by Susan Barrie
Lisa had been right about the primrose linen dress. It became her better, possibly, than anything else in her wardrobe and somehow the ribbon looked right, as well. When she went into Madame d’ Auvergne’ s bedroom to say goodbye to her, her hostess raised herself on her small mountain of pillows and looked at her with approving eyes.
“You look immensely chic, my child,” she said, “and you also look quite delightful! More and more you remind me of myself when I was young! ”
Virginia accepted the compliment gratefully, for although Aunt Heloise, in her enormous bed with the curly bedposts, the cupids and the garlands of flowers and fruit entwining them and the mulberry satin curtains and eiderdown, looked large and a trifle florid in her mauve lace bed jacket, she still had enough in the way of good looks, and especially her wonderful silvery hair, to make this a compliment worthy of acceptance.
“You go now to enjoy yourself, and I hope you will teach my nephew to relax a little, also.” When her nephew arrived he went in to bid her good-morning and kissed the lightly powdered cheek she turned to him. “Take care of this child, Leon, and return her to me at a reasonable hour,” she instructed him.
He looked at her with faintly twinkling eyes.
“You are not afraid to trust her to me?”
Madame d’Auvergne’s eyes twinkled in return.
“Not at all. She will be, I fear, almost too safe with you! ” When they were outside and seated in his big black car, Virginia could feel the color hot in her cheeks, and she knew that Leon Hanson was looking and feeling a little amused. He cast her a sideways glance before he slipped in his clutch and there was something a trifle provocative in his voice when he remarked, “That old aunt of mine has a somewhat perverted idea of the fitness of things at times! And I’ m afraid she has a rather puckish idea of humor as well.”
“I think she’s delightful,” Virginia answered truthfully, but still not daring to look directly at him, “and I’ ve grown very fond of her these
last few weeks.”
“Have you? That’s good!” He piloted the car away from the curb..”And you haven’ t any qualms yourself about spending a whole day in my company, not knowing where I propose to take you or what sort of plans I’ ve formed for your entertainment?”
Virginia sat clutching her little white bag in her lap and staring down at the open toes of her sandals.
“No, I haven’t any qualms,” she admitted.
“That’s splendid.” he told her softly and rewarded her with a brilliant smile. “Now let’ s do what I said and forget everything and have a thoroughly good time.”
So far as Virginia was concerned the good time was memorable and there were to be days ahead in her future when she looked back upon this. Sunday as a day of purest magic, which glowed as no other Sunday in her life had ever glowed.
True, they were not doing the things one normally did on a Sunday, such as going to church. But as Dr. Hanson spent most of his weekdays serving other people she felt strongly that he had a right to shed care and responsibility and be someone other than the correct Dr. Hanson who belonged strictly to his consulting rooms and the clinic, one day of the week at least. And Sunday was not by any manner of means a usual day of recreation for him. This was one snatched for some whim of his own out of the blue.
To begin with he drove superbly, and once on a clear road that led— or seemed to lead—right into the very heart of the mountains, he went at considerable speed, which Virginia thoroughly enjoyed. It caused the warm wind to sing past her ears and the blue and gold loveliness of the morning was like a dream unfolding before her eyes. At her side Leon Hanson looked much younger, she thought, in flannels and a blazer, and for once she did not feel any awe of him and was no longer afraid to be entirely natural in his presence.
She was able to feel relaxed and almost light-headedly happy. He was quick to sense that she was no longer in any degree on the defensive with him and he responded in a way that increased her happiness.
If she had been afraid that he would remember Clive Maddison and tax her about him she need not have done so. He had forgotten
everything unpleasant, as she had, and the day therefore was unspoiled.
