GI Brides (83 page)

That was one of the letters that Mrs. Blake passed on to Blythe to read, one of the letters that Anne Houghton wondered about as she enviously noticed the happy look on the faces of the woman and the young girl.

Anne Houghton studied Blythe’s face and tried to figure her out. Blythe wasn’t in evidence at the parties anymore, and she didn’t seem to go with Dan Seavers—at least they were never together anymore. Yet Dan was not coming to ask Anne to go places with him. Had he found another girl? She must do something about this herself, she decided. It must be that Blythe had found another soldier boy and had turned Dan down, but she had fully hoped and expected that such a move on Blythe’s part would send Dan to find her. Something must have happened. And yet Blythe seemed perfectly content.

And then the next thing that happened was they heard that Blythe was taking a nurse’s course, and perhaps going into the army herself. Anne wasn’t interested in taking up a gesture like that on her own part, so she put on her war paint and began to call up Dan Seavers.

But Dan was sulky. He had been out for several wild nights on his own and was not in a mood to take on Anne at present. He was still angry at Blythe and determined not to give in to her refusal. She must marry him, of course, he had always intended that. So he went on indulging his lower nature with the idea of getting it back on Blythe to show her she couldn’t treat him that way.

But Blythe did not even know of his drinking and carousing, for she was engaged in more serious matters and went out socially not at all. She had entered an entirely new world, that centered around human woes, and the old social group was not even in her thoughts anymore.

But Anne got in touch with Dan at last and proposed another “evening,” said she was about fed up on war work and wanted to get out and have a good time again, and she couldn’t think of anybody that could show it to her better than Dan.

But Dan had other ideas in mind for that evening. He had been intending to call up Blythe and have it out with her, take another line of reasoning with her and see what he could do. So he hesitated. He felt he would rather get Blythe in line than to go dancing with Anne. If he failed with Blythe, there would be time enough for Anne. He felt that there would always be Anne, and Anne didn’t have any money in her own right. So he hesitated.

“Well, I’m sorry, Anne, I’m not sure I can make it tonight. There’s something else I ought to do. But wait, suppose I call you up in an hour and let you know if I can make it or not? Will that upset your plans very much?”

Anne wasn’t altogether pleased, and she let it be known as she hesitated and said, “Well, no, I guess not. But let me know as soon as you can, Dannie dear. If you can’t go, there’s a soldier in town tonight I might be able to get, although of course I’d rather have you.”

That was Anne’s method. Show that he wasn’t the only chance of a good time she had. And it usually worked pretty well with this lad.

He paused thoughtfully, waited a moment, half resolved to call her back and say he would go with her, but then he realized that the time was getting short to carry out his original plans, and so he called up the Bonniwell house and asked for Blythe.

“Why, Miss Blythe isn’t here now. She’s in training,” said Susan importantly.

“In
training
?” exclaimed Dan indignantly. “What do you mean?”

“Why, didn’t you know she’s begun training in the hospital? This is her first week, and she won’t be home tonight at all.”

“My
word
!” said Dan furiously. “Let me speak to Mrs. Bonniwell.”

“I’m sorry, but Mrs. Bonniwell is lying down. She came in tonight and didn’t feel able to eat her dinner. She’s been overdoing on that war chest drive. You know she always will work so hard.”

“Well, I’m sorry, but I’ve absolutely got to talk to her at once, Susan. You tell her I said it was important, important for both hers and Blythe’s sake.”

At last he convinced Susan that his business was important enough to wake Mrs. Bonniwell, and presently Blythe’s mother’s voice sounded faintly at the other end of the wire. “Yes?”

“That you, Bonny? This is Dan. I’m sorry you’re sick, and I wouldn’t have disturbed you, but I simply
had
to find out what is all this about Blythe and the hospital. You don’t mean she’s taking on more hospital work?”

“Why, yes, Dan. She’s gone into training, regularly. She’s quite enthusiastic about it.”

