There is always love (4 page)

"Even a badly-stepped-on worm will stage a comeback and here I am," announced Gregory Merton beside her.

IV

"WAS I as crude as that?"

There was the same beauty of timbre in Linda Bourne's voice, the same mischievous softness that had lingered in his memory since their first meeting in her home town. Greg Merton had the same feeling now that he had had then, that he had happened on a rare person, fresh and unspoiled, naturally gay of spirit, making no effort to attract, with a genius for comradeship, and extraordinarily lovely to look at.

"You didn't give me an even break that day in Sanders' oflSce," he reproached. "You owe me something for turning me down so hard. Have tea with me, will you?"

He wondered what was passing in her mind as she regarded him. Her lips were curved in a faint srmle which didn't touch her eyes.

"I'm really a most respectable person," he urged. "I can produce any number of references—clergyman, banker, a sister— "

"Of course you're respectable. I may have come from a small town but we have human nature there. I know it from A to Z." 18

"I wonder if you do?" He thought of Keith Sanders and of her prompt acceptance of his offer of a position. At her quick look he asked: "Where would you like to go? To the Ritz or to the country? I have my car just round the corner."

"I haven't forgotten that sleek, sporty roadster. Thanks a lot; the country, please. This frosty air makes me think of blazing logs in a big fireplace and leaves turning and the smell of ripening apples." He saw the muscles of her white throat contract.

"I believe you're homesick for the country. I know just the place to ease the hanker. Come on."

She was the loveliest-looking girl he had ever seen, and he had seen them by the glamorous score, Merton told himself, as he sat opposite her at a small table in the long, heavy-beamed, pine-walled, many-windowed room at the Inn. At one end huge logs spouted scarlet and yellow flames in the brick fireplace. There were hollyhock chintz hangings, choice highboys and secretary-desks, and many small tables, polished till you could see your face in them. An ebony cat dozing on the hearth rug, its white-tipped paws folded sedately beneath its black velvet bosom, its eyes Hke topaz jewels, opening wide at every sound.

Outside the window an old-fashioned box hedge enclosed a garden with a sundial in the center. Its borders were a gay patchwork of yellow, russet and rose chrysanthemums, invincible purple petunias, valiant orange-king calendulas, towering white and orchid asters and feathery pink cosmos. Beyond that lay lush green fields patterned with color where the afterglow stained them crimson.

His eyes followed hers about the room, into the garden and back. He smiled at her across the table.

"Was I right? Is this the place?"

"You were wholly, completely, entirely right. It's perfect.'*

"Not homesick any more?"

"How did you know? I wasn't really. It was only that just before I left the office I had looked out at the lights and realized that I didn't know a man in this huge town who would ask me out. And—and then you appeared and here I am. It's the Cinderella motif. For pumpkin-coach see your snappy roadster."

"Doesn't Sanders take you out?" he asked quickly and then as quickly wished he hadn't. He felt her v^thdrawal. It was as if a mist had drifted across her gaiety.

"Forget I asked that. It's none of my business. Let's order. I can recommend the popovers. They always pop. They never let you down. Like jam?"

She said she loved it, black-currant if they had it. Her

gaiety had returned. After that, the conversation ran lightly, ran above a deep current of protest in his mind. He had assured her that it was none of his business if her boss took her out, but he knew ab-eady at this third meeting that it had become intensely, passionately, his business with whom she associated. Take a girl whose character seems fixed and expose her to the attention of a predatory animal like Sanders and what might be the result?

"Just in case you've forgotten, I*m still here," she reminded. "What were you thinking about?"

"You." Then lest he repel her by his fervent answer, "I was wondering what you do out of oflBce hours, how you like your job, if you find real estate interesting. That's my business too."

"I know it. I looked you up in the telephone book to find out what sort of a position I had so snootily turned down. I do plenty after office hours. I have joined a Red Cross class, I'm training to be an ambulance driver in case . . . Why think of that now, this is a party. You were right, these popovers fairly melt in one's mouth. I could die eating this black-currant jam."

