The Boy with Wings

by Berta Ruck

  CHAPTER XV

  LESLIE ON "TOO MUCH LOVE"

  It seemed to be decided for Gwenna that she should, after all, givenotice at the office.

  For on the evening of the day of her climb up the scaffolding she metthe tall, sketchily-dressed figure of her chum coming down the hill thatshe was ascending on her way to the Club. And Leslie accosted her withthe words, "Child, d'you happen to want to leave your place and takeanother job? Because, if so, come along for a walk and we'll talk aboutit."

  So the two "inseparables" strolled on together up past the Club, passingat the crest of the hill a troop of Boy Scouts with their band.

  "Only chance one ever gets of hearing a drum; jolly sound," sighedLeslie, watching the brown faces, the sturdy legs marching by. "I wonderhow many of those lads will be soldiers? Very few, I suppose. We're toldthat the authorities are _so_ careful to keep the Boy Scout Movementapart from any pernicious militarism, and ideas about National Service!"

  And the girls took the road that dips downward from Hampstead, and thechestnut avenue that leads into the Park of Golders Green. They passedthe Bandstand ringed by nurse-girls and perambulators. They crossed therustic bridge above the lily-pond, where children tossed crumbs to theminnows. They went in at the door of the little flower-garden.

  Here, except for an occasional sauntering couple, London seemed shutout. In the late sunlight above the maze of paths, the roses were justat their best. Over the pergolas and arbours they hung in garlands, theywere massed in great posies of pink and cream and crimson. The littlefountain set in the square of velvet turf tossed up a spray of whitemist touched with a rainbow, not unlike Gwenna's dance-frock.

  The girls sat down on a shaded seat facing that fountain. Gwenna,turning to her chum, said, "Now do tell me about that job you asked ifI'd take. What is it?"

  "Oh! it's a woman who used to know some of my people; she came to theClub this afternoon, and then on to my old lady's to see me about it,"said Leslie. "She wants a girl--partly to do secretarial work, partly tokeep her company, partly to help her in the 'odd bits' of her work downthere where she has her business."

  Gwenna, rather listlessly thinking of typewriting offices, of blouses,or tea-shops, asked what the lady did.

  Leslie gave the extraordinary answer, "She builds aeroplanes."

  "_She_ does?" cried Gwenna, all thrilled. "_Aeroplanes?_"

  "Yes. She's the only woman who's got an Aircraft Factory, men, shops andall. It's about an hour's run from town. She's a pilot herself, and herson's an aviator," said Leslie, speaking as though of everyday things."Everything supplied, from the Man to the Machine, what?"

  "Oh! But what a _gorgeous_ sort of Life for a woman, Leslie!" cried theyounger girl, her face suddenly alight. "Fancy spending her time makingthings like _that_! Things that are going to make a difference to thewhole world! Instead of her just 'settling down' and embroidering'duchesse sets,' and sitting with tea-cups, like Uncle Hugh's 'Ladyparishioners,' and talking to callers about servants; and operations!Oh, oh, don't _you_ want to take her job?"

  "I'm not especially keen on one job more than another. And my old ladywould be rather upset if I did leave her in the lurch," said Leslie,more unselfishly than her chum suspected. The truth was that this muchdisapproved-of Leslie had resigned a congenial post because it mightmean what Gwenna loved. "I told the Aeroplane Lady about you," sheadded. "And she'd like you to go down and interview her at the Factorynext Saturday, if you'd care to."

  "Care? Of _course_ I'd care! Aeroplanes! After silly buildings andspecifications!" exclaimed Gwenna, clasping her hands in her grey linenlap. But her face fell suddenly as she added, "But--it's an hour's runfrom London, you say? I should have to live there?"

  "'_Away from Troilus, and away from Troy_,'" quoted Leslie, smiling."You could come back to Troy for week-ends, Taffy. And I'll tell youwhat. _It's no bad thing for a young man who's always thought of a girlas being planted in one particular place, to realise suddenly thatshe's been uprooted and set up in quite another place._ Gives him just alittle jerk. By the way, is there any fresh news of Troilus--of theDampier boy?"

  And Gwenna, sitting there with troubled eyes upon the roses, gave herthe history of that afternoon's adventure. She ended up sadly, "Nevereven said 'Good-bye' to me!"

