The girl in the blue dress

by Mary Burchell

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  "FRANKLIN LOWELL?" repeated old Mr. Revian in an astonished tone. "Do you mean Franklin Lowell ot *. Eithorpe Hall?" ,.,,, "Yes " said Beverley resolutely, though her heart really quaked when she thought what she was com St'sTvery'fine match for you, isn't it?" The old man spoke bluntly."I suppose it is," she agreed, wondering now why on earth she could not have instanced someone much less distinguished and much harder to identify. "And you're telling me that you and he are more or less engaged?" . . . ':"Like Geoffrey and Sara yes." She saw no point in watering down her statement now. She had made it, and she had better stick to it. It was not as Aough Mr. Revian ill in bed, could make any real investigation or provoke any crisis. To him the situation was ot interest only in so far as it affected Geoffrey's story. At least, that was how Beverley profoundly hoped it For a moment or two there was silence. Then be Well! you tell me that's how things are, there isn't much I can do about it, I suppose, but accept the position. But I'm sorry you're not going to marry mv boy I think you'd have been the making of him "The girl he really wants will be the making of him, Beverley managed to assure Geoffrey father with a smile. "That's how it is with any man."Depends what sort of girl he wants," retorted old ''Well sara Wayne is the girl Geoffrey loves and she is quite capable of bringing out the best in hun Beverley asserted, and in that moment she was fairly ho "you're ght." Geoffrey's father was not 160 willing to be convinced in the first few minutes. "And now I suppose you want to go? You won't bother to come and see me, now that I'm no longer going to be .your father-in-law." "That doesn't follow at aU. Geoffrey and I are remaining " "Yes, I know all about that. You've used that silly expression about remaining good friends once already," he admonished her impatiently. "And it doesn't really mean a thing. Or it shouldn't do so. If Geoffrey is going to marry Sara Wayne, he won't have much time or notice for the other girl he nearly married. And well you know it, since you're a sensible girl." Beverley looked him straight in the eyes. Then she smiled, although she knew that she was saying her final goodbye to Geoffrey, in all that mattered, and she managed to say quite firmly, "You're right, of course. It wouldn't be tactful for me to turn up here often in the near future. But that still doesn't mean you and I won't see anything of each other later. It just means that you will have to get well quickly, so that we can meet elsewhere." "Are you trying to arrange some clandestine meeting with me?" he enquired, with a good deal of enjoyment. "Not exactly." Beverley smiled. "But I promise you we will not lose sight of each other, even though I'm not going to be your your daughter-in-law." "All right. Though I .suppose Franklin Lowell will be having the last word now on how your time is spent." "Fra Oh, yes. Yes, of course. But I shall have some say in it too." "I'll be bound you will!" He looked at her with approval.-still tinged with regret. "You're really what I mean by a girl of spirit. I'm sorry Geoffrey hadn't the sense to appreciate you. Yes I'm truly sorry. And I only hope this Wayne girl is worth half as much as you." "You'll love her," Beverley predicted confidently. "How do you know? You don't know what I love," he retorted crossly. But he bade her a friendly goodbye after that. And Beverley went downstairs, with the 161 curious feeling of having passed a stiff examination, without deriving much sense of elation from the fact. Geoffrey was waiting for her at the foot of the stairs, and she had the impression that he must have been walking up and down the hall for some time even possibly coming halfway up the stairs from time to time, in doubt whether or no he should interrupt the conversation."Well?" he said, too anxious to put his query less than crudely. "What happened?" "Come into the library or somewhere where we can talk more privately," she told him. And it was she who led the way into the silent, empty room where, half an hour ago, they had had their revealing discussion. But she had no wish to keep him in suspense,- and as soon as he had closed the door, she faced him and said, .. "It's all right. I've told him everything. "Everything?" Geoffrey looked slightly alarmed. "Well everything that was necessary." She pushed back her hair with an unconsciously weary little gesture. "I explained that we had mutually come to the conclusion that we really only liked each other as very good friends, and that, in fact, we both wanted to marry someone else." "Both?" Geoffrey said."I had to make it both. Otherwise he would have gone off the deep end, with some idea that you didn't value me at my real worth, and that you needed to be taught a lesson by him.""Good lord!" Geoffrey looked rather disgusted. "It was all rather melodramatic and Victorian at that point," Beverley conceded. "But I managed to imply -that_that this was the way wanted things too. I think he was genuinely disappointed that I