“I wish I could get away now, too,” Pauline confided in her ear. “You’re the lucky one.” And to Alan: “I’ll see you later, darling.”
Alan gave her an affirmative nod, and Judith and he left. When they were alone in the car, she sank back on the cushion and gave a small moan of relief.
“What a night!” she gasped.
Alan laughed. “Don’t complain! You’ve made the Port Winter scene.”
“I could have done without it,” Judith said.
“Well, at least you met a few interesting types.”
“Senator Lafferty, Charles North and that creepy artist!” she said with disgust.
From the wheel Alan said, “At least you escaped for a while. Did you and Pauline have a girl to girl talk?”
“Yes.” She knew her voice sounded dull; it reflected her mental state.
“You don’t sound completely enthusiastic about it.”
“I’m not.”
He gave her a quick glance. “What happened?”
“Nothing,” she said with a sigh. And then, turning to him in a burst of confidence, she said, “Alan, I hate to sound catty, but I’ve never talked much with Pauline until tonight. She’s not exactly what I thought her to be.”
“No?”
“Not at all! She’s so shallow!”
He nodded, his eyes on the dark street ahead. “I’ve been trying to tell you that, but you wouldn’t listen.”
“I had such a different mental picture of her.”
“Well, now you know,” he said.
“I’ll go further, since I’ve begun,” she said, turning to him with sober eyes. “Whatever happens between us, I think you should break with her anyway. She’s not right for you.”
“I agree with everything but that ‘whatever happens between us.’ You know what’s going to happen. We’ll marry and live happily ever afterward.”
“You’ve been reading too much Hans Christian Andersen,” she told him lightly.
“Better fantasy than the real thing, if tonight is any example,” Alan told her with a sigh. “I was given the third degree on all sides.”
“I hate to say it,” Judith warned him, “but I think you’re going to get more of the same.”
“I am?”
“From Pauline.”
“Oh, no!” he protested. “Are you sure?”
“She said as much when we had our talk just now.”
“That caps it,” Alan said unhappily. “I thought she was so wrapped up in her own affairs she wasn’t even aware of my problems.”
“It just got through to her. She feels you have a kind of shy kookie charm, and what she read about you in the newspaper didn’t fill her cup with happiness.”
“Why should she care?”
“She wants a charm boy with no involvements. She thinks you should resign and devote yourself to creating a life beautiful for her.”
“It sounds dreadful!”
“She’s willing to admit you know nothing about business and you haven’t been what the Mayor would call ‘a fast halfback’ in law, but she’s sure you have the ability to decorate her cocktail parties.” Judith knew she sounded bitter, but she was so raging at the comments the other girl had made she couldn’t help it.
Alan gave her a smile as they came to a halt in front of her steps. “Well, at least you know now where my future lies.”
“Get away from her,” Judith advised, “and quick!”
“Just a short time ago you were advising me not to rush to break my engagement. I wish you’d make up your mind.”
“It’s made up where she is concerned,” Judith told him. “She’s well meaning, I guess, but I consider her a threat to you or any other man she takes under her protective wing.”
“At least I’ve been warned.”
“And another thing. She considers you crazy to buck the great S.C. North.”
Alan registered surprise. “How did she come to mention him?”
“It seems he owns a major part of her father’s shoe factory, and she has no desire to upset Daddy or S.C. North.”
“Whew!” Alan gave a low whistle. “First I’ve heard about that. So S.C. has a mortgage on old man Walsh! What doesn’t he own in this town?”
“You, I hope,” she said sincerely.
“I guarantee it!”
“You’d better get back to Pauline,” she said. “And, Alan, if you — ” She let her voice trail off.
“I know,” he said happily. “If I’m going to kiss you good night, do it here in the car so your mother won’t share our moment of bliss!” And with a soft laugh he gathered her in his arms for a long, meaningful kiss.
It was warm and sunny on Saturday morning, but rain had been promised for late afternoon or early evening. Millicent Barnes in her shabby wrapper hovered over the breakfast table hungrily, awaiting the details of the party from Judith.
Not until she was having her coffee could she summon enough energy and enthusiasm to give her mother an account of what now seemed to her a kind of nightmarish event. However, she tried hard not to disillusion her mother.
“The place was crowded,” she said. “There was hardly room to move around.”
Millicent Barnes sat across the table from her with a broad smile on her pale, wrinkled face. “I know the store. I used to shop there when I was a girl.”
“Well, she’s taken out all the partitions. It’s just one big room now,” Judith said. “She has her office at the back. It’s small, but it’s very nice.”
“Were there a lot of beautiful paintings on display?” Her mother’s eyes were bright.
Judith hedged. “Some of them were quite startling,” she said. “You see Pauline is interested mostly in abstract and pop art.”
“I know so little about modern art,” her mother mourned. “I’ve gotten so out of touch.”
“You haven’t missed too much,” Judith assured her. “Of course some of them were colorful. And there were plenty I couldn’t begin to understand. People didn’t pay too much attention to the art; they were mostly talking among themselves.”
