Tomorrow About This Time (13 page)

The incident finished, Blink sat for some minutes turning it over in his mind, decided there was something here that needed further investigation and that he must accept the invitation to the house and see what he might see, although he could not bring himself to go through the agony of a dinner with
girls
. To this end he picked himself up from the ground, retrieved his can of bait, and took the shortest way to his home, where he began a thorough search for a clean shirt.

Athalie, having regained the stronghold of her room, was about to return to her task of moving her clothes to the front-room closet when suddenly the sound of a tinkling spoon against a thin china cup and a ripple of soft laughter, with an undertone of heavier merriment, sent her flying to her window.

For an instant her face took on the wild look of a young savage as she gazed down at the pretty tea table set out on the terrace below; the plate of thin bread and butter, so tempting to her bonbon-jaded appetite; the orange marmalade like drops of amber; the dainty dish of sugar cookies, thin and attractive in clover-leaf form. The whiff of orange pekoe wafted up as Silver passed her father his cup. Tea on the terrace and she not even told! And there was that stunning-looking man again! Who was he? Did that other girl think she would take possession of him, too, as well as her father, and the house, and the best room, and everything? Well, they would find out! She was going down at once. She would show that stuck-up girl!

Athalie turned from the window after a moment more and began to fly around with catlike tread, dropping off garments and sliding into others, searching wildly amid the mass of finery for the thing she wanted. It was a coral crepe dress she finally chose, with a low-cut bodice of silver cloth and startling touches of black velvet fastened with jeweled buckles.

She worked frantically over her complexion and brushed out her permed waves until they looked like an electric sign. A platinum chain like a breath of air about her plump white neck held a single jewel like a drop of dew. In her ears were long jet earrings, giving her a more brazen expression than ever. Her large pink arms were bare as she stood before the mirror, turning this way and that on the high heels of her little silver shoes into which her plump feet seemed to be fairly forced. She was well pleased with herself. Probably this wasn’t exactly the right kind of outfit, according to social rules, for that early hour in the day, but at least it was effective, and that was all she really cared about. She felt that she could afford to be a law unto herself.

As she took her final glimpse and tiptoed toward the door she seemed like some great bright bird with a large part of its gaudy plumage plucked away. The floating coral and silver fabric was inadequate. “Naked” was what Anne Truesdale expressed to herself as she stood in frozen horror behind the pantry door with a plate of fresh cookies and watched the bright apparition move out of the door to the terrace and stand a moment. “The very devil of a smile on her lips” as Tom who was watching behind the lilacs afterward told his wife, Molly.

Then Patterson Greeves with his cup halfway to his lips, and a look of comfort and relaxation on his brow, suddenly looked up and stared. They all looked up and saw her. Athalie came forward, her eyes fixed straight on the minister, her most coaxing spoiled-baby look on her pink face.

Chapter 11

I
f a cavern had opened beneath his feet revealing dead men’s bones Patterson Greeves could not have been more shaken. He was white with consternation as he faced his astounding daughter and trembled.

“I hope you haven’t eaten everything up,” she said airily, coming forward. “I’m simply dying of starvation. Why don’t you introduce me, Dad?”

She stood facing the young man, her bare pink shoulders turned toward her stepsister utterly ignoring her, her whole forward young personality flaunting itself at Man in the concrete, this man in particular, the kind of an appeal that a woman of her mother’s sort always used with a good man to disarm his disapproval. Greeves recognized instantly Lilla’s arts and ways with himself, and pain and rage shot through his heart. Why had he not understood it then? Why had he let himself be fooled? Would this young man be fooled, too? He glanced anxiously toward his guest and saw that the minister’s eyes were meeting Silver’s in a quick look of understanding as if the two had joined forces to protect him against the humiliation his daughter was bringing upon him. Ah! so might the memory of Silver’s mother have protected him if he had not been too upset and bitter to let it! Fool! Fool! Was he destined to go always from this time seeing nothing but his folly, his everlasting folly that was bringing with it retribution now? Athalie, his daughter, seemed to him an embodiment of his own sins, come back after years to torment him. Was this what hell meant? The old-fashioned hell that nobody believed in anymore?