They had lunch at a little hotel high up in the fountains where the waiters quite obviously knew Dr. Hanson well and were most deferential. Their table was placed on a balcony overlooking a valley where the flowers of high summer were rapidly replacing the flowers of late spring. Again it was like being in a box at the theater and looking down on a really spectacular drop scene, where toy cattle grazed knee-deep in perfumed sweetness and the wooden walls of a farmhouse and the spire of a church rose into the unbelievably clear atmosphere.
Virginia thought, This must be one of the mental pictures I am to look at when I return to England!
And how often, how often would she feel the imperative urge to look at it?
Leon Hanson noticed that a faint shadow spread over her face as she gazed downward into the valley, and he pushed her glass of wine nearer to her.
“This is not a day on which you will be permitted to look wistful,” he observed. “This is a day on which you banish care! ”
Virginia met his eyes with their softly black and yet strangely gleaming expression, and her heart did a somersault.
“I was merely thinking that this is one of the pictures you promised me I would take home with me when I go,” she said, thinking that if she stared into his eyes long enough he would have the power to mesmerize her.
“There will be others,” he replied, smiling at her indulgently while the waiter poured their coffee. “There will probably be quite a lot of others! ”
Before they left the hotel he collected a hamper containing all the essential items for a picnic tea and then they drove on again through the drowsy warmth of the afternoon until at last they reached the welcome shade of a little pine wood. The air was saturated with the aromatic scent of the pine needles. A tiny cascade of crystal clear water came bounding down from the heights above them and disappeared into a silvery river below and a rustic bridge overhung the river. There was green twilight beneath the trees and Virginia knew at once that here was another picture she would never forget.
“I think we’ll stop here,” he said, “and until you feel the urge to sample the contents of that picnic basket you can talk to me about all the things you do when you are at home in England. I’ d like to hear something about the kind of life you lead and then I can judge whether it is wildly exciting or not. ” His eyes were laughing at her as he flung a coat down onto the pine needles and she dropped onto it with natural grace. “Now, let me hear the worst! ”
“There is so little to tell,” she replied, watching him as he stretched himself out full-length and stared upward through the thickness of the branches to the little patch of blue sky just visible above their heads.
“That I decline to believe,” he answered, and feeling automatically for his cigarette case, passed it to her. As she selected a cigarette he sat up to hold his lighter to it.
“Now tell me the truth,” he ordered. “What do you do when you are at home?”
“Nothing in the least exciting. ”
He held the lighter to his own cigarette and watched her above the flame.
“Well, what are the unexciting things you do?”
She gave him a little word picture of their way of life on Cromwell Road—and how far away that seemed to her now, almost as if it were not actually real—making her daily pilgrimage to her office sound a little monotonous, to say the least, and the occasional tennis club dance and meeting of the Ramblers’ Society, uninspired affairs which made him crinkle his dark brows He regarded her under his thick eyelashes and noticed how well the yellow linen became her, how the ribbon looped through her curls was not more golden than some of the lights in her hair, and what a peaches-and-cream loveliness glowed in her complexion. And she had a demure mouth that fascinated him because there was always, something wistful about it.
even when she smiled. “And there are no ardent admirers who wish to remove you from this dull existence and make it perhaps a little more colorful?”
Virginia answered truthfully that there were none that she knew of, whom she favored, at least.
“But there are those whom you do not favor but who are inclined to pester you?”
“I have never been pestered by an admirer in my life,” Virginia
admitted and thought, even as she made the admission, how very dull and insignificant she was compared with, for instance, such a creature of glamour as Carla Spengler. And one day he would almost certainly marry Carla!
“Then your countrymen must be sadly lacking in initiative,” the doctor observed, leaning on his elbow and studying her thoughtfully while the smoke from his cigarette curled upward toward the pine tops.
“Do you think so?” She gave him a little, quick, shy smile. “I certainly think so! ”
His eyes were on the softly formed lips, pink as a carnation. “I am going to ask you for a particular favor before we leave this pine wood, but in the meantime I wish to learn more about you. When you look back upon your stay here in Switzerland will it be with any pleasure or do you think that you will forget us all quickly?”
