Vintage Love (258 page)

Pauline stared at her. “But from what you’ve said, I gather he’s trying to fight S.C. North?”

“In a way.”

The girl in gold looked astonished. “Hasn’t he any better sense than that?”

“He believes he is right.”

Pauline gave a small laugh. “Honey, S.C. North is Mr. Right in this town, and I mean always and every time.”

“You’ll have to discuss that with Alan.”

“I intend to,” the other girl said. “My father has S.C. North as his chief stockholder, and I can tell you we treat the name with proper respect in our house.”

“I didn’t know he owned part of the shoe company,” Judith said. It was a revelation for her, another hint of how the octopus of the North interests had reached out to grasp control of nearly every big firm in the area.

“I don’t think my father is going to be happy about Alan getting himself in this trouble,” Pauline continued.

“It’s the Senator and the North interests who are causing the trouble,” Judith said; “not Alan.”

“The way I see it, he’s stuck his neck out and asked for it! My father will be in a rage! I know it!”

“Perhaps you had better explain your father’s position to Alan,” she said. “I doubt if he knows S.C. North is his silent partner any more than I did.”

“The sooner the better,” Pauline agreed. “You know Father didn’t want me to get engaged to Alan.”

“No?” Judith was embarrassed by the confidence.

“He considers him a kookie character, if you know what I mean,” Pauline said frankly. “Sort of a sleepy Joe in his father’s law firm. He hasn’t ever done anything in a business way.”

“He studied to be a lawyer.”

“Sure,” Pauline agreed. “And I say he has a lot of charm. I think he’s really marvelous. You know that shy way he has! It really gets me.”

“He is nice,” Judith murmured weakly, devoutly wishing she was anywhere else, even back in the crowded room.

“Nice!” Pauline showed surprise. “Surely you can think of stronger adjectives than that! The Mayor is nice! Fred Harvey is nice! But that’s not enough for my Alan. He’s devastating in a kookie kind of way.”

Judith managed a smile. “That’s what I really meant.”

“Sure you did,” Pauline said. “Didn’t you used to go with him once? I mean, you were like his steady girl friend?”

“We were quite close.”

“Yes, close.” Pauline eyed her warily. “That was before you met Miles Estey?”

She nodded. “Yes.”

“Too bad about Miles,” Pauline said with a sigh. “I’d never have taken him to be a thief!”

“I don’t think he is,” she said, rising quickly. “Don’t you think we ought to be getting back to the others? They’ll be missing you.”

“You’re right, darling!” Pauline stashed out her cigarette and got up. The girl in the gold dress added, “I hope I didn’t hurt your feelings because of what I said about Miles Estey.”

“It’s all right,” Judith assured her, leading the way out, desperate to be rid of the other girl.

“I mean I want us to be good friends, I really do,” Pauline said, coming down the dark hall after her. “Be cause of Alan, I think it’s terribly important we like each other.”

Judith said nothing, knowing it was much too late for that.

At long last the party was thinning out. The air was heavy with smoke, and there were still quite a few people left in the gallery, but it was no longer as crowded as before. Pauline left Judith to bid good night to some guests as soon as the two girls returned to the main gallery.

Judith stood alone for a moment debating how she’d get home. Then Alan came to join her once more. He was looking weary now. He smiled and said, “What do you say to leaving?”

“Won’t you have to take Pauline home?”

“She’ll be here for at least an hour or more. I’ll come back for her. I’d say the interesting part of the evening was over.”

“Yes. I’d like to go,” Judith agreed quickly.

“Get your coat, and I’ll meet you at the door,” he said.

She quickly found the light summer coat she’d worn on the rack Pauline had set out in a corner and hurried across the room to meet Alan. Pauline was there seeing people on their way, and Judith quickly thanked her and said good night

“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 man,” 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.