why, of course,” she answered, looking at him curiously. “But why me? Why not Lisa? Don’t you think she’d prefer—”
“No,” He shook his head quite decidedly. “I don’t want it to be Lisa. You see, in a way it concerns Lisa.”
“Mysteriouser and mysteriouser! ” she murmured.
He smiled down at her engagingly.
“Then I can count on you?”
“Of course—if there’s anything I can really do!”
“Good girl! ” he exclaimed softly. “There is—I think! ” And then he ran back down the steps while the children continued to wave to him and Virginia wondered, with faint curiosity, what sort of service she was going to be called upon to perform for him when he decided that the moment was ripe.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
But the days immediately preceding the dance were so fully occupied in her mind with thoughts of it that for once Lisa and her affairs slipped into the background and did not seem of quite such pressing importance.
One event that also sidetracked attention from Lisa during those days was the return of Edward Van Loon. He had been in so many European capitals in the past few months that he was a little weary, and he seemed delighted to find that his wife had found such a pleasing young companion as well as someone so eminently capable of looking after his small niece and nephew as Virginia Holt. And Virginia liked him on sight. She decided that anyone with those shrewd but kindly eyes was to be trusted absolutely and thought that although Mary had to pass so much of her time alone she was lucky to have acquired a husband who obviously adored her whenever he was near enough at hand.
The occasion of the master’ s return home was celebrated with one or two formal dinner parties, and one night Leon Hanson and Carla Spengler were among the guests. Virginia seized upon a quite legitimate excuse to absent herself. This excuse was provided by her small charge Peter, who had been restless and a little feverish all day and who declined even to think about settling down for the night unless she remained near him.
Mary, superbly dressed for the evening, looked around the night-nursery door and tried to persuade Virginia that it would be all right to leave him in charge of the girl whom Virginia herself had helped to train, but Virginia shook her head.
“I’d rather not,” she said. “He’s so highly strung and imaginative that he’ll just work himself up if I leave him and in any case I’m quite happy here, l’ ve already ordered my dinner to be sent up on a tray and you don’t have to give another thought to me.”
“All the same, I shall.” Mary hesitated, filling the nursery with the aroma of her Paris perfume. “Of course I could ask Leon to have a look at him, although he isn’t our doctor, and he’s such an important consultant that one doesn’t like to do these things—”
“Of course not!” Virginia exclaimed quickly, horrified at the mere thought. She could imagine Carla Spengler’s indignation if he were requested to ascend to the nurseries! “And as a matter of fact I don’t think there’s anything very seriously wrong with Peter. It’s probably just a little cold and a
slight rise of temperature, and once he drops off to sleep I’ ll slip in next door and make myself comfortable with a book.”
“But won’ t you come down at all? Not for half an hour?”
“I’d rather not, if you don’t mind.”
Virginia smiled at her, thinking that her grooming was without fault.
“Well, if he isn’t better tomorrow we’ll have to get our own doctor. But I sincerely hope he is better because tomorrow night is the night of your dance and it would never do if you had to miss that! ”
“No.” Virginia could agree with her wholeheartedly about that because although she was almost grateful to Peter for his indisposition tonight, which had made it unnecessary for her to have to sit at a flower-loaded and intimate dinner table with the glamorous and notable Carla and the man she was expected to marry and feel that she had no part or lot in the dinner-table conversation, tomorrow night was the night when she would wear her spectacular new evening dress, and in any case there would be lots of people and intimate conversation of any kind would be impossible. Besides, it would upset her very much if she had to disappoint Madame d’Auvergne after all the immense trouble she had taken and was probably taking at this very minute. “He’ll be all right in the morning,” she said optimistically. “I’ve given him half an aspirin and he’s already much calmer,” she said, laying her hand on the small, moist brow.
But in the morning Peter was not any better; in fact he was decidedly worse. When the family doctor arrived he diagnosed a severe chill but admitted that it might be the forerunner of something more serious, and they would have to wait to find that out.
Mary was quite horrified and began to take a firm stand. “Then it’ s no use your thinking you can nurse him,” she said to Virginia. “We’ll have to get a nurse in from outside and you must go and have a rest in preparation for his evening. Whatever you do you mustn’t disappoint
Madame d’Auvergne and I don’t want you to be disappointed, either. So go and put through those calls to the numbers Dr. Boulanger left with you and see if you can get a nurse to come out here straight away. ”
But although Virginia did her best she was very unwilling to yield her post to a stranger, particularly when Peter might not be so seriously ill after all. Children had a habit of running temperatures and then, shaking them off just when you thought they had arrived at the crucial moment. And why should Mary Van Loon have to incur the expense of a nurse when it was Virginia’ s job to look after Peter?
But although she made genuine efforts to find a nurse who was free to attend without delay, they were efforts that were doomed to failure because no nurse was available until the following day. She reported to Mary, who got on to the telephone on her own account, but without any better result. A nurse, efficient and highly trained, could arrive to take over the following morning but not a minute earlier. They would have to cope with Peter themselves in the meantime.
“Which means that I will stay and you will go to the dance,” Mary said with great firmness.
