Who Cares? A Story of Adolescence

  XIII

  It began to dawn upon Hosack that Joan had slipped away with HarryOldershaw from the fact that Palgrave first became restless andirritable, then had a short sharp spat with Barclay about the length ofthe line on the Western front that was held by the British and finallygot up and went into the house and almost immediately prowled out alonefor a sulky walk along the beach.

  Chortling as he watched him, although annoyed that he, himself, was notgoing to have an opportunity of saying soft things to Joan for somehours, Hosack made himself comfortable, lit another cigar and ponderedsleepily about what he called "the infatuation of Gilbert the precious."

  "I can sympathize with the feller's being gone on the girl," he said tohimself, undisturbed by Regina's frequent bursts of loud laughter atyoung Barclay's quiet but persistent banter, "but dammit, why make aconspicuous ass of himself? Why make the whole blessed house party,including his hostess, pay for his being turned down in favor of youngHarry? Bad form, I call it. Any one would imagine that he was engagedto be married to Joan and therefore had some right to a monopoly by theway he goes on, snarling at everybody and showing the whites of hiseyes like a jealous collie. Everybody's talking, of course, and makingjokes about him, especially as it's perfectly obvious that the harderhe hunts her the more she dodges him.... Curious chap, Gilbert. He goesthrough life like the ewe lamb of an over-indulgent mother and when hetakes a fancy to a thing he can't conceive why everybody doesn't rushto give it him, whatever the cost or sacrifice.... If young Harryhadn't been here to keep her amused and on the move I wonder if Joanwould have been a bit kinder to our friend G. P.? She's been in a weirdmood, as perverse as April. I don't mind her treating me as if I was adoddering old gentleman so long as she keeps Gilbert off.... Acharming, pretty, heart-turning thing. I'd give something to know thereal reason why that husband of hers lets her run loose this way. Andwhere's her mother, and why don't those old people step in?--such achild as she is. Well, it's a pretty striking commentary on the way ouryoung people are brought up, there's no doubt about it. If she was mydaughter, now--but I suppose she'd tell me to go and hang myself if Itried to butt in. Divorce and a general mess-up-the usual end, I takeit."

  He shook his head, and his ash dropped all over his clothes and hebegan to nod. He would have given a great deal to put his feet on achair and a handkerchief over his face and sink into a blissful nap.The young people had gone off somewhere, and there were only his wife,the Major, and the bride on the veranda. And, after all, why shouldn'the? Cornucopia could always be relied upon to play up--herconversational well was inexhaustible, and as for Mrs.Thatcher--nothing natural ever stopped the incessant wagging of hertongue.

  But it was not to be. He heard a new voice, the squeak of a cane chairsuddenly pushed back, looked up to see the Major in an attitude offalse delight and out came Mrs. Cooper Jekyll followed,--as he inwardlyexclaimed,--"by the gentle Alice Palgrave, by all that's complicating!Well, I'm jiggered."

  "Well," cried Cornucopia, extending her ample hand. "This IS asurprise."

  "Yes, I intended it to be," said Mrs. Jekyll, more than everSouthampton in her plague veil and single eyeglass, "just to break thealoofness of your beach life."

  "And dear Alice, too,--neater than ever. How very nice to see you, mydear, and how's your poor mother?"

  Her little hand disappearing between Mrs. Hosack's two podgy memberslike the contents of a club sandwich, Alice allowed herself to bekissed on both cheeks, murmured an appropriate response, greeted theThatchers, waved to Hosack who came forward as quickly as he could withpins and needles in one leg and threw a searching glance about forGilbert.

  Every one caught it and gathered instinctively that Mrs. Jekyll hadbeen making mischief. She had certainly succeeded in her desire tobreak the aloofness. The presence of Alice at that moment, with Gilbertbehaving like a madman, was calculated to set every imagination jumping.

  "Um, this won't make G. P. any better tempered," thought Hosack, notwithout a certain sense of glee.

  Mrs. Jekyll disclosed her nose and mouth, which, it seemed, were boththere and in perfect condition. "I was in town yesterday interviewingbutlers,--that Swiss I told you about refused to be glared at by Edmondand left us on the verge of a dinner party, summing us all up in aburst of pure German,--and there was Alice having a lonely lunch at theRitz, just back from her mother's convalescent chair. I persuaded herto come to me for a few days and what more natural than that she shouldwant to see what this wonderful air has done for Gilbert--who hasevidently become one of the permanent decorative objects of yourbeautiful house."

  "Cat," thought Mrs. Thatcher.

  "And also for the pleasure of seeing so many old friends," said Alice."What a gorgeous stretch of sea!" She bent forward and whisperedcongratulations to the Major's bride. Her quiet courage in the face ofwhat she knew perfectly well was a universal knowledge of the truestate of Gilbert's infatuation was good to watch. With his one briefcold letter in her pocket and Mrs. Jekyll's innuendoes,--"all in thefriendliest spirit,"--raking her heart, her self-control deserved allthe admiration that it won from the members of the house party. Tothink that Joan, her friend and schoolfellow in whose loyalty she hadhad implicit faith should be the one to take Gilbert away from her.

  With shrewd eyes, long accustomed to look below the surface of the thinveneer of civilization that lay upon his not very numerous set, Hosackobserved and listened for the next half an hour, expecting at anymoment to see Joan burst upon the group or Gilbert make his appearance,sour, immaculate and with raised eyebrows. He studied Mrs. Jekyll, withher brilliantly made-up face, her apparent lack of guile, and herever-watchful eye. He paid tribute to his copious wife for herdetermined babble of generalities, well-knowing that she was burstingwith suppressed excitement under the knowledge that Alice had come totry and patch up a lost cause. He chuckled at the feline manners of thelittle lady whom they had all known so long as Mrs. Edgar Lee Reeves,her purring voice, her frequent over-emphasis of exuberant adjectives,her accidental choice of the sort of verb that had the effect ofsmashed crockery, her receptiveness to the underlying drama of thesituation and the cunning with which she managed to hide her anxiety tobe "on" in the scene which must inevitably come. He examined his oldfriend, Thatcher, under whose perfect drawing-room manners, felicitousquips and ready laughter there was an almost feminine curiosity as toscandal and the inadvertent display of the family wash. And, having acertain amount of humor, he even turned an introspective eye inwardsand owned up to more than a little excitement as to what was going tohappen when Gilbert realized that Mrs. Jekyll had brought his wife overto rescue him. Conceive Gilbert being rescued! "All of us as near theprimeval as most of us are to lunacy," he told himself. "Education,wealth, leisure and all the shibboleths of caste and culture,--howeasily they crack and gape before a touch of nature. Brooks Brothersand Lucile do their derndest to disguise us, but we're still Adam andEve in a Turkish bath.... Somehow I feel,--I can't quite say why,--thatthis comedy of youth in which the elements of tragedy have been draggedin by Gilbert, is coming to a head, and unless things run off at asudden tangent I don't see how the curtain can fall on a happy endingfor Joan and the husband who never shows himself and the gentle Alice.Spring has its storms and youth its penalties. I'm beginning to believethat safety is only to be found in the dull harbor of middle-age, curseit, and only then with a good stout anchor."

  It was at the exact moment that Joan and Harry went together up theincline towards Martin's cottage at Devon, eyed by Tootles through thescreen door, that Gilbert came back to the veranda and drew up short atthe sight of his wife.