He was still standing, shaken and trembling, his cup in his hand, but nobody was paying any attention to him. He gradually realized this and was glad. They were trying to help him. Silver had poured a cup of tea and held it out to her sister, but Athalie ignored it, as if it were a ghost she did not see, and reaching out poured another for herself.

“Isn’t there any lemon?” she asked looking the table over. “Quinn, bring some lemon. I never take cream. Why don’t you pass the cakes, Mr. Man?” She was addressing the minister with a freedom that made Silver turn her eyes away in pain for her father’s embarrassment. But the young man handed the plate of cookies with a gentle impersonal dignity that seemed to take the edge from the girl’s audacity and put her down in the class of a child who knew no better than to take the center of attention.

“Gracious but you’re a grouch!” commented Athalie cheerfully, looking straight into his eyes with her bold black ones. “Won’t you smile anymore just because we haven’t been introduced? You must excuse Dad, he seems to be—”

But just then her father stepped forward haughtily and took the cup from the girl’s hand.

“Athalie, you are not properly dressed to be out here. Go upstairs and put on—a—a—
sweater
or something,” he ended helplessly. “It is chilly—”

But the girl burst forth in a ripple of hoydenish laughter: “A sweater with an evening dress? Oh, Dad! You certainly have been out of the world. Don’t worry about me. I’m never cold. I’ll take another cake, Quinn.”

Patterson Greeves’s face hardened into a set helpless look. He was one whom men had always obeyed. This mere girl defied him openly, and something somewhere in his moral armor was so weak that he could not meet her and conquer her. His lips shut sternly, and his voice was like icicles.

“Then I will go further and say that your dress is unseemly and out of taste. What may have seemed to you fitting among girls of your school is not in keeping with our quiet home life in this village. We do not wear evening dress on ordinary days, and you will oblige me by finishing your tea in your room and then changing into something less flimsy, that has sleeves and a—a—
neck
to it. Something more—
adequate
. Let me introduce to you your—” he hesitated—“my eldest daughter, Silver. She is older than you are. She will be able to advise you about your apparel. I commend you to her friendship. She is—ah—your sister, of course, you know.”

Silver knew instantly that her father had touched the wrong chord. Athalie’s impudent chin went up, her eyebrows what there was left of them went up, her full cupid’s bow of an upper lip went up, and the sharp red corners were drawn quickly and contemptuously down in a smirk of hate. She did not look at Silver. She did not acknowledge the introduction. Her big black eyes were fixed on her father who had already turned his back, having manlike cast his burden upon womankind and was moving off toward the door with a relieved note in his voice.

“Come, Bannard, let’s go into the library and have our talk. It grows chilly out here already. The spring sun has not much warmth yet.”

“Thanks! I don’t need any advice from anyone about my clothes! I generally wear what I like!” Athalie hurled after him, her shoulders lifted irately. But he was already inside and did not choose to hear further defiance. He hurried toward the library door and drew chairs in front of the fireplace where a fire was already laid.

“Sit here, Bannard. I’m sorry and ashamed that you should have seen my family under these trying circumstances. What would you do with a girl like that? What are young people coming to? Wasn’t I right in saying she was impossible?”

Out on the terrace Athalie whirled around so that her back was turned to Silver. So she stood facing the glow of hyacinths and tulips, herself the most flaring tulip of them all, and drank her tea in leisurely manner, helped herself to more cake and another cup of tea, and utterly ignored the presence of the other girl.

Silver, after watching her a moment, stepped over toward her.

