Sound of the Trumpet (11 page)

“Oh!” said Mrs. Kingsley, with a sound in her voice as if it were a lovely balloon that had suddenly been pricked. “Oh! Well in that case, I’m afraid I can’t help you any. And about the matter of Lisle’s dress, I think that is entirely her own affair, to wear whatever seems suitable to her. Good-bye!” And Mrs. Kingsley went out of the house, walking swiftly down the street in the direction of her morning errands. By the time she had gone the first block, she began to feel that Lisle had better sense than she thought she had. This young man was not a person to whom she wanted to trust her only daughter’s life. Not the way he was now, anyway. She had thought, she had hoped, that Victor had not really changed, that he just experienced a small season of aberration at the store that day and that he would soon come around to his old self. But the way he talked today, Mrs. Kingsley could see that he had really changed, taken on new ideas, new views of life, that were quite impossible. She could not blame Lisle for turning against him, for running away from a shopping expedition with him, for running away even from a gorgeous diamond ring—for anything that a Vandingham would purchase would of course be gorgeous. But, decidedly, with his present attitudes, he was anything but desirable.

Victor stood watching her go down the street with amazement and utter incredulity in his face. He had not dreamed that again he would encounter such unbelievable Victorianism in the people he had been sure were his devoted slaves. Always Mrs. Kingsley had been so kind to him, always suggesting pleasant things that Lisle might do to make happy times for him. He could not understand it that they did not want his advice about Lisle’s dress on such an important occasion, and that they actually seemed to resent his suggestions as if he were interfering.

And as for the ring and the marriage, they were actually ignoring the idea, as he were a child and had no right to ask her to marry him. And making so much of that antique idea of
love
, as if that were important. Well, if they insisted on living on traditional ideas, he might have to give in and give them a line of talk. But it would go sadly against the grain to back down on the ways he had been learning the last four years, and he would hate to think afterward that he had to get his wife by such an ancient method. Where had Mrs. Kingsley been that she didn’t know that romance and all that was bunk? Couldn’t she look around her and see how many divorces there were and remarriages? Why, people didn’t think anything of it today. They married because they enjoyed each other’s company for a while, and when they got tired of each other and found someone they had a better time with, they got a divorce and annexed somebody else. Well, it wasn’t easy to teach elderly people new ideas, and he supposed he would have to give in for a while until he and Lisle were married, for he could see that Lisle was in no state to give up her early beliefs and standards. She would need to live in a modern world for a while, away from her people, before she found out what a little fanatic she was becoming.

Well, probably the best way to bring her to her senses would be to ignore her for a few days. Even bring another girl around and let her see him going steady with her. That Bernice that he’d met last night would do as well as anyone perhaps. She was pretty and quite interesting. He had heard she was due to go back to Boston in a few days, but perhaps if his mother invited her to the party, she would stay for it. He would see about that at once. Go right home and tell his mother to send that girl an invitation. And perhaps there were other girls he could think of that would put Lisle on her toes to bring him back to her. But he wouldn’t be too quick to do that, either. He must get her good and anxious before he gave in and returned to her side.

So Victor hurried home to get an invitation sent off to Bernice and her brother. Of course the brother was a bit young for a coming-of-age party, but as he and his sister were visiting here, it was probably the proper thing to do to invite him.

It was on his way home that Victor caught his first glimpse of another girl, a girl he had never seen before. She must be a stranger in town. She certainly was a glamour girl, all right, if there ever was one. Exquisite complexion, lovely eyes, silver-blonde hair low on her shoulders in the very latest roll, daring make-up. Ah! That was sophistication! He wished he had Lisle there to point it out to her, his ideal of the way
she
ought to dress and make up herself. Would there be any way to get Lisle to see her? That was the kind of girl who could bring Lisle to her senses if any girl could, and make her see how she would lose him if she kept on in her present old-fashioned style.

He looked so hard at the new girl, really staring at her, that she stared back at him and finally gave a slow, understanding smile, with a lifting of her long gold lashes that the boys at college used to call a “come-hither look.”