“But now, Bonny, you know that’s absurd! How can she keep that up if we’re going to be married soon? You know she’ll have to give it up. It’s much too far to commute for a morning’s work, even if this is war, where I’m going, and besides, I won’t have my wife looking after other people, doing loathsome services for them, and being at the beck and call of every doctor in the place. I should have thought you would have known that. Gone in training as a nurse and going to be married very soon! What’s she trying to be? Sensational? She’ll make the front page of the paper all right if she keeps this up.”

“But Dan,” said the quiet voice of Blythe’s mother, “I understood my daughter to say that she had told you quite definitely that she was not going to marry you either next week or any other time.”

“Oh, but Bonny, you know she didn’t mean that!”

“I’m sure she did, Dan, and you might as well accept it and get used to it at once, and not carry on this way.”

“Now look here, Bonny. I want you to call Blythe up and tell her to come home at once, and then I’ll come over and get this thing amicably settled between us, Mamma Bonny. Now please do that for Dannie boy, won’t you?”

But Mrs. Bonniwell was not to be wheedled.

“No, Dan, I can’t do that. It’s against the rules of the hospital to call a nurse out from duty, and it would be quite impossible for me to do it. And even if we could do it, Dan, I’m quite sure what Blythe’s answer would be. She does not want to marry you, she does not want to marry anyone at present; and no amount of wheedling, even by you, will change her mind. Now, you’ll have to excuse me, Dan. I’m not feeling well, and I’ve got to go and lie down. Good night.” The lady hung up, and blank silence was all that answered Dan’s continued insistent ringing.

So at last he called Anne Houghton back and told her he would be around after her in a few minutes and to be sure to wear her prettiest outfit. And that was the way that Anne won out.

Quite triumphantly she put on her most ravishing garments and went down to meet Dan at the door, holding her head high and resolved to get away with something very definite before this night was over, for she felt it would not be good to dally too long and give Blythe a chance to change her mind. If Dan was in a mood to marry before he left for his war job, whatever that was, she hadn’t as yet heard, she was ready to marry him at a moment’s notice. She would show Blythe Bonniwell that she couldn’t dally too long with a soldier’s feelings. She must take him when he wanted to be taken, or he wouldn’t hang around and wait. So Anne was blithe and bright and eager for the evening, and it wasn’t long before she had definitely banished the gloom that Dan brought on his face when he arrived.

Pretty? Why, yes, he hadn’t noticed before how very pretty she was. Twice as vivid and dashing as Blythe could ever be. Perhaps this was going to be the solution to all his difficulties after all. And maybe it would be a good thing not to have any bothersome father-in-law to deal with, always asking annoying questions and insisting on conventionalities, and demanding deference to himself and his family.

So quite happily Dan went out with Anne, resolved at least to make the most of the evening.

D
an Seavers and Anne Houghton were married two weeks later in a great rush of furbelows and uniforms. It was only a little later than the date that Dan had originally set for his wedding with Blythe, for Anne said she simply could not get ready a suitable trousseau any sooner. Besides, her favorite cousin was on furlough at the later date, and that would make another uniform. Anne was keen on uniforms.

Mrs. Seavers shed a great many tears, for she didn’t like Anne, and neither did Anne like her, and she sent for Mrs. Bonniwell and stayed in bed to talk with her, and complained about Blythe not marrying Dan as if it were Mrs. Bonniwell’s fault.

Mrs. Bonniwell was not feeling well herself that morning, and she stood it as long as she could and then she said, “But my dear! I couldn’t possibly help it that my child did not want to marry your son. Of course I’ve always been fond of him, the way he has run in and out of my house and been a good friend to Blythe, but young people have their own ideas today whom they wish to marry, or whether they wish to marry at all, and I don’t really think it makes for happiness to try and bend them to your wishes, do you?”

“But my dear Mrs. Bonniwell,” said the aggrieved Mrs. Seavers, “surely you can’t contemplate with any sort of comfort having your child become an
old maid
?”

“Why, I don’t think it is absolutely necessary that she become an old maid because she doesn’t choose to marry your son, do you? After all, you married the man you wanted to, and she has the same right. But even if she should become an old maid, what’s so bad about that? I know a lot of elderly women who have never married, who have lived very happy, contented lives, don’t you? Could anybody be happier than Sylvia Comfort, or the Gracewell sisters, or Mary Hamilton? Yet they have never married, and I never heard anybody call them old maids, either.”