“Listen!” she said firmly. “You might as well cut that out. It’s just as hard for me as it is for you. He’s my father just as much as yours, you know. He
was my father first!
We’re sisters, you know. We can’t help that—”

Athalie whirled on her with her eyes blazing. “We’re not
sisters!”
She stamped her foot. “I’ll never call you my sister. You’ve no business here! I know all about
you!
My father
gave you away
, and you’re
adopted
! You’re the same as dead! You have no right to turn up and spoil my life! And you needn’t think you can get his money either. I’m his natural heir! The court—”

“Stop!” cried Silver suddenly white with anger. “As if
money
had anything to do with it!”

“Shut up!” flashed Athalie. “I’ll say what I please. And you needn’t pretend you’re so awfully saintly. I know your kind, you mealymouthed hypocrite! You can’t put one over on me. You’re in for the money as well as anybody. Now, I’ll give you one day to get out and stay out, and if you don’t do it I’ll make
hell
for you, do you understand? And I know how to do it when I try! You’re not going to stick around here and spoil my plans! And if you go and tell Dad
you’ll be sorry
, that’s all I’ve got to say!”

She jerked the little gold case out of a silken hiding place among the folds of her skirt, lighted a cigarette insolently, and flung the lighted match full into the face of the other girl, turning with another whirl, and marching down the garden path with her cigarette tilted in her contemptuous red lips, her gaudy outfit looking as out of place in the quiet garden among the spring blossoms as a painted lily in the woods.

Silver jerked back from the flaring match just in time to escape the flame, gazed in consternation for an instant after the plump, arrogant figure of the other girl, and then throwing her head back, she sent a clear ringing laugh after her sister. Athalie paused in her majestic progress to turn and stare angrily, but Silver had gone into the house.

Anne Truesdale slipped a ready arm around her as she entered the shadow of the hall. “Yer not to mind, my sweetie, what a huzzy like that says. She’ll not be here long, I’m thinking. The master was telephoning the morn’ something about a school for her. He’ll be soon sending her kiting, the little upstart.”

“Oh, thank you, Mrs. Truesdale,” quivered Silver. “I’m sorry you had to overhear this disgraceful conversation. I thought I could get her to see things in a different way, but I see it was very unwise to speak at all. She wasn’t in the right mood—”

“I doubt if she has any right moods, my dearie. She’s a little sinner, that girl is. I’ve read about ‘em in the newspaper. Look at her now, puffing away like a man, the impertinent chit. Disgracing her father and his respectable house! The sooner she gets out of this respectable town the better for all concerned. Her mother must be one of the devil’s own to bring up a girl like that. Now come upstairs, my dearie, and I’ll help you to dress and fix yer hair. Yer trunks haven’t come yet, but that doesn’t matter, the master doesn’t care for things to be formal.”

“Oh, but Mrs. Truesdale—”

“Call me Anne, Miss Silver, I like it better. It’s what yer father always calls me.”

“Oh, Anne, I thank you, but I must get ready and go away. Couldn’t you help me to go at once before my father hears anything about it? It would only distress him to know the reason. You could just tell him that I felt that I must go for the present, and that perhaps someday I will come back if he wants me—or he can come to see me. I didn’t really intend staying when I came. I have a position, and I ought to begin my work right away this week. Can you find out how soon there is a train back to the city and help me to get away quietly before she comes in? I haven’t anything to pack. My suitcase hasn’t been opened yet—”

“Indeed no, my dearie!” said Anne firmly. “I’ll not help ye to any such fool doings. Yer not to go away at all. And my master would half kill me if he found me a party to any such thing. Besides, can’t ye see he needs ye just now? He’s beside hisself with grief and shame over that young thing. Do ye think it’s a joke fer a man to come back from a far land and find a thing like that is a child o’ his? You’ll stay right where ye are, my sweet lady, and help that distracted father o’ yours back into sanity. Besides, he’s got company, and he’s depending on you to help entertain with him this night. He told me to open the old piano and light a fire in the drawing room. He’s looking forward to hearing ye sing, I’m thinking, and yer not to disappoint him. He’s been a much-disappointed man already, and it’s not good fer him.”