© 2015 by Grace Livingston Hill
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All scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version of the Bible.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any similarity to actual people, organizations, and/or events is purely coincidental.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
About the Author
Chapter 1
Winter, 1930
Then you mean that there is only about five thousand dollars left?”
Constance drew the rich furs about her throat and stood up to try to still the tumult of her heart.
“Yes—about that. Understand, it may be a trifle more, perhaps a thousand; but that is doubtful. There may be some other small accounts that have not been settled.”
He looked at her keenly and drew a sigh of relief. He had expected a scene, and she had made none. Some girls might have fainted at hearing such news so unexpectedly, but Constance Wetherill had not fainted. Had she fully understood what a change this meant in her income? The old lawyer drew his shaggy brows together fiercely and tried again. He must do his duty fully.
“You understand, Miss Constance, that this means five thousand dollars capital, not income. It does not mean you will have five thousand a year, but only the interest on five thousand. If well invested it ought to bring you about—”
But the girl cut him short with her clear, comprehending voice that made further calculations unnecessary.
“I quite understand,” she said with a quick little catch in her breath. “We shall have but five thousand dollars in all. And now, if that is all, I think I must go, as I have an engagement in a few minutes.”
She was gone, and the lawyer looked after her half bewildered, half sad. Surely she could not comprehend the relative value or figures, or she never would have taken his news so calmly. Why, it would mean an utter change in her way of living. It meant absolute poverty after a life of luxury from her birth.
He had intended to ask some questions about her prospects and offer some aid, but she had left him no opportunity. The keen lawyer, who led juries about at his will and was apt to tell clients exactly what he pleased, had been held at a distance by this mere child with the patrician face and the costly garments.
“She’s of the old stock. Her father over again!” soliloquized the lawyer, as he sat for an idle moment reflecting after the office door closed behind her and her footsteps echoed down the corridor to the elevator. “If she’s like him through and through, nothing can down her. But there are very few women like that, and she’s a mere slip of a girl. She doesn’t understand, or else she knows where she can find plenty of money, that’s certain. I suppose perhaps she’s engaged to Morris Thayer, or as good as engaged, and that will make everything all right. He has plenty.”
He turned with relief to a knotty case that was awaiting his attention.
Constance, in her car below, felt as if everything were slowly swimming away from her and someone had her by the throat.
She started her car and threaded her way through traffic, a strange dull horror in the back of her mind. She was not Constance Wetherill anymore, she was just a poor girl with almost nothing left in the world, and her grandmother to care for, and what was she going to do about it?
She was not as calm as she had appeared to the old family lawyer, neither was she uncomprehending. She had a clear knowledge of figures, and she knew just how much money seemed an absolute necessity to keep life running comfortably, and she felt that the lawyer might as well have told her there was not a penny left as to speak of the paltry sum of five thousand dollars. She knew that it was as nothing beside the annual income that had been hers since her father died, a trifle less than ten years ago. She did not trouble her mind with raging at the poor, incompetent uncle whose ill-advised care had allowed this state of things to come about. He was in his grave, and it did not matter whether he had been simply incompetent, or whether he had been a rascal, the result was the same. The fact remained that her fortune was gone.
She looked out through the car window and tried to realize what it would be to live without a car.
Suddenly she caught sight of a familiar face coming down the avenue. Morris Thayer, her lifelong friend, and he was stopping at the curb and signaling her to stop. She drew a breath of relief. Life could not have suddenly gone blank, for here was Morris, smiling and friendly, and the sun was shining. There must be some mistake. The lawyer would discover it and telephone her tonight—or tomorrow.
Constance drew herself up smartly and resolutely shut back the thoughts that had been surging over her. At least, she was not utterly penniless yet. There was still the five thousand between her and poverty. She need not let anyone know just yet—not at least till she herself fully understood what it all meant, and knew what she was going to do. The paltry five thousand seemed suddenly a wall, a shield between herself and an unpleasant future. She would be herself for this one afternoon and forget that there were such things in the world as stocks and bonds and failures.
She leaned forward with her own charming smile and welcomed the young man. Here at least was a friend, one who had been devoted to her for years. After all, what matter did a few dollars more or less make in life?
Perhaps there was a tinge of more warmth than usual in her smile, for Constance was an independent young woman, and not given to broadcasting her misfortunes.
“Are you going to Mrs. Graham’s tea, Morrie?” she asked. “Get in then, for that’s where I’m bound.”
The young man sprang in eagerly, and they had not gone a block before the meager fortune of five thousand dollars was forgotten for the moment in eager discussion of the interests of the young group to which they both belonged.