was not going to belong to his family, after all. But I told him how lovely and charming Sara is ""You spoke about Sara personally? "Certainly. The sooner he knows about her, the better. Besides, it all sounded more real and convincing if I gave actual names. And maybe it left less for you 162 to explain." She smiled at him, and it was the smile she might have used to someone much younger than herself. ' "Oh, Beverley, how good you are " He came near to her and took her hand, though really she would have much preferred him not to touch her. "I don't know what to say to you how to thank you " "There's nothing to thank me for. I kept on telling him that you and I remained good friends, and it's true, I hope." "Of course!" "Well, I only did what a good friend should." "And you don't think the shock was too much for him?" "No. I think he was healthily annoyed at one or two points. But I saw no signs of physical strain because of it. In fact, he struck me as being a great deal brighter and more energetic than he was yesterday." Geoffrey was silent for a moment, and she saw, from his expression, that he was slowly digesting the wonderful fact that he was free to take his happiness where he knew he would find it. But, even then, he needed absolute reassurance. He said, "You told him categorically that that " "You and I are no longer engaged." She finished the sentence for him quite calmly. And, as though to give point to the words, she drew off the beautiful ring she had worn with so much pleasure and held it out to him. "Oh, Beverley I wish you'd keep the ring. It suits you somehow, and " "No dear. I couldn't do that, you know." She still spoke calmly, though she felt a great desire to break down arid weep at this moment. "Please take it." And she put it on the desk beside him, since he seemed unable to go through the actual motions of taking back his ring. "I also told your father that you and Sara will be announcing your engagement quite soon. And I hinted very strongly that I should be doing the same." 163 "With whom?" he asked quickly, and for a moment he looked startled and, in some quite illogical way, annoyed. ,She hesitated for a fraction of a second. Then she said resolutely,"He will probably mention it, if I don t tell you. I simply had to name someone, Geoffrey, or else your father wouldn't have accepted my story about this being a mutual arrangement. I I told him I was going to marry Franklin Lowell." "Lowell? But you're not, are you "No of course not. Don't be silly! I had to invent someone, I tell you. To name an actual person. "Yes I understand that. But Lowell! It seems a bit near home, somehow. What's he going to say, if he ever hears of this?""He won't hear of it," said Beverley hastily. You must see to that! Your father won't be m any position to talk to anyone in the outside world for some time. His life is bounded by his bedroom. He hasn't even a telephone there. And, long before this situation changes, he will have got used to your being engaged to Sara. Then presently, just as a matter of interest, you can let him know that that my engagement didn't come to anything." "He'll be upset about that." "Well, then, he must be upset!" cried Beverley, who felt suddenly that she had done absolutely all she was capable of doing for the Revian family and that now they must look after themselves. "It won't be a matter of great moment to him by then. He hardly knows me, really, except as a girl he was very willing to accept into his family. He may be sorry for me " she winced, because she was rather tired of being an object of pity and a cause for guilty feelings "but it won't go further than that. He'll be enjoying his return to health by then, and I I'll be making quite a new life of my own." "Will you, Beverley?" He tried to take her hand again, but she avoided him. "Will you really n
ot feel too badly about this? I'd like to think " "I'll manage splendidly," she told him coolly. "I'd 164 be a hypocrite if I pretended I was not quite badly hit by this. But that doesn't mean I shan't get over it one day and and perhaps be very happy with someone else." "Oh, my dear, I do hope so!" Geoffrey said this from his heart, prompted no doubt as much by an obscure sense of guilt as by genuine good feeling. . They said goodbye after that. In a perfectly friendly spirit, but rather awkwardly, as though they had suddenly become well-disposed strangers, who had so little m common that it was difficult to know how to treat each other. Then Beverley went away to catch her -bus. For in his agitation or possibly his relief Geoffrey forgot this time to suggest that she should be driven home in the car. Beverley would have refused, even if the offer had been made. But somehow this tiny indication that his thoughts were already so little employed on her welfare made her feel indescribably dejected. Once more she sat in the front seat of the bus on the way home, and once or twice she had to put up her hand to wipe away an uncontrollable tear, for all the vanished hopes and dreams, and joys that had been hers. She reached home just in time for lunch, which surprised Aunt Ellen, who immediately suspected disaster, even before she noticed her niece's ringless left hand. However, at first she was too busy "dishing up" to make many enquiries, and it was not until they were all having coffee in Mrs. Farman's room after lunch that Aunt Ellen suddenly exclaimed, " Beverley! You've lost your ring!" "No, I haven't." Beverley spoke curtly, for she secretly dreaded another scene of explanation. "I've given it back." "Given it back!" For once her mother and aunt spoke in unison, and her mother's tone was almost as dismayed as Aunt Ellen's. "Do you mean that you have broken your engagement, dear?" her mother asked anxiously. While : Aunt Ellen asserted with gloomy triumph. 