Edward supported her. He had seen the dressmaker’s box that had arrived for Virginia and the little rush of excited pink color to her cheeks when she took it from the maid Effie on the stairs, and he had pictured her trying the dress on in front of her mirror in her room afterwards. Virginia was the kind of woman who aroused the best in all really nice men and Edward Van Loon was really nice. He could quite happily forego the dance, and he and his wife would spend a very pleasant evening alone for once in their own home: in fact he was actually looking forward to it by the time Peter, with the complete lack of consideration of one of his years and—Mary would have added— sex, took matters into his own hands and declined to allow Virginia to progress so far as the bathroom when the moment arrived for her to begin her preparations for the evening. In fact, so determined was he that she was not to leave him that his temperature suddenly shot up alarmingly, and it was as much as she could do to still the panic in her own breast as she stood feeling his hot hands and head and deciding that the uncanny brilliance of his eyes was positively ominous.
Mary, on her way back to her bedroom after her own bath, looked in in her sky-blue bathrobe and was about to warn Virginia to hurry up with her dressing when she saw by the look on Virginia’s face that something was amiss.
“What’ s wrong?” She went quickly to Virginia’ s side. She spoke without seeming to speak into her ear. “Do you think we should to get
Dr. Boulanger?”
“No. But it’ s no use pretending that I can go out for the evening because I can’ t! ”
Mary looked really vexed. She bit her lip hard while Virginia fetched a flannel wrung out in warm water and a towel, and bathed the invalid’ s scarlet face and moist, clinging hands, and then turned the pillow beneath the curly dark head and spoke soothingly into the small ear. Peter seemed to relax even as she spoke and a little of the feverishness died out of his eyes.
“It’s simply infuriating,” Mary declared, walking away to the wide window and staring out over the brilliant surface of the lake. “That little monkey couldn’ t help catching a chill, I know, but you’ ve become so indispensable to him that he’s simply not going to let you go! ”
“Well, I don’t really mind.” Virginia was actually speaking no more than the truth, for her conscience had been troubling her badly all day at the thought of deserting her most sensitive charge at the time when he needed her most, and she doubted very much whether she could have enjoyed herself at the dance. “These things happen and it’ s not doing a bit of good getting worked up over them. And if Peter fretted himself into something serious just because I wanted to have a good time I’d never forgive myself.”
“I know you wouldn’t.” But Mary continued to bite her lip. “All the same I do think it’s a bit hard!”
“But you and Mr. Van Loon must both go. It would never do if we let Madame d’ Auvergne down! ”
“I was going to suggest that Edward go and I stay here with you—” But one glimpse of the antagonistic gleam that instantly came into Virginia’ s eyes convinced Mrs. Van Loon that such a course as that would never be permitted by her youthful governess.
“Very well,” she agreed with a sigh, “but if I do go and anything goes wrong or you’re not altogether happy at being alone—although of course you’ll have Effie on call if you need her you must telephone me at once and I’ ll come immediately and Edward as well. And now I suppose I’d better go and get dressed.”
“Yes, do,” Virginia coaxed her.
When both her employers had left the house and all was quiet both above and below stairs, Virginia felt she could settle down to her strangely quiet evening. For the radio in the little sitting room that she shared with the children would have to be silent tonight and her only distraction would be a book—if Peter slumbered enough to make reading possible—and the thoughts that she would permit herself of Lisa, at least, having a good time in her lovely new white lace dress, and dancing beneath the fairy lights in the arms of the admiring Clive Maddison.
If Clive had had no serious intentions where Lisa was concerned before tonight surely he would have then once he had seen her in that dress with her regally poised small dark head and her dark eyes brilliant with happiness.
Virginia sighed a little. Poor Lisa! How unfortunate that she had had to fall in love just at this time!
And then a thought even more incongruous lifted up its head. How unfortunate that she herself had had to fall in love at this time!
Peter, as she had thought that he would do, sank after she had been sitting beside him for a while into an uneasy doze. His small hot fingers were tightly clasping the fingers of one of her own hands and whenever she made even the smallest movements he stirred and whimpered a little. But gradually his breathing became deeper and more even, the hot flush subsided in his cheeks and the clasp of that small hand grew less demanding.
In the next room Paula, whose bed had been removed in case there was a danger of infection,
slept deeply and dreamlessly. Throughout the nursery wing there was utter silence, and the only illumination was the bedside lamp, which cast a pale golden light over the pastel blue bed in which the small boy lay and the still figure of the woman who watched him carefully.
Presently Virginia felt it was safe to remove her hand altogether and she stood up and wandered gratefully to the wide open window How magical everything looked outside! The lake looked as if it were made of silver and the dark shapes of the trees that overhung it swaying a little in the night breeze. But it was such a gentle breeze that the night was almost oppressively warm and even the stars were not as bright as usual because of that atmosphere of soft and sensuous warmth.
But it was a night for dancing—a night for treading the scented paths of Aunt Heloise’ s garden and listening to the music of the orchestra playing behind banked-up masses of flowers. No doubt many couples would take advantage of the sheltered arbors and the quiet nooks where the sound of the music could still reach them, and they would be undisturbed by anything else unless someone stumbled upon them by accident. Clive and Lisa would probably seek out one of those arbors. Or perhaps at this very moment they were standing side by side on the terrace, their elbows resting on the stone balustrade, just as Virginia had stood side by side with Leon Hanson when she was a guest of Madame d’Auvergne’s....
Virginia had a sudden mental picture of Dr. Hanson and the goldenhaired Carla stealing away from the crowd that thronged the d’ Auvergne villa tonight and finding some little haven of peace where they could be sure of being alone.... Virginia moved restlessly. Peter now seemed to be sunk in almost healthful slumber and she went into her own bedroom, opened the doors of her wardrobe and took out the frock she was to have worn for the occasion. It hung suspended like a black cloud on her pink, satin-covered hanger and at the bottom of the wardrobe were the silver sandals she had purchased to wear with the dress.