The afternoon was lovely. Just enough snow on the ground to make the world glisten with beauty. The brown branches that arched over the avenue were touched with a feathery penciling of white that made exquisite lacework against the blue winter sky. Everything was bright and comfortable and familiar, just as it had been for years along the avenue since Constance had taken her airing as a child under the care of a smart nursemaid in the open park, or aimlessly rolled her doll carriage from day to day. There was the old church where the elite worshipped God. There were the houses of her father’s friends, their richly draped windows speaking eloquently of the luxurious life lived within, a life that had belonged to Constance ever since she could remember. It was easy
to forget that there was such a thing as poverty. In the back of her mind was that strange sinking feeling that something dreadful had happened, but it gradually faded in the comfort of the moment.
Morris insisted on stopping at a florist’s shop and purchasing an enormous bunch of violets. Their fragrance fastened among her rich furs dispelled the last memory of looming trouble. Then suddenly it was recalled to her in that sharp, quick way that trouble has when it is new, and there is a sensitive victim upon which to play.
“Well, I suppose you’ve heard about the Van Orden failure,” said Morris in a comfortable tone as he related the latest delicious bit of social gossip.
Constance felt a heavy load drift down upon her heart, and a sudden tie between herself and the Van Ordens, whom she had never quite liked.
“They said the old man has gone all to pieces, had a stroke or something. Hard lines for Alice, I’ll say, she’s worked so hard to get a social footing. But it came just in time to save Harry Bishop. He thought he was marrying a great heiress.”
“What do you mean, save him?” asked Constance sharply, turning a face suddenly white toward him. “Aren’t they engaged?”
“Oh yes, engaged, I guess, but that’s not married. Harry will find an easy way out of it now, you may be sure. He’s not the kind to let anyone put anything over on him.”
If Morris Thayer had not been so altogether satisfied with himself and his surroundings, he might have noticed the sudden look of astonishment and pain that dawned in the eyes of the girl beside him, and the involuntary scorn that settled upon her lips as she turned her head away from him. That look might have given him the key to some things that happened afterward. But he did not see and talked on.
Something seemed to have gripped Constance’s soul. There came a great sinking of heart and a whirling of her head again, as when the lawyer had first told her the astonishing news of their great loss.
Morris talked on, but she did not hear a word he said, and when he finally paused, she said suddenly, “You think then, that a man has a right to desert his friends because they have lost their money?”
“Oh, not desert, of course,” said Morris lightly, “but he could scarcely be expected to marry her. The utopian days are past when such deeds were done.”
Constance turned her gaze upon him suddenly, critically, with a new understanding of the smallness of his soul. Somehow his mouth seemed to have taken new lines of weakness since last she had looked at him, and there was something about his eyes that suggested lack of principle.
“I think,” she said gravely, “that Alice Van Orden should surely be congratulated—”
“Congratulated? Alice congratulated? Why? I don’t quite understand,” said the young man in puzzled tones. “Why should she be congratulated?”
“That she has been saved,” said Constance freezingly.
“Oh, has she indeed?” said Morris, quite misunderstanding. “Nice thing for her. Had a private fortune of her own, did she? Good thing to have. Glad you told me. I might have said something about his escape to Harry, and it would have been awkward, you know. Well, I always thought Alice Van Orden was a nice sort of girl, though I didn’t know she was a great friend of yours.”
“You don’t understand me, Morris,” said Constance. “I mean that Alice is to be congratulated that she has escaped marrying a man who simply cared for her money. She is not an intimate friend of mine and I know nothing of her affairs, but if I were in her place, I’d be glad I’d escaped.”
Then the car drew up before the old brownstone residence that was the scene of the afternoon’s function, and Morris was diverted from his puzzlement and said no more.
Constance was at once claimed by groups of welcoming friends. Morris tried once or twice to get near her, but she seemed constantly surrounded, so he had to content himself by gazing at her from across the room.
He hovered near when she was leaving and hoped to get another invitation to share the car with her, but she took an elderly woman away with her, with only a distant smile of absentminded good night. It made him quite miserable. Somehow he felt that he had been given an unusual opportunity that afternoon and not embraced it, though just what he had done to shut the door of the opportunity he could not have told.
The sun was slipping out of sight, and the many checkered windows in the tall buildings of the city’s heart flashed into view in one magnificent conflagration, when Constance was at last alone. She had taken the elderly woman to a dinner appointment, having offered to do so in order to escape any further talk with Morris Thayer. Now she felt the sudden relief of being alone, followed by the quick grip of her new trouble on her consciousness. In the sweep of it all, Morris Thayer was forgotten utterly. He would return to memory soon and have a part in the general whole, but now he did not count for much.