“I shall certainly not forget any of you quickly—” her breath caught in her throat and her pulses fluttered like a frightened bird’s.
All this was rather painful; he was making it so increasingly clear that she was merely someone who intrigued him a little and whose departure he could bear to think of, and think of with equanimity “—and my memories of Switzerland will be amongst the happiest I am ever likely to have to look back upon.”
“That, at least, is good to hear! ” He crushed out his half-smoked cigarette and absentmindedly lighted another. “My aunt is contemplating extending her hospitality to your sister when—as I think very likely—she leaves the clinic in a few more days. I wish to have her under my eye for a time while the exercises I have prescribed for her fingers are begun, and that will enable you two to be together for a while and enjoy a little holiday that may be very pleasant.”
“It would be very pleasant if I could stay, but I have already greatly abused your aunt’s kindness. She has given me a wonderful time and I can never thank her enough, but when Lisa leaves the clinic I must go home.”
“Must you?” There was absolutely no change in his tone. “But surely there is not really a ‘must’ about it? My aunt would fill her house with young people if sufficient young people could be found
who suited her taste.”
“Your aunt is wonderful, but there is such a thing as outstaying one’s welcome.”
“I really don’t think I can agree with that,” he said as if he was examining the idea.
Virginia looked away from him and her fingers sank deep into the pine needles so that they pricked into her skin. All at once she decided to tell him. “Mrs. Van Loon did offer me a—a job looking after her small niece and nephew when they arrive from America, but I haven’t yet made up my mind whether to accept it or not.”
“Oh! Indeed?” He sat up as if this was of considerable interest. “Of course, I remember Mary is having her brother’ s children to stay with her, and the last time we met she was a little at a loss to know what to do with them.” He studied her with a bright, appraising look in his eyes. “Are you fond of children?”
“Very. ”
“Then that solves the problem, doesn’ t it? If your pride won’ t allow you to continue to stay with my aunt, a job with Mary Van Loon is the very thing that is needed! You’re almost certain to be happy with the Van Loons—although Edward is away so much you’ll find that he’s charming when he’s at home. And I’m sure your sister would like you to stay. Besides, it seems a pity that you should go before you’ve seen these valleys thick with snow. You must learn to ski.”
He was taking it for granted that she was going to accept this position as nursery governess or whatever it was—and for a moment the loveliness of the afternoon was dimmed by the depressing thought that to him it didn’ t greatly matter whether she went or stayed. But to her the idea of going home and leaving— him—was almost agony.
She clutched spasmodically at the pine needles so that she winced at the sharpness of them, and he noticed the wince and took her hand and examined it carefully.
“Pine needles are sharp,” he rebuked her, “and you should treat them with respect.”
Then he patted her hand and placed it in her lap and smiled at her.
“I’ m sure, being so very English, you are dying for your tea. ” he said. “Shall we sample the contents of that hamper?”
The rest of that afternoon and early evening simply flew by. Virginia determined to enjoy every moment of it and to put all thoughts of the future right out of her mind, and together they drank tea out of a thermos, sampled all kinds of appetizing sandwiches and indigestible pastries and then packed up the hamper and went for a walk through the pine wood, ending on the little bridge which overhung the ravine so far below them.
Virginia looked into the ravine and shuddered a little as the realization hit her that but for the stout handrail they might easily become giddy and descend into the depths. Leon Hanson looked at her and noticed that she paled slightly as she looked downward over the rail. He put a comforting arm around her.
“There is no danger,” he said, “but you obviously haven’t a head for heights.”
“Have you?” she asked, looking up at him.
“Oh, yes,” He looked upwards at the majestic peaks soaring above and all around them. “One of these days I would like to take you mountain climbing with me, and then perhaps you will discover that after all you have a head for heights. ”
“I don’t think so,” she answered doubtfully.
