by Susan Barrie
He had been kind to notice her, to pay her the little attentions he had paid to her. But in future she did not want any more of those attentions. And now that Carla was back his free time would be more strictly limited and the attentions would probably cease in any case.
Which, as she told herself, was exactly what she wanted. In future her interests were going to lie with Mary Van Loon’ s small niece and nephew and she would do her utmost to reward Mary for the confidence she was displaying in being willing to make this position available to her without knowing anything at all about her capabilities.
Somewhat to Mary’s surprise, therefore, she agreed to take over the charge of the children just as soon as Mary would like to have her, and they decided that the following day would be ideal for them both if Madame d’ Auvergne agreed.
Mary announced that she was going to drive Virginia back to the d’Auvergne villa and she brought her smart little cream-colored coupe around from the garage. The two children insisted on clambering in, as well—they called cars “autos”—and chattered like a couple of magpies while Mrs. Van Loon was driving and made it difficult for her to concentrate on the lakeshore traffic Virginia in the end had them both on her lap and realized it was no small handful she had declared herself willing to be responsible for.
To Virginia’s surprise Madame d’Auvergne did not seem to think it at all strange that her young guest should wish to leave her so abruptly, and instead she declared she was delighted that Virginia was going to remain in Switzerland and be near to her.
She insisted on Franzi’s helping Virginia pack her things and at dinner that night, which the two of them took in the window of the mauve salon and without any visitors declared that she had formed the intention of giving a really large party to celebrate Lisa’s recovery from her operation as soon as the young woman herself was in a fit condition to stand the excitement of it. They would have fairy lights in the garden, a quartet to play dance music, and if the night was fine perhaps even a cabaret out of doors. There would be quantities of champagne, a running buffet, culminating in a supper for which the Milano would make itself responsible, and altogether it would be a party to remember.
“And I shall insist” Madame d’Auvergne concluded, “that whatever the demands of this new employment of yours you will be one of my guests! I may even decide to give the party for both you and your sister, and on the whole I think that would be the better idea. For you have been such a nice guest that I hate to part with you,” smiling almost tenderly at Virginia, “and I hope to see a great deal more of you in the future.”
Her words made Virginia feel a little regretful—perhaps much more than regretful—that her stay in this restful villa had come to an end. And the thought that after tonight this quiet room, with its period furniture and elegance, would have given place to an up-to-date nursery, which a couple of lively charges would have the right to enter at any time, did for a few moments affect her like a depressing shadow.
In the future there would be no more relaxed evenings in a tapestry-covered chair while the radio played soft music and Madame d’Auvergne occupied herself with fine needlework or invited her guest to join her in a game of chess. No more listening almost subconsciously for the sound of the telephone in the hall preparing them for a brief visit from Dr. Hanson, or the brisk noise of his footsteps crossing the flagstone floor of the veranda. There would almost certainly be no more evenings on which she would stand side by side with Dr. Hanson down there in the moonlit
garden, their elbows resting on the time-worn stonework of the balustrade that separated the terrace from the sparkling magic of the lake, while he gave her encouraging reports of Lisa..
Virginia felt her breath catch for a moment at the thought that the last few weeks of her life had represented a distinct phase and tomorrow that phase would end. Whether the new one that was opening up before her would hold as much that she would be happy to keep hugging to herself for the rest of her days was impossible to tell yet.
Right up to the moment that she said her last good night to Aunt Heloise and went upstairs to bed. she knew that she was listening— and not subconsciously—for that soft ringing of the telephone in the hall that could have meant that Leon Hanson was coming out to visit them tonight. Or for the crisp, cool notes of his voice bidding them good-evening from the veranda door.
But he did not come and so far as she was aware he knew nothing of her plans. She had telephoned Lisa earlier in the evening to let her know what she was doing, and Lisa had sounded delighted.
“Oh, good!” she said. “Now you’ll be staying in Switzerland more or less indefinitely? What does Dr. Hanson think?”
“I don’t know.” Virginia replied truthfully. “He doesn’t know that I’m leaving tomorrow.”
“Doesn’ t know?” Lisa sounded almost shocked. “But will he approve?”
“I can’ t see that it really matters whether he approves or not. ” Virginia replied quietly.
“But, Jinny, my sweet—”
Virginia interrupted hurriedly, “I’ ll get time off from looking after the Van Loon infants to come and take you away from the clinic on Saturday. Madame d’ Auvergne is expecting you “
“But Dr. Hanson has said that he will drive me to his aunt’s house himself.’’
“Oh! Then I won’t need to ask for time off. Well, take care of yourself, Liz.” “But Jinny—”
“Goodnight, Liz! ”
“Goodnight, Jinny.
But Lisa went to sleep that night feeling faintly worried and uncertain in her mind about her sister. Virginia was usually such an uncomplicated person. But tonight she had sounded—how had she sounded—just a little bit distressed and—not particularly happy!