Unutterable weariness seemed to be the most prominent thing on her mind, and a wall of blackness was settling about her, burnt through with those brilliant burning windows that flashed at her from every building. She must get calm somehow and try to think what she should do. What could she do? Oh, that she might just lie down and sink to sleep, forgetting it all! Her world was broken, and how could she continue to live?
To be put into the same category with that vulgar Alice Van Orden, and to be pitied as she was being pitied, and called “a nice sort of girl,” and have men discuss her and say that some man had “been saved” from marrying her! How her soul revolted at the thought! How she despised people who could talk that way. How she longed to show them that she despised them, now, before it was too late! Now, while there was yet five thousand dollars between herself and poverty! Now, while no one suspected but that she was worth her plentiful fortune!
The car was at her own door. Mechanically she stepped out and stood a moment on the sidewalk, like one awaking out of sleep.
A tall young man with a suitcase came by. He looked at her out of the twilight, and she looked back at him, as two ships, sighting each other, come near for a moment in the lifting fog and then pass on. His face gleamed white against the soft darkness, and there was something about his eyes that held her gaze for an instant. They seemed deeply earnest. It came to her that a man with a face like that would never turn away from one in any kind of trouble. Then the shadows of the street swallowed him, and she went into the house alone.
There was nothing unrestful about the home into which she had come. There was quiet order everywhere and utmost plenty, though no gaudy display of luxury. Respectful attention to her wishes met her as she crossed the threshold and struck her with a new pang that this, too, which had been so long a matter of course to her, was bought with money and that now she would no longer be able to command it. She realized keenly what it would be to give it up.
A stately old lady with white hair and a placid face sat awaiting her in a great easy chair, with a bit of fancy knitting in her fingers. A pang struck deep into Constance’s heart. How would Grandmother bear the new state of things?
They went down to dinner together and sat through the courses, Constance eating little, her grandmother talking gentle society gossip mingled with reminiscences of the past. She did not go out much, except for a ride in the car on pleasant days, but she loved to hear about the old families, and questioned Constance about every detail of her afternoon. The girl held her breath once or twice lest her grandmother should discover her talk with the lawyer. It seemed as if that subject was a newly acquired wound that could not bear to be touched.
At last, coffee was over and Grandmother had gone to her room with her maid. Constance was free to put aside her mask and think. She went at once to her room. None too soon had she escaped, for Morris Thayer’s card was brought to her within five minutes with a most urgent request that he might see her if possible for just a few minutes.
Constance almost groaned. It seemed as if she were pursued and would never get a chance to be by herself and think.
“Tell him I have a headache, Susanne,” she called f
rom the couch where she had thrown herself, “and I have retired for the night.” She pressed her throbbing temples with her cold fingertips and felt momentarily glad for the headache that had excused her from going down.
She listened for the door to close and the echo of his footsteps on the pavement, but it was a moment before she heard them, and then Susanne came back, a great bunch of English violets, almost large enough for a pillow, in her hand. She gave her message, arranged the flowers on the table under the shaded light, and went out.
The strong, subtle fragrance stole forth, as the donor had meant it should do, and tried to speak to the girl on the couch in his behalf. But the odor only irritated her. She did not wish to be reminded of him now. What he had said that afternoon seemed to put him outside the circle of true friendship, and it only brought pain to be reminded of him.
But, try as she would, instead of being able to consider what she ought to do in a practical way, her mind was beset with angry, fruitless thoughts of what she should like to say to such as he. Indignation towered high. If he stood before her now with his violets, and offered them, she would fling them back. The sight of them was hateful to her; the thought of him had become a disappointment.
She had never counted him a dear friend. Still, she knew that he admired her, and she had enjoyed that admiration, for he was handsome and wealthy and popular. It was bitter now to think that as soon as he should know of her changed circumstances his marked admiration would be withdrawn to a safe distance. Her pride was touched. She wished she might do something so that he need never know of her change of fortune, and yet that she might always keep him at a distance. That would be keen delight to her present excited mind.
The thought of his pity, spoken in the tone he had used about the Van Orden girl, was hateful. His violets were hateful. She would get rid of them. She took them from the water and, walking toward the window, raised the heavy sash to throw them out, then reflected that someone might see them and think it strange. Besides, it would be a rude, unrefined action. She drew back and touched the bell instead.
The White Lady Page 1