“And I’d have expected them to spend their time moving from painting to painting.”
Judith restrained a smile and drank the balance of her coffee. As she put the cup down, she said, “I’m afraid they weren’t that much interested.”
Millicent sighed, happily determined to look on the bright side. “Well, at least you met a lot of fine people. You were associating with your own kind again. If you only knew how much that means to me.”
Judith stared at her mother. “I had a long private chat with Pauline Walsh,” she said.
“Now I’ll bet she’s grown into a charming girl,” her mother said. “I’ve seen her pictures in the paper, and she always looks so stunning. Too bad she had that unhappy marriage. But then it’s only too easy to marry the wrong man.”
“I suppose so,” Judith said vaguely, afraid of what her mother might say next.
Millicent didn’t disappoint her. Staring mournfully down at her skinny hands, which she worked nervously, she said, “I often wonder what my life would have been like if I’d, married someone other than your father. I’m sure things would have been different for me now.”
Judith tried to keep the edge out of her voice. “You and Father were always happy as I remember it.”
“But look how we were left!” She sighed. “My parents warned me, but I wouldn’t listen. I thought I was in love.”
Judith felt her face flush and looked down to avoid seeing the pitiful caricature of what had once been fragile beauty. She said, “Weren’t you?”
There was a short pause. “Yes. I suppose I was for a while. But it didn’t last. It didn’t last nearly long enough.”
She glanced up at the forlorn woman, trying desperately to hide her disapproval. “Does love ever last? I mean for anyone. Do you honestly think you were cheated more than others in your marriage? I don’t think so!”
“Your father was a good m
an,” Millicent said hastily. “He treated me like a child, but I forgive him for that. But he wasn’t of my background. For generations the Melroses have been looked up to in this town. I should have married one of my own kind. I could have found a husband in one of the other old families. But I was such a foolish girl. I had eyes for no one but your father.” She paused and then with a coy smile added, “I’ve been thinking of what you said about Brandon Fraser asking for me the other day. I remember he showed a lot of interest in me when I was a girl. I’m sure I could have had him if I’d only half-tried.”
Judith stared at her mother in disbelief. “You can’t mean that seriously! From what I’ve seen of Brandon Fraser, I think you’d be a very unhappy person if you were married to him today.”
“Well, I don’t know.” Millicent sighed. “We never hear much about his wife. Sarah has been an invalid with a private nurse for years now. It must be hard on him and on Alan.”
“I’m sure it is,” Judith agreed. “Alan doesn’t talk about his mother, although he did say once she’s not been mentally well since her stroke.”
“I guessed that,” Millicent said. “But the Frasers are such fine people, and so are the Walshes. I think it would be nice if you and that nice Pauline could become close friends.”
Judith smiled at the irony of it. “That’s what she told me last night.”
“You see!” her mother said happily.
“But I can’t be friends with her, Mother,” Judith said angrily. “I don’t care if she has blue blood trailing all the way back to the Mayflower; she’s a silly, shallow person without a thought in her head.” And she got up.
“You can say that after being a guest at her party last night?”
“I don’t think that has anything to do with it,” Judith said. “If Pauline is a sample of your best families, I can get along very well without them.” And she started off to her room to dress.
Her mother’s wail followed her. “Just like your father!”
In spite of the predicted rain, the day continued pleasant, with plenty of warm sunshine. Judith made peace with her mother and then went out to work in the garden.
She stayed there until late afternoon and then decided to clean up and take a stroll to the Public Gardens and the lake. There was a path circling the lake that wound its way among tall evergreens, slim white birches reaching to the sky, and wandered up and down rocky places in true woodland fashion.
Walking in the quiet of the woods broken only by the occasional loud cry of a bird from above, the flutter of wings or the scurrying of squirrels in the dry branches, she was able to give her thoughts full play. And as she made her way along the path this Saturday afternoon in early June, her mind was filled with the problems that had come crowding into her life during the past week.
She was so lost in her thoughts that when she came out into the open by a large boulder, at first she did not see the solitary figure standing gazing sullenly down at the lake far below. It took her a full moment to realize the man in the neat gray suit and straw hat was Brandon Fraser.
His surprise appeared to be equally great as he turned toward her. “Miss Barnes,” he said, removing his straw hat and taking a step down from the rocks toward her.
She smiled. “You decided to take a walk on this lovely afternoon, too.”
“Yes,” he said, still ill at ease. “This is a favorite place of mine. I’ve been coming here for years. You like it as well?”
“I often come here, right up until the late autumn. I think it’s even more beautiful when the leaves change color.”
He stared at her with his deep-set eyes. “I wonder we haven’t met here before.”
“It is a long path,” she said. “It goes completely around the lake. I hardly ever go all the way. It’s possible for quite a few people to be strolling here at the same time and not meet each other.”
Brandon Fraser nodded. “That’s true,” he agreed. He returned the flat-crowned straw hat to his head and turned to gaze out at the lake and some distant row-boats.