165 "No, he has! Just as I said he would-. Beverley isn't good enough for him now that he's a rich man." "Oh, do be quiet, Ellen!" Mrs. Farman hardly ever spoke so sharply to her sister, even when goaded, and Aunt Ellen immediately assumed an expression of deep offence. "Let Beverley speak for herself. That is if you want to tell us about it, darling,"'Mrs. Farman added."I shall have to tell you some time. It may as well be now." Beverley managed to make her voice sound very well controlled and matter-of-fact. "Geoffrey did not break the engagement. I did. And I did it because I found that he was really in love with someone else." _ "Oh, my dear " her mother put out a sympathetic hand to her "I'm so sorry." , ,But Aunt Ellen, who simply could not maintain her offended silence in face of so many questions which were crying out to be asked, wagged her head critically and enquired,"Why did he get engaged to you, then, if he really wanted someone else?" "It was all a mistake. Aunt Ellen. People do make mistakes sometimes, you know, even about the things that matter most. You may as well know now. The other girl is Sara Wayne.""Sara Wayne?" Is that why she broke off her engagement to Franklin Lowell? Nobody seems to know their own mind any more. I don't know what young folk are coming to," Aunt Ellen declared. ,. , "They always made silly mistakes like this, her sister reminded her, but she looked grave. "Was this really why Sara broke her engagement, dear?" _ "No " Beverley shook her head. "In a way, it was the other way round. When Geoffrey heard that she was free he rather gave himself away. I had been suspecting something for for a little while, and I asked him to be frank. You mustn't think he wasn't upset at having to hurt me. But once I knew what the true position was, of course there was only one thing "Of course," agreed her mother, but she sighed. 166 "And what has old Mr. Revian to say to all this?" enquired Aunt Ellen after a moment of blackest thought. "I suppose he's only too glad that Geoffrey is going to marry someone from the county instead of a village dressmaker?" "On the contrary," said Beverley dryly, "he was a good deal annoyed and upset. I had to go to a great deal of elaborate explanation and some pretence to soften down the news sufficiently for him to accept it, in his weak state." "Well, that's something," Aunt Ellen conceded grudgingly, the hurt to her family pride somewhat assuaged by the thought of Mr. Revian regretting the attractive Sara Wayne as a substitute for her niece. There was silence for a moment. Then Mrs. Farman, who missed very little, asked somewhat diffidently, "What did you mean by saying, dear, that you had to resort to a certain amount of pretence, when you explained things to old Mr. Revian?" Beverley paused, chose her words carefully, and replied as casually as possible, "He seemed ready to blame Geoffrey ". "Quite right too," interjected Aunt Ellen. " And I had to imply that the arrangement was mutual. That, m fact, I was as anxious to break the engagement as he was." "And how did you do that?" enquired her mother, with some curiosity. "By telling him that I too had changed my mind and and wanted to marry someone else." "Who?" asked Aunt Ellen, on to that interesting point like a bird on a nice fat worm. But fortunately, before Beverley could be driven to further dissembling, her mother answered for her. "She doesn't mean that she mentioned anyone specifically, Ellen. Don't be silly! I suppose you just made a general statement, dear?" Beverley smiled wanly and nodded vaguely, glad that her mother had never met Mr. Revian and therefore did not know how unlikely he was to be satisfied by any general statement. 167 After that there seemed little more to say on the melancholy subject, and Beverley was able to escape to her own room. But though she had supposed, for the last few hours, that what she wanted more than anything else was the luxury of a nice private weep, as soon as she found herself free to indulge in this, tears deserted her. She sat for a while on the side of her bed, thinking back over the conversations with Geoffrey and his father. And then, because it was not in her nature to mope idly, she got up with a sigh and unpacked the parcel of work she had brought from Huntingford Grange the previous day.She had picked up her needle and thread and already made a beginning before the fact was suddenly borne in on her, with quite terrible significance, that she was resuming work on