But suddenly the thought struck her: with him no danger would actually be a danger—or it would cease to be a danger she could not face. She would cross Africa from north to south, enduring all the perils of the deserts and the privations and discomforts of fetid jungles if only it meant that he would be at her side. Anything—any price demanded of her would be better than that he should go away out of her life, or she out of his, as she obviously must in due course, and that she should hear within a short space of time that he had married Carla Spengler.
“What are you thinking of now?” he asked quite gently, staring down into her face.
Virginia knew she could not tell him what she was thinking, so she reminded him instead, “You said that before we left this pine
wood you would ask a favor of me. What is it?”
“Did I put it as crudely as that?” he murmured and once again his eyes were drawn as by a magnet to the soft, tender line of her lips. “Something to remember this very pleasant day by would certainly sound much nicer! ”
And before she fully realized what he intended to do he had bent and touched her lips firmly with his own.
Virginia did not draw back—and she certainly did not gasp, or utter any little sound of astonishment. She merely gazed at him with her wide gray eyes, and the expression in their depths was quite unreadable.
Dr. Hanson made a quick movement with his hand and lightly brushed a stray curl back from her forehead, tucking it beneath the yellow ribbon. And then he smiled at her very charmingly.
“Do you know,” he said, “I’ve been wanting to do that for quite a while—certainly ever since we started off this morning!” Then he turned and led the way off the bridge. “I think we’d better be starting back now, especially as we’ve got to hand in that hamper at the hotel where we had lunch. We might if we’re not too late, stay and have some dinner there, but, on the other hand. I’ ve got a kind of feeling that I ought to get back.”
“Of course,” Virginia said quickly. “You mustn’t let me take up too much of your time.”
“Nonsense! ” He was holding a straggling pine branch out of her way and still smiling at her. “You’ve given up a whole day to me and it�
�s been wonderful.”
It had been wonderful, but already they were on their way back to reality and Virginia knew that she was keeping black depression at bay by a tremendous effort. He slid into the seat beside her and started up the car, and because she felt that he must never guess how she was feeling—and he had given her this one perfect day to remember—she began to chatter to him brightly, almost too brightly, and he glanced at her a little curiously before they started off on their homeward road And she kept up the chatter for quite a time, until they drew near to the little mountain hotel where the fates who sit and smile or frown at the daily doings of mortals decided that her day was not to end just yet.
CHAPTER NINE
The car had not been behaving in an altogether exemplary manner for the last mile or so and Dr. Hanson had begun to wear a faintly concerned expression. By the time they reached the hotel his black brows were frowning and the frown did not disappear when a garage mechanic at the hotel informed him that the fault could not be rectified in under half an hour at least. He decided that they would have to stay for dinner.
“It’s not that I don’t think dinner is a fitting way to round off this day,” he told Virginia, “but I’ve remembered one or two things that I’ve deliberately forgotten all day and my conscience is not entirely at ease.”
But nevertheless he tried to be a pleasant companion during the meal that was served to them on the same balcony where they had had lunch, and, sensing the effort he was making, Virginia played up and tried to be at her brightest, as well. But inwardly she felt a little sick because their spirits at lunchtime had been so naturally high, and now hers, at least, were at zero. It was no use pretending that they were having a good time because she could sense the impatience that was coursing through him—quite natural impatience. She realized, when one considered the preoccupations that were probably his—but a little damping to enthusiasms that were in danger of being completely extinguished from the moment they had left the bridge in the pine wood behind them.
Halfway through dinner he asked her to excuse him while he put through a telephone call to his house, and when he returned she could tell at once that the call had done nothing to dissipate his desire to be on his way, if anything, the impatient concentration of his brows was fiercer than ever and he answered abstractedly when the waiter inquired whether they wanted to take coffee on the balcony or inside the lounge of the hotel, as the shadows were deepening moment by moment and up here in the heart of the mountains there was a decided nip in the air now that the night was closing in around them.