CHAPTER TWELVE
It was surprising how quickly Virginia, who had never before in her life coped with two such young children alone, settled down in the Van Loon household. The children were precocious, it was true, but in Virginia they recognized authority overlaid with a sweet reasonableness that appealed to them, and they never tried her too far.
They were also, she discovered, two rather lonely mites who lapped up affection like a pair of puppies, and Virginia was good at lavishing affection on children. She never tired of reading stories aloud or attending to small hurts or answering an endless stream of questions. Moreover she answered the questions to the best of her ability and this satisfied the children more than subtle evasions.
Peter was the more highly strung of the two, and of the two he made the most exacting demands on her. He was inclined to have nightmares and was also inclined to be fractious and irritable at times, and she exerted a lot of patience trying to sort out his problems for him. They were the problems of a naturally nervous child who had had very little settled home life, but he responded noticeably to Virginia’ s methods of dealing with him. He even began to copy her English accent, which amused Mary Van Loon very much indeed.
Mrs. Van Loon never interfered with Virginia’s nursery arrangements. The children had lessons when Virginia decided they should and their daily outings and amusements were entirely her affair. It was something of a responsibility but it kept Virginia occupied, and that was what she preferred just then. She could also have as much time off as she wanted if she cared to take it, for she had been provided with an excellent nursery maid who could take over when she went out, but her disinclination for going far from the villa somewhat surprised her employer, who had imagined that during the period of her sister’ s convalescence she would wish to spend as much of her free time with her as she could manage.
As for Lisa, her physical health had improved so markedly since her operation that she seemed to be romping back to a condition of complete bodily fitness. The exercises for her fingers had started and although it was early days yet there seemed little doubt that with perseverance, and if all went well with her otherwise, a bright and promising future would once more lie open before her.
She telephoned Virginia almost daily an
d Virginia gathered that in addition to the routine exercises to restore the suppleness to her fingers, the rest of her time was not allowed to hang heavily on her hands. Madame d’ Auvergne was introducing her in all the circles where she had introduced Virginia, and everyone was being particularly kind to her. Clive Maddison was still exceedingly attentive, and she met him most mornings for coffee on the lakeshore. He had even succeeded in making such a favorable impression on Aunt Heloise that nowadays he had the right of entry to her villa at almost any time he wished.
Lisa’s voice on the telephone sounded happy, confident and bubbling with enthusiasm about the future—although whether it was her future as a musician that meant more than anything else to her or a future that contained Clive Maddison, Virginia was unable to guess.
Lisa also was so full of gratitude to Leon Hanson that Virginia simply had to echo her enthusiasm—at any rate over the telephone. But alone in her sitting room-cum-nursery she tried not to dwell too much on him or recall how very nearly they had become really close friends.
Since leaving Aunt Heloise she had only seen him once and that was when she was taking the children for a walk. Peter and Paula were both happily eating ice cream after visiting a favorite cafe. They looked a quaint little pair, each clutching with a free hand a hand of Virginia’s, and Virginia herself looked cool and a trifle remote in unadorned white linen with white sandals and slim bare legs that were rapidly acquiring a golden tan now that the weather was becoming increasingly warmer, and even verging on the unbearably hot at times.
But today there was a delicious breeze from off the lake and Virginia had the freshness of an English cottage garden rose. She looked particularly English, Leon thought as, driving his car along the lakeshore he suddenly caught sight of her and pulled in toward the curb.
“Well, well! ” he exclaimed as their eyes met, and although Virginia’ s heart was hammering wildly she succeeded in preventing her expression from giving her away. In fact, the look in her gray eyes was so unrevealing that he stared at her rather hard for a moment, and if by any chance her color increased it could have easily been attributed to the warmth of the midday sun. “I must admit I was surprised when you ran away from Aunt Heloise without even letting me know about your plans, but I gathered it was to look after these children you left and not to shut yourself up in a convent! Does anyone have the pleasure of your society these days—apart, of course, from these precocious-looking infants.”
But he smiled at the children in such an attractive way as he spoke that, after a moment of uncertainty, they each grinned back at him widely, their all-but-consumed ice cream suspended midway to their mouths.
“You appear to be enjoying yourselves,” he observed “Would you like another ice cream apiece? If so, hop into this car and I’ ll take you back to Franchini’s, and perhaps Miss Holt will be good enough to drink a sedate cup of coffee with me?”
“Oh, no! ” Virginia exclaimed quickly, preventing the children from grasping eagerly at the handle of the rear-door. “They’ll mess up your car with their sticky fingers, and anyway it’s too near their lunchtime—
“Nonsense! ” he exclaimed, reaching behind him and opening the rear door himself. “In with you, you imps, and Miss Holt can come and sit beside me like a good girl! ”
Virginia had no alternative but to do as he had more or less ordered her, and when he started up the car she sat stiffly against the silver gray upholstery while Peter and Paula yielded themselves in a blissfully abandoned way to the thrill of being taken for a drive in this immensely superior big black “auto.”