Sara's trousseau, which would be needed after all because she would be marrying Geoffrey. And at tins point Beverley really did cry. The next day she went off to work as usual, outwardly composed but inwardly full of trepidation. It was not possible to guess how quickly Geoffrey might have moved, or whether any echo of the new situation had yet reached the Waynes or, at least, Sara. But, whenever this did happen, it seemed inevitable that there would have to be further explanations and excuses and pretence of being happy when one was perfectly miserable. And Beverley felt singularly ill-equipped to deal with any such crises at the moment. Strange to say, however, nothing at all disturbing. happened, either that day or the following one. Beverley continued to work in her room at the top of the house, and no one came near her except the maid who brought her lunch, and Mrs. Wayne who came up to ask her something about a dress she was making for It was on the Wednesday" that the crisis broke. And it was Sara herself, who with rare decision and courage, gave the first sign of it. Almost as soon as Beverley had arrived, she came running upstairs and into the 168 room her cheeks flushed and her eyes sparkling, in a way that made her breathtakingly beautiful. "Oh, Beverley " she closed the door and leant against it "don't hate me, will you? No, of course you won't, because you're so fantastically and wonderfully generous. Oh, I'm so happy and you're the last person I should say that to! Please forgive me I don t know what I'm saying only " she came over suddenly and put her arms round Beverley and kissed her you've made it all so wonderfully, unbelievably easy. And you could have spoiled everything. Most girls would have." "Oh, no! Not most girls. Only some girls," Beverley protested. But she kissed Sara back again, because it was impossible not to when she was so transparently happy and grateful. "It was so perfectly obvious that it was you Geoffrey wanted. I'd have been an idiot as well as a beast, to try to hold on to him." "But the way you did it all! Smoothing everything with his father. Geoffrey told me about it." "Oh, well if one's doing anything at all, one may as well do it properly." Beverley smiled, with a halfamused indulgence which surprised herself. She supposed it was spiritless of her to feel so kindly towards her rival, and to go on reassuring her in this way. And yet, for the first time since Sunday, she felt an odd warmth at her chilled he
art. A sort of satisfaction over the righting of some cardinal error with which she had been living for years."They had to come together Geoffrey and this lovely girl," she thought suddenly. "They are meant for each other. She looks a different person, now she knows she is to marry him. And he " She recalled almost without pain this time, the shining relief and wonder on Geoffrey's face when he'-had realized that he was free to marry Sara. "It's all right, Sara," she said slowly. "I'm glad .we all found out in time. It would have been so perfectly awful if this had happened after I had had married Geoffrey." "You're an amazing girl," declared Sara, with a 169 smiling little shake of her head. "You manage to speak so so objectively and with no ill feeling "I have no ill feeling!" Beverley exclaimed sincerely. "This was something none of us could have foreseen or prevented. "But don't you " Sara hesitated "I suppose-Ii shouldn't ask this, and yet I want so much to be re- assured don't you feel angry and miserable that such a thing should have happened to you? Or is there per-i haps Geoffrey hinted there might be someone else, with you too?" " Beverley wondered just how closely this dangerous pretence was going to cling to her. But, with Sara looking so eager and anxious, there was only one reply to make.' "I can't say much about it yet, Sara, but yes, there) might be. Anyway, please don't spoil your own happiness with any worry about me. Things have a way of working themselves out and I don't think this situation is going to be any exception." "Oh, Beverley, you darling!" Sara who had never shown herself half so demonstrative before hugged Beverley again. "I can really be happy now, without a bad conscience. Everything is simply wonderful!" ,. And, radiant with fresh happiness, Sara went off, presumably to tell either her family or Geoffrey that everything was indeed all right. Beverley wished now that she had detained Sara long enough to hear just what had happened how much her parents knew, if they approved and so on. But it was obvious that, in her new-found happiness, Sara cared only about the one salient fact t-hat she was to marry Geoffrey, after all. Everything else was a matter of irrelevant detail. Later, Mrs. Wayne came up, with some sign of3 embarrassment in her usually self-possessed manner, But all she said was, "Miss Farman, I'm sure you don't want to discuss this new development with any of us. But I hope you don't feel too badly about Sara's engagement. I mean 170 her new engagement." She coloured slightly and bit her lip "No, of course not." Beverley wondered how many more people she was going to have to reassure, in this