“Standing here, I sometimes get the impression time has stood still,” he said. “Things are very much as they were when I was a boy. No crush of automobiles, no herds of people, nothing but the woods, the lake and a few boats.”
“Life must have been much simpler and pleasanter then,” she said.
“I like to think so,” Brandon Fraser said. “But then my father used to tell me the same thing. And I suppose my grandfather complained about the great change since his day. We have to accept what the years bring us, good and bad.” He looked at her with a cold smile. “Still, it is good to have a refuge.”
“I’m convinced of that.”
Still facing her, he said, “I’m afraid I wasn’t very pleasant to you in the office yesterday.”
She looked out at the lake to avoid his gaze. “I didn’t notice.”
“That’s polite but hardly honest.”
Judith shrugged. “Perhaps I should have said it wasn’t important to me.”
“I hope that is true,” Alan’s father said in his precise voice. “I feel unhappy at the idea I might have given you a bad impression of myself.”
Still studying the lake, she said, “I did feel sorry for Alan.”
“I see,” he said quietly. This was followed by a deep sigh. “I can’t expect you to understand.”
Now she turned to him. “I think I do,” she said. “It’s this fantasy you’ve built around Brian’s memory that is causing you to hate Alan.”
“You think that?”
“I know it’s true.”
Brandon Fraser’s bony face worked with emotion. In a choked voice he reminded her, “But you knew Brian. You saw him many times. You surely realize what a fine young man he was!”
“I’ve told you I liked Brian,” she said quietly.
“All that promise lost!”
“You’re hurting yourself and Alan needlessly,” Judith told him. “It’s useless to go on grieving for Brian this way.”
The man opposite her shook his head. “Such a waste of life!”
“I’ll grant that Brian might have had a wonderful future,” she said. “But I know that he once told me he was worried about Alan.”
Brandon Fraser stood very still. “Brian said that?”
“Yes. In fact, you were brought into the discussion. He felt that you were giving Alan some kind of complex by paying him such scant attention. And Brian was weighed down by the obligation to win in everything that you thrust on him. He was troubled by the partiality you showed him and, in return, the demands you made of him.”
The deep-set eyes stared at her incredulously. “Brian talked about me that way. Told you, a stranger, of his deepest feelings?”
“I was hardly a stranger,” she said. “We could have fallen in love, but I decided I cared more for Alan.”
Brandon Fraser regarded her angrily. “How do I know you’re not making all this up? He never said such things to me!”
“Because I think he feared you,” Judith said, “just as I believe Alan feared you until yesterday. Your sons loved you, but their fear of your coldness made it impossible for them to tell you what they really thought. It’s too late for Brian now. But I think Alan has learned to stand up to you.”
He swallowed hard. “Then it was you who put him up to defying me,” he said. “You filled him with the lies you’ve told me just now.”
“If you’re suggesting that I told him what Brian said to me, I did.” Judith faced Alan’s father with the knowledge that this was something that must be endured. “I felt it might help him. And I believe it was of some value.”
Brandon Fraser stood staring at her in silence for at least several minutes longer, his gaunt face completely expressionless. Then he wheeled around abruptly and walked away. She watched him vanish in the woods with mixed feelings. She would have preferred to have avoided the scene that had been forced on her, and yet she was grateful that she’d had a chance to say what she ha
d kept to herself for so long.
She finished her walk in solitude. And by the time she took the road back home she was in a relaxed mood again.
A brisk ten-minute walk brought her back to Mount Pleasant and the rows of fine old homes built on the hills overlooking the city. She hoped she would be able to earn enough to keep their house. It was her mother’s last link with the great days of her family. And although they could have lived much less expensively in an apartment and it would have been more practical if they had been in a more central location where she wouldn’t need to depend on bus transportation, she had no intention of making a change unless necessity demanded it.
She passed the mansion of S.C. North set in a good distance from the road and surrounded by many acres of estate. The financier was hardly ever there, traveling most of the time, looking after his many enterprises. A short distance farther on, she came to the Fraser home, a stately brick with less impressive grounds, but commanding a fine view of the harbor and the East End of the city.
Her own home was ahead and on the right. Because of its location on a hill, there were all those concrete steps to mount. Not a house for the aged or the arthritic, she decided with a smile.
She was just about to start up the steps when she realized a car had come up behind her and stopped. She turned to see who it might be. The blue sedan was not familiar, but when its door opened and the driver stepped out, he was! It was Miles Estey come back!
CHAPTER TEN
“Miles!” she exclaimed in a startled voice.
“I saw you coming down the street,” he said with a smile.
Judith stared at him, and her immediate reaction was that he had aged in the short time since she’d seen him. The tall, sturdy young man’s pleasant face had a new maturity. But the red hair was as vivid as ever, and he seemed in excellent physical condition. He wore a neat dark suit.
“I had no idea you were in town,” she said.
“I just got here.”
“It’s good to see you again. Are you staying or just passing through?”
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