As he came nearer to her, her eyes said things, and he half hesitated then came forward quickly with his wholly engaging smile. Lifting his hat he said, “Say, I’ve met you somewhere before, haven’t I? Tell me where, glamour girl. It certainly seems that we are old friends.”

The girl turned on a warmer light in her eyes and a subtler smile.

“It does seem that way, doesn’t it?” she said easily, pausing as if they were old acquaintances.

“Well, say, this is great!” said Victor. “You’re just the one I was longing to meet. How about a date with me? Going anywhere for lunch?”

“No, not definitely.”

“Good! Then we’ll make it a definite. Ever try the Dark Star restaurant? Then come, I’ll show you something new.”

The girl looked him straight in the eye with a quizzical expression, and hesitated.

“Who
are
you?” she asked coolly. “I’m a little particular who I choose for my friends.”

“Oh,
are
you?” said Victor. “I hadn’t thought so, but that’s all right with me. I’m Victor Vandingham. Ever hear of me?”

“Why, yes,” said the girl, “I think I have. Are you related to V. C. Vandingham of the steel plant?”

“I sure am!” Victor said with a grin. “The very same. He’s my father.”

“Well, that’s interesting,” said the girl. “Sure, I’ll take lunch with you. What do I call you? Mr. Vandingham?”

“No, that’s too formal for the way we met. You’d better call me Van. That’s what I was called at college. And what do they call you, little one?” He smiled down into her face and sincerely hoped that someone in the Kingsley house was looking out the window to report this drama to Lisle. For Victor seldom put on an act without an eye to a possible audience.

The girl looked up nonchalantly and answered, “Oh, my name is Erda. That’s enough for the present, isn’t it? The rest wouldn’t mean a thing to you yet, anyway.” She turned with a smile, slipped her hand in Victor’s arm, and modulating her step to his, walked on up the street with him.

“We’ll take a taxi downtown,” said the young man, “and later if we decide to go somewhere else, I can phone to have the man bring my car down. Okay with you?”

“Perfectly okay with me,” said Erda, smiling. She stepped gaily on, entirely at her ease.

So that was what Victor Vandingham ended up doing instead of choosing a diamond for Lisle Kingsley’s engagement ring.

W
hen Lisle returned to the house about the middle of the afternoon, her mother had just come in. They sat down together to have a cup of tea and sandwiches, for neither had had time for lunch.

“Did Victor come for me this morning, Mother?” asked Lisle.

“Yes, and he certainly was angry that you were not here and more rude than I would ever have believed he could be. He said you promised to go shopping with him to buy a new dress for his party and to select your engagement ring, and you stood him up! Is that true, Lisle?”

“No! He asked me to go, but I told him I was not buying a new dress and that I didn’t want an engagement ring, for I wasn’t engaged and didn’t intend to be. He got very angry about the dress. Asked me if I was going to wear some dowdy old rag. He said you were old-fashioned and wouldn’t know how to select the right kind of a sophisticated dress, and a lot of stuff like that, just as he talked that day in the store. He said he and I were to be married right away, and he wanted the wedding date announced at the party and everybody invited. Oh, Mother, he was simply impossible! And then before I could do anything except to say I wouldn’t go and I didn’t want to be married or have an engagement ring, Mrs. Carlisle and her young people came in. You know how late they stayed and how he went home with them. There simply wasn’t anything I could do about it. I didn’t have a chance to explain to him that I had to go to a committee meeting, and I didn’t think it mattered anyway, since I told him I didn’t want him shopping with me. Oh, Mother, do you think I should have stayed at home for him after he had been so outrageous?”

“No, my dear, you were perfectly right to go, and besides, I explained to him that you had a committee meeting.”

“And Mother, do I have to go to that awful party? I know just how he will act. Just as if I was his property.”

“Well, we’ll see, my dear. I really think you could manage to keep somewhat in the background if you tried. Just be sweet and dignified, and don’t give him a chance to say unwelcome things. You must remember there will be a great many people there, and you wouldn’t need to be there too early, you know. I had hoped there wouldn’t be any party, but it seems it is to go through.”