"Don't. Overeating would be such an inglorious way of passing out. Comparable only to being run-over by a horse and buggy in this automobile age. You haven't told me how you like your work."

"Immensely, especially when I am sent to look over houses. I adore meeting people. It hurts though, when I know they are giving up a home they love because they can't aflford to run it. It seems to me that in this town it's money, money, money, whichever way one turns. I'm beginning to be afraid it may get me, too."

"It won't, but it's a pretty necessary thing to have. I—I —^hope you are being properly paid for what you're giving, apparently you're doing more than the work of a secretary."

She told him the amount of her salary and he nodded approval.

"That's fair. Watch out that Sanders doesn't overwork you. He is a driver as well as an organizer."

"You don't like him, do you?"

"Personally, no. But he's brilliant, quick-witted, resourceful and makes a whale of a lot of money, apparently."

Her laugh was as refreshing as the cool sound of water rippling over the pebbly bed of a shaded brook.

"'Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer.'"

"Ever been told that you have a lovely laugh? I wasn't damning Sanders. I didn't know that anyone in this age quoted Alexander Pope. How come?"

"If you had grown up in my family you would have had 20

quotes from the classics at your tongue's end. From the time I could hear anything I heard my father theatrically declaiming extracts from favorite plays or poems as he shaved. *We have come to bury Caesar not to praise him.* Remember that one? He had a marvelous voice, rich and mellow with a hint of vibrato when he was deeply moved. I've been told that lawyers would gather in court when he was about to charge a jury." Her voice caught before the last word, she furiously blinked long bronze lashes.

"Where were we when I began to quote? Talking about Keith Sanders, weren't we? I like him, but I'll admit that he's restless, always on the go, impatient, aggressive, and terribly suspicious; I wonder why? What a lovely woman!" she exclaimed as a party of four entered the room. "I mean that perfect brunette with eyes like big black-velvet pansies. Did she bow to you?"

Gregory Merton answered by rising as the woman, after a word to the three who had seated Siemselves, approached their table.

"What luck to find you here, Greg," she greeted. "I have just left Aunt Jane. I'm fairly simmering with news."

"Hold everything. I want you to meet Linda Bourne. Lovely Lindy, this is my sister, Janet Colton; Mrs. Bill, to be explicit."

He knew by Janet's cordial acknowledgment of the introduction that she felt as he had about the girl, that she liked her at .first sight; and Linda's eyes had glowed in response.

"Won't you have your tea with us," she invited.

"I'd love to but I've just come from a meeting of a committee and I must join the members for tea. Take it from me. Miss Bourne, committee meetings are the best little-wasters-of-time in the world. Talk. Talk. Talk about anything except discussion that will advance the subject which the members have been summoned to decide."

"Easy, easy, Janet, we didn't call that committee meeting; don't take it out on Miss Bourne and me," her brother protested.

The soft color that mounted to Mrs. Colton's hair increased her beauty.

"I'm sorry to have inflicted you with one of my blow-ups. Miss Bourne."

"No apologies needed. I've been on committees. If you get me started I could say even more than you said and more colorfully."

"You're a girl after my own heart. My brother and I al-wa3rs like the same people. Greg, Aunt Jane told me this afternoon that she has finally decided to sell her white ele-

phant before it eats her up. It's the chance of your lifetime. The commission will be princely. Go to see her, quick, and get in on the ground floor."

"Can't. I'm going out of town on business tomorrow. Won't get back for a week. I doubt if she would let me in on the deal. She's still sore because she heard that I said she thought herself smarter than her business adviser. The little bird who carried that juicy titbit neglected to finish the sentence, 'and darn it, she is most of the time.' '*

"She'll forget that, she really adores you, Greg. Write to her if you can't get to see her. Forgive this family digression. Miss Bourne, but I've been tingling with excitement ever since I heard of this possible grand break for my brother.'* She held out her hand:

"Come and see me, please. I know just by looking at you that you'll love my garden and adore young Mr. Colton; young Mr. Colton is Billy Boy our son and heir, in case you care. The girls are looking daggers at me while the popovers cool. Bring your lovely Lindy to tea soon, Greg dear." Without waiting for a response she departed.