synthetically bright way. "Geoffrey and I made a mistake. We both recognized the fact. And I hope Sara and he will be very happy." "Thank you." Mrs. Wayne hesitated again. Then she went on determinedly. "Do you still feel willing to go on working for us?" It was Beverley who hesitated that time. For she saw herself, m her mind's eye, stitching away at Sara's wedding-dress. But she could not afford to quarrel with her bread and butter, for a matter of sentiment, she told herself. And so she replied quite calmly, "I don't at all mind continuing to work for you, Mrs. Wayne. But I don't feel that it would be very suitable for me to make Sara's actual wedding-dress." "No, of course not," Mrs. Wayne agreed very willingly. And then she went away, with the air of a woman whose problems were working out better than she had dared to hope. For the rest of the day Beverley worked on without interruption, until, late in the afternoon, the sound of footsteps galloping up the stairs intimated that Toni was home from school and on her way up to the sewing-room. She burst in, breathless and evidently full of news and drama, and her first words were, "Oh, Miss Farman I was right about Sara and Geoffrey Revian, all those weeks ago, wasn't I?" "Yes." Beverley smiled slightly. "It seems that you were." "It's all settled. Did you know? She's going to marry Geoffrey." "Yes, I know." Toni drew near. "It all happened so suddenly, didn't it? Have you heard about it?" "Not in detail. But you can tell me if it isn't private." 171 "Oh it isn't private. The whole family knows," Tom declared. "It seems Geoffrey rang Sara up yesterday and asked her to meet him in the afternoon,, and she found he wasn't engaged to you, after all, and so she got engaged to him herself, and then they came back here in the early evening it would be just after you'd gone, I think and they told us all." "I see. How did your parents take it?" "Oh the usual way parents do, you know," said Toni tolerantly. "They were a bit taken aback at first, but quite pleased afterwards, because, even if Geoffrey isn't such a good match as Franklin, he's pretty good now he and his father are friends. And they'd been so upset about Sara not marrying Franklin, that I suppose they were quite relieved and delighted that at least she was going to marry Geoffrey.""I suppose they were," agreed Beverley a trifle dryly. "Anyway, Geoffrey said his father wanted to see Sara_" Beverley had a sudden desire to laugh nervously at the familiarity of that "and so he took her back to his home with him. And I went too. "You went too?" Beverley looked astonished. How on earth did you manage that?""I asked," Toni said simply. "Several times. And after a while, Geoffrey, who was in a wonderfully good mood and ready to do anything for anyone, said, 'Why don't we take her? The old man will like her, and it might help things.'" , ., i"I suppose it well might." Beverley looked at the little girl before her with some amusement and appreciation "I imagine you got on very well. with him." "Oh yes I did," agreed Toni, with no false modesty. "And afterwards, when Geoffrey and Sara went downstairs together, to talk to each other the way people do when they've just got engaged, I stayed with old Mr. Revian and we had a nice long talk. And that, Miss Farman," she added, dropping her voice confidentially, "was when he told me about you and Franklin. And I'm so glad. Otherwise I'd have been quite miserable about your not having anyone, now that Sara has Geoffrey." 172 'About about me and Franklin?" repeated Beverley, with the odd sensation that someone had slipped a piece of ice down her spine. "What did he tell you about me and Franklin?" "About your getting engaged too," explained Toni comprehensively. "And he said___" 'But 're not!" cried Beverley, in great agitation. Oh, not absolutely officially. I do understand that, Miss Farman. It would be almost too much of a good thing if YOU and Sara just changed round like that. But I told him how worried I was about you. Because I like you, Miss Farman." Toni beamed at her affectionately. "And he said I needn't cry about you___" "Did you cry about me?" asked Beverley, touched even in the midst of her anxiety. "Just a bit, you know. But he said I needn't, and that he'd tell me a secret. And so he did, and then I knew it was all going to be all right. And I'm so glad." 'Th-thank you," said Beverley helplessly. "It's very ' sweet of you to be so concerned about me. But you do understand, don't you, that this is absolutely private for the moment. You mustn't mention a word of it to anyone. Not to anyone.""Oh, yes. I do understand that," Toni agreed solemnly. And as though to add weight to her assertion, she licked her forefinger and drew it significantly across her throat. "I wouldn't breath a word of it to anyone in the family." "Nor anyone outside the family, either," cried Beverley, prickling with apprehension. "No, of course not. The only person I mentioned it to was Franklin himself, because he gave me a lift home from school. But it was all right mentioning it to him, wasn't it. Miss Farman? because of course he knows all about' it, doesn't he?" 173