  "Getting nervous that he's going to like you too well!" translatedLeslie, without difficulty. "Probably deciding at this minute that he'dbetter not see much more of you----"

  "Oh, Leslie!" exclaimed the younger girl, alarmed.

  "Sort of thing they _do_ decide," said Leslie, lightly. "Well, we'll seewhat it amounts to. And we'll wire to-morrow to the Aeroplane Lady. Ortelephone down to-night. I am going to telephone to Hugo Swayne to tellhim I don't feel in the mood to have dinner out to-night again."

  "Again?" said Gwenna, rather wistfully, as they rose from the arbour andwalked slowly down the path by the peach-houses. "Has he been asking youout _several_ times, then?"

  "Several," said Leslie with a laugh. She added in her insouciant way,"You know, _he_ wants to marry me now."

  Gwenna regarded her with envy. Leslie spoke of what should be the eighthwonder of the world, the making or rejecting of a man's life, as if itwere an everyday affair.

  "Don't look so unflatteringly _surprised_, Taffy. Strictly pretty I maynot be. But a scrupulously neat and lady-like appearance," mockedLeslie, putting out a long arm in a faded-silk sleeve that was torn atthe cuff, "has often (they tell one) done more to win husbands thanactual good looks!"

  Little Gwenna said, startled, "You aren't--aren't going to _let_ Mr.Swayne be your husband, are you?"

  "I don't know," said Leslie, reflectively, a little wearily. "I don'tknow, yet. He's fat--but of course _that_ would come off after I'dworried him for a year or so. He's flabby. He's rather like Kipling'sperson whose '_rooms at College was beastly_!' but he's good-natured,and his people were all right, and, Taffy, he's delightfully well-off.And when one's turned twenty-six, one does want to be _sure_ of what'scoming. One must have some investment that'll bring in one's frocks andone's railway-fares and one's proper setting."

  "There are other things," protested little Gwenna with a warm memory ofthat moment's clasping on the heights that afternoon. "There are thingsone wants more."

  "Not me."

  "Ah! That's because you don't _know_ them," declared Gwenna, flushed.

  And at that the elder girl gave a very rueful laugh.

  "Not know them? I've known them too well," she admitted. "Listen, Taffy,I'll tell you the sort of girl I am. I'm afraid there are plenty of usabout."

  She sighed, and went on with a little nod.

  "We're the girl who works in the sweetshop and who never wants to touchchocolates again. We're the sort of girl who's been turned loose tooearly at dances and studio-parties and theatricals and so forth. Thegirl who's come in for too much excitement and flattery and love-making.Yes! For in spite of all my natural disadvantages (tuck in that bit ofhair for me, will you?) and in _spite_ of not being quite a fool--I'vebeen made too much of, by men. The Monties and so forth. _Here's where Ipay for it._ I and the girls like me. We can't ever take a real liveinterest in men again!"

  "But----!" objected Gwenna, seeing a mental image of Leslie as she hadbeen at that dance, whirling and flushed and radiant. "You _seem_ tolike----"

  "'_The chase, not the quarry_,'" quoted Leslie. "For when I've broughtdown my bird, what happens?--He doesn't amuse me any more! It's likehaving sweets to eat and such a cold that one can't taste 'em."

  "But--that's such a _pity_!"

  "D'you suppose I don't _know_ that?" retorted Miss Long. "D'you supposeI don't wish to Heaven that I could be 'in Love' with somebody? I can'tthough. I see through men. And I don't see as much in them as there isin myself. They can't boss _me_, or take _me_ out of myself, or surprise_me_ into admiring them. Why can't they, _dash_ them? they can't even_say_ anything that I can't think of, quicker, first!" complained thegirl with many admirers, resentfully. "And that's a fatal thin
g to anywoman's happiness. Remember, there's no fun for a woman in just _being_adored!"

  The girl in love, kicking her small brown shoe against the pebbles ofthe garden path, sighed that she wished that she could try "beingadored." Just for a change.

  "Ah, but you, Taffy, you're lucky. You're so fresh, so eager. You're asmuch in love with that aviator's job as you are with anything else abouthim. You're as much amused by 'ordinary things' as any other girl isamused by getting a young man. As for what you feel about the young manhimself, well!--I suppose _that's_ a tune played half a yard to theright of the keyboard of an ordinary girl's capacity. You're keen forLife; you've got what men call '_a thirst you couldn't buy_.' Wish Iwere like that!"