“But you certainly wouldn’t want that fate for your daughter!” declared the mother of the unwanted son. “Come now, be honest. Would you?”

“Well, I certainly would rather have my daughter have a fate like that than to marry somebody she doesn’t love and doesn’t want to marry.”

“Well, I don’t think you’re stating that in the right way. I don’t think you have any right to say that your daughter doesn’t want to marry my son, or doesn’t love him either. You know perfectly well that you and John influenced Blythe, put the screws on her, and made her think she didn’t want him. Blythe wasn’t acting from her own free will. In fact, you’ve always influenced her about everything, until she has no will of her own.” Then the handkerchief came into play, with more tears. Suddenly Mrs. Bonniwell began to feel inexpressibly weary, as if she couldn’t stand another bit of such talk. She looked at her onetime friend with a kind of desperate determination.

“Matilda,” she said, “I won’t stand another word like that. Neither John nor I had anything to do with Blythe’s decision. In fact, we didn’t talk the matter over with her at all. She made her own decision, and insisted upon it. And now, if you persist in saying such things, I really am done with our friendship. I’m sorry you are disappointed, but I could not think of influencing Blythe on a matter like this. And after all, Dan seems to be fairly well satisfied. He’s marrying a nice girl, and will have a very pretty wedding.”

“But I don’t
like
her,” sobbed the mother-in-law-to-be. “I never did like her, she isn’t pretty like Blythe, and she’s awfully modern. I just won’t stand it, that’s all.”

“But what can you do about it, my dear?” said Mrs. Bonniwell. “It’s your son’s life, not yours.”

“Yes, that’s it! I can’t do a thing about it. Dan has practically told me it’s none of my business, after I’ve loved him and slaved for him. And now he brings a girl I don’t like and practically forces me to accept her.”

“Listen, my friend. You oughtn’t to talk that way. You won’t want to remember some of these things you are saying to me. She’s a nice girl well brought up, has been in our social set all her life. It won’t be like some of those dance-hall girls you were afraid of. Anne will know how to do the proper thing, and you won’t have to be ashamed of her. If I were you, I would just make up my mind from the start to accept her and make the best of it. Then there won’t be anything on your part to repent.”

“Oh, yes, it sounds well for you to talk that way, but it isn’t
your
child! If your girl had accepted my son, everything would have been all right. He had the plans made for a lovely wedding, and he wouldn’t have stopped at giving her anything she wanted. Oh, why did she have to be so stubborn? I believe it’s your fault! I believe you influenced her! Yes! Yes, I
do
!
You
influenced!” And then the poor lady burst into another flood of weeping.

“But my dear,” Mrs. Bonniwell began in an attempt to stop this tirade, “I tell you I had nothing whatever to do with this.”

“Oh, yes, you did! No matter what you say. You did! It was all your fault. Your fault and that nosy fanatical husband of yours. You thought your girl was too good for any man that ever walked the earth. Too good for my angel child who had been her playmate practically all her life. You stopped it, and I shall
never
forgive you!”

Broken and weary at last, Mrs. Bonniwell abandoned her old friend to her tears and laments and went home, too worn out to think of going anywhere else that day. Even Red Cross and war drives had to be abandoned while the good lady took a real rest and went to bed.

It was so that Blythe found her mother, when, an hour later, she ran home to get a few of her belongings that she found she needed.

“But Mother, this isn’t like you, going to bed in the daytime. Lying there by yourself and
crying
! Mother, what
is
the matter? Are you sick?”

“No, I’m not sick,” protested her mother. “I’m just worn out with Mrs. Seavers’s whinings and crying. An hour and a half, Blythe, and she blames
you
for all her trouble. And then she blames
me,
says your father and I influenced you, and she’ll never forgive us!”

“Oh well, Mother, don’t worry about her. She always was dramatic! She’ll get over it. And anyway, why should you care? I certainly am glad I don’t ever have to call her mother. She is a pain in the neck, and what do you worry about her for anyway? She never was worthy of being your friend. She’s a selfish woman who doesn’t care what she does to her friends if she can only manage to get what she wants for herself.”