At Franchini’s Virginia still could not prevent him from spoiling the children in a way that surprised her a great deal, for she had never thought of him like this before without any apparent care for his dignity or the dignity of his dark professional suit, and obviously enjoying himself in the company of the loquacious small American children. They chattered on so much and engaged his attention so completely that, to Virginia’ s relief, he had little opportunity to address any very pertinent remarks to her, until Peter and Paula became intrigued by a kite that someone had started to fly not very many feet away from them and almost in front of the open space where Franchini set out his gaily painted tables and chairs.
Dr. Hanson seized the moment to look directly across at Virginia and inquire, “Are you happy in this new job? You really like it?”
“I love it,” Virginia answered, perhaps not altogether truthfully—but at least it was a very pleasant job.
He was silent for a moment, regarding her intently in that old, embarrassing way of his. And then, producing his cigarette case and offering it to her, he reminded her, “My aunt is giving a party for you and Lisa on the twenty-second. I hope you won’t be too busy to attend?”
“Of course not,” Virginia answered quickly. “Although I—” she paused and then hurried on. “Although I can’ t think why Madame d’ Auvergne is putting herself to so much trouble on our account. It is more than kind of her, however, and I hope you will give her my—my love when you see her? Tell her that I miss our evenings very much! ”
“I will,” he promised in a detached, cool tone. “And I’m sure she’ll be glad to know you enjoyed your stay with her.”
“I did—oh, I did!”
And then, as it was almost one o’ clock he offered to give them a lift home to the Van Loon villa.
He declined an invitation from Mary to remain for lunch, gave the children each a pat on the head and smiled coolly at Virginia. Without giving her another chance to say a word to him he was gone.
But Virginia began to dwell upon the thought of the dance Madame d’Auvergne was enthusiastically planning to give. From Lisa, who continued to telephone her regularly, she learned that it was to be quite an impressive affair and that all sorts of preparations had already begun for it, although the night of the twenty-second was still two weeks away.
Madame d’Auvergne even talked about a firework display and the grounds were already being wired for the blaze of colored electric lights that were to dazzle everyone.
It was possible, too, that Carla Spengler would be persuaded to sing for them, and as, apparently, she had quite a remarkable voice, this was really something to look forward to.
Virginia secretly thought that she could endure it quite easily if the temperamental Carla decided, after all, against singing for the party. She knew that if Carla did sing It would probably be the bad moment of the evening for her, Virginia, for as Leon Hanson would almost certainly be among the guests she would have to witness the effect his all-but-fiancee’s beautiful voice had upon him.
But the thing that concerned her the most was the dress she was going to wear when the big evening arrived. If the party was to be for her and Lisa then it was up to them both to look as good as possible, if only as a mark of their appreciation and their gratitude to their hostess. Lisa had already announced that she thought they would be justified in buying something new, particularly as their spending over the weeks they had been in Switzerland had been very considerably kept down because of the generosity of Madame d’ Auvergne
So, as Lisa had decided to have a new dress—and probably she had secret dreams of impressing Clive Maddison in it—Virginia also made up her mind that a new dress was important. The two girls met by arrangement at Franchini’s cafe one afternoon, and after a cup of tea together—the first they had actually shared together in a restaurant since coming to Switzerland—they spent a delicious half hour examining the windows of the more exclusive little dress shops.
Lisa was so much like her old self and was so cheerful and carefree that Virginia found it difficult to keep her wondering eyes off her But once inside one of the dress shops her whole attention became glued to the vital problem of what to choose, and like Lisa she began to wonder whether she would ever be able to make up her mind, because the selection was so tempting and bewildering?
At last, however, Lisa did make up her mind and Virginia heartily applaud
ed her choice. Lisa in white could never be wrong—how often had Virginia seen her in the past, taking her seat before a piano in something that looked like the white wings of a moth and white lace over a taffeta underskirt, with a drifting white lace stole to drape around her creamy shoulders when she wandered beneath the fairy lights in the garden on the night of the big event, was so perfect with her dark hair and eyes that it might have been created especially for her.
Virginia was torn between something that would make her look slightly more sophisticated than she usually looked and something that she knew would really suit her. She had visions of Carla Spengler looking absolutely breathtaking in a confection that everyone would recognize as coming straight from Paris, and the thought of herself in the simple blue evening dress that she had worn so much lately made her shudder inwardly. No wonder a man like Dr. Hanson, who was accustomed to dealing with sophisticated women, and living in sophisticated surroundings, had treated heron the one occasion when he had taken her out for the day as if she were a youngster in her early teens who expected to be rewarded with some signs of affectionate appreciation. Hence the kiss!
But she was trying hard to forget that kiss, and she concentrated ferociously on the dress the saleswoman was holding up in front of her. It was black net—almost as cloudy and attractive and distinctive as the one she had once seen Carla Spengler wearing. But of course she would not look like Carla Spengler if she wore it and Lisa was regarding it with a dubious expression on her face and seemed to consider that a pale pink—exactly the faint pink of a hedge rose—was more in her line.
“Not that I don’t think you could wear black,” Lisa admitted, studying her sister with her head on one side, “but you’re not the sophisticated type, and black and sophistication do go together.