  "Well, but it's so easy to be," argued Gwenna, "when you _do_ meet someone so wonderful----"

  "It's not so easy to see 'wonder,' let me tell you. It's a gift. I'vehad it; lost it; spoilt it," mourned the elder girl. "To youeverything's thrilling: their blessed airships--the men in them--the Airitself. All miracles to you! Everything's an Adventure. So wouldMarriage be----"

  "Oh, I don't--don't ever think of _that_. Being always _with_ a person!Oh, it would be _too_ wonderful---- I shouldn't expect--Even to be alittle _liked_, if he once told me so, would be enough," whispered thelittle Welsh girl, so softly that her chum did not catch it.

  Leslie, striding along, said, "To a girl like me all that's as farbehind as the school-room. At the stage where I am, a girl looks uponMarriage--how? As '_The Last 'Bus Home, or A Settled Job at last_.'That's why she so often ends up as an old man's darling--with some veryyoung man as her slave. That's what makes me ready to accept HugoSwayne. And now forget I ever told you so."

  The two girls turned homewards; Gwenna a little sad.

  To think that Leslie should lack what even ordinary little Mabel Butcherhad! To think that Leslie, underneath all her gaiety and rattle, shouldnot know any more the taste of real delight!

  Gwenna, the simple-hearted, did not know the ways of self-critics. Shedid not guess that possibly Miss Long had been analysing her owncharacter with less truth than gusto.... And she was surprised when, asthey passed the Park gates again, her chum broke the silence with allher old lightness of tone.

  "Talking of young men--a habit for which Leslie never bothers toapologise--talking of young men, I believe there might be some at theAeroplane Lady's place. She often has some one there. Agentleman--'prentice or pupil or something of that sort. Might be ratherglad to see a new pretty face about with real curls."

  It was then that Gwenna turned up that blushing but rather indignantlittle face. "But, Leslie! Don't you _understand_? If there were amillion other young men about, all thinking me--all thinking what yousay, it wouldn't make a _bit_ of difference to _me_!"

  "Possibly not," said Miss Long, "but there's no reason why it shouldn'tbe made to make a difference to the Dampier boy, is there?"

  "What d'you mean, Leslie?" demanded the other girl as they climbed thehill together. For the first time a look of austerity crossed Gwenna'ssmall face. For the first time it seemed to her that the adoredgirl-chum was in the wrong. Yes! She had never before been shocked atLeslie, whatever wild thing she said. But now--now she was shocked. Shewas disappointed in her. She repeated, rebukefully, "What do you mean?"

  "What," took up Leslie, defiantly, "do you think I meant?"

  "Well--_did_ you mean make--make Mr. Dampier think other people likedme, and that I might like somebody else better than _him_?"

  "Something of the sort _had_ crossed the mind of Leslie the Limit."

  "Well, then, it isn't _like_ you----"

  "Think not?" There was more than a hint of quarrel in both the girlishvoices. Up to now they had never exchanged a word that was not ofaffection, of comradeship.

  Gwenna, flushing deeper, said, "It's--it's _horrid_ of you, Leslie."

  "Why, pray?"

  "Because it would be sort of _deceiving_ Mr. Dampier, for one thing.It's a _trick_."

  "M'yes!"

  "And not a pretty one, either," said little Gwenna, red and angry now."It's--it's----"

  "What?"

  "Well, it's what I should have thought that you yourself, Leslie, wouldhave called '_so obvious_.'"

  "Exactly," agreed Miss Long, with a flippant little laugh that coveredsmarting feelings. _Taffy_ had turned against her now! Taffy, who usedto think that Leslie could do no wrong! This was what happened whenone's inseparable chum fell in love....

  Leslie said impenitently, "I've never yet found that '_the obviousthing_' was '_the unsuccessful thing_.' Especially when it comes toanything to do with young men. My good child, you and the Dampier boy,you

  '_Really constitute a pair, Each being rather like an artless woodland elf._'

  I mean, can't you see that the dear old-fashioned simple remedies andrecipes remain the best? For a sore throat, black-currant tea. (Neverfails!) For the hair, Macassar oil. (Unsurpassed since the YearEighteen-dot!) For the stimulation of an admirer's interest, jealousy.Jealousy and competition, Taffy."

  "He isn't an admirer," protested the younger girl, mollified. Then theysmiled together. The cloud of the first squabble had passed.

  Leslie said, "Never mind. If you don't approve of my specific, don'tthink of it again."