“Yes, Mother, and did he tell you he is not going to war at all? He’s going into his father’s business.”

“Yes, he told me,” sighed the mother. “It’s rather disappointing. I think he needs the discipline of the army. But perhaps the responsibility of business will do the same for him.”

“I doubt it,” said Lisle sharply, and her mother gave her a quick look. Was Lisle deeply cut by all of this? Oh, she hoped her child would be saved from having a broken heart.

But Lisle, after her talk with her mother, seemed quite cheerful, as if her heart had been unburdened and she felt relieved. Her mother watched her carefully the next few days and drew a relieved breath whenever Lisle came in with a smile. Perhaps her daughter would escape sorrow. It had seemed so beautiful to have those two children grow up together and care for one another. But Lisle was by no means pining away, and her mother wondered. Had she some other interest that she had not told about? Some young man, perhaps, in her classes at her university. Perhaps that was it. She must keep a close watch, for sometimes when a natural friendship was broken, a girl would take to anyone who was good-looking and admired her. She must be careful that Lisle made no unwise contacts. That mustn’t happen twice to Lisle.

And what would she have said if she could have known that the only young man whose smile and merry eyes had lingered in her child’s memory she had seen working on the street with common workmen? Mrs. Kingsley wasn’t a snob. She would have been dismayed to find that she had been brought up with a firm belief in class distinction.

Lisle was happy and fully occupied with her war work now, and especially with the little nursery in which she and her friends were interested. And of course, her parents insisted that she finish her college course and be ready to graduate with her class.

Lisle was a good student, never neglected her studies, and arranged her hours so that she was able to carry out all the plans she had made for war work. So when Victor, after philandering a few evenings with the waitress Cherry and her ilk, and with Erda more than a few, concluded it was time to get back to Lisle and bring her to her senses, he found she was gone.

She had gone that evening to take the place of one of her older friends who was ill and who was the teacher of a Red Cross class in the lower end of the city. She was not familiar with that part of the city, but was at once interested in these new people and lingered afterward to answer eager questions put by some women who were both poor and ignorant. It was late before she started home. Because her family was being most careful about conserving gas and tires, she had gone to the class by bus. But when she arrived at the corner where she should take the return bus, no bus came along. She had probably missed the one she intended on taking. Or had she made a mistake about which corner she should wait on? Then suddenly, as she stood there uncertainly, looking at her watch, casting anxious glances in the direction from which she thought the bus should arrive, the sirens began to shriek for a blackout, and one by one the lights in the buildings and houses around her went out. Then all at once the street lights were gone, and there was utter darkness. It seemed to Lisle she had never seen such dense black darkness in her life. She turned this way and that in her bewilderment and realized that she was completely turned around. She did not know which way to go. She wanted to hurry, but how could she hurry in utter darkness, and in a region with which she was not familiar?

Then she saw a blue light flash from a doorway. A man was standing in the door with a flashlight in his hand, covered with blue cellophane! Perhaps it was an air warden! She stepped over to him and asked where she could go to telephone for a taxi. But he shook his head. There was no telephone nearby, and no taxis could be had during a blackout.

“Come inside,” he said pleasantly. “You will be perfectly safe in here until it is over. This is a rather tough neighborhood for a lady to be alone, you know, but this is a Bible class. You are Miss Kingsley, aren’t you? I’m John Sargent. You don’t know me, but I’ve seen you before. Come this way and I’ll put a chair for you just inside the classroom where you can listen. Sorry we’re all in the dark, but we haven’t got our blackout curtains up yet.”

He flashed his blue light, she got a glimpse of his face, and suddenly she knew him. He was the man with the blue eyes she had seen working that day. She had never forgotten him. She looked at him in a daze of wonder. She felt as if she were among friends. A Bible class! Surely that would be all right. How wonderful that she had found a place like this, for now she realized that she had been frightened. She sat down and relaxed, conscious of the presence of other people in the room, a goodly number of them. How strange that she should meet that man again and in a place like this!