"Whew! I always feel as if I had been caught up in the middle of a cyclone and then dropped with a bang when Janet breezes in on me like that." Merton resumed his seat.

"She's a dear and so lovely. Her husband is a lucky man. I hope he appreciates her charm and beauty. Is he nice?"

He thought of Bill Colton as he had seen him the night before with a gay party at the Ritz, of which Keith Sanders appeared to be the host, leaning against the bare shoulder of the girl beside him, a girl whose hair was too yellow, whose eyes were too shadowed. He didn't, he wouldn't believe that Bill would go so far as to be unfaithful to his wife, but he'd been a spoiled kid, he was rich and the natural prey for an unprincipled woman, and he was selfish, too absorbed in himself to realize that he was hurting Janet horribly.

"Depends upon what you call nice," he evaded. *To borrow from Hollywood, he has a 'colossal' country place. He keeps a stable of racers which takes care of his surplus income very nicely. He doesn't beat Janet; he loads her with presents, jewels, especially, and he worships his boy."

He promptly switched the subject. They talked about real estate. About taxes. About the war overseas. About his commission as Captain in the Reserve. About social conditions. Wondered if they were suddenly to become perfect what sort of a world it would be. Came back to business.

"You may not think it by my calm exterior," he observed lightly, "but I'm as much excited over Janet's news as she was. I think I know just where I can dispose of the estate, 'white elephant' to you, of this aunt of mine, great 22

aunt really, which is one of those hig unsaleable places no one wants now. I've been talking with an architect who is eager to get hold of a proposition like that. He thinks he can get a backer for a development from his plans. Aunt Jane's a prickly person with personality plus. I call her *Duchess.* She likes it. I've been in her black book. I've appeared not to notice it, have kidded her along as usual, wMle all the time I have been scared stiff for fear, if she decided to sell, she would give her business to someone else to handle."

"I'm so glad for your good fortune. It's amazing how Life straightens out problems if one sits tight and works one's head off to help, isn't it?"

"You believe in Life, don't you? Believe in the best."

"I do. Isn't it stupid not to? My father used to quote. The alert men in all walks of life are men of faith.* Shall we go? Ruth will think that this great, gay city has swallowed me if I don't reach home soon.'*

"She'll have to get used to it, to your being out with me, I mean. I sure am glad you didn't accept my offer of a position."

With one arm in the amethyst-wool jacket he was holding she looked up at him.

"Do you know, I suspected at the time that you didn't really want me, that you were asking me to annoy Keith Sanders.'*

"I wanted you, all right. But not for a secretary. Come on.'* She thought that he added under his breath, "Sweet thing," but she wasn't sure.

V

THE ESTATE on the Hudson which Keith Sanders had that morning detailed Linda to visit and report on was another of the relics of a fabulous age before taxes had begun to overthrow those palaces stupendous on which the modem upkeep is tremendous.

She drove the green convertible supplied by her employer between tall, ornate iron gates and followed a pebbled drive the tortuous curves of which must have been designed before the days of automobiles. She thought of the estate Greg Merton's sister had been so eager for him to handle. Was it as immense as this? And she thought of the late afternoon a week ago when he had driven her home from the Inn and Hester had greeted them at Ruth's door with the news that she and her mother had subleased an apartment near for the winter. She remembered that she had stood

speechless for an instant as she realized that since the moment Greg had invited her to tea she had forgotten that he was her sister's special friend. She had said something to Hester about having an important message to telephone, about changing her frock and had bidden him an icy good night. Her cheeks burned now as she thought of her rudeness and visualized his face, which had gone white with surprise and anger. She hadn't seen him since. She didn't know whether Hester had or not; she had been too busy to see her often.

Why think of it? That was that. This trip was business, business which required her entire attention. As she passed green, velvety lawns, orchards reddening with ripening fruit, garages, stables, greenhouses and two stone lodges, she had a curious feeling that she was intruding. Silly, hadn't Keith Sanders told her this morning that he had been urged to take on the sale and that an appointment for this afternoon had been arranged for her with the owner?