GI Brides (46 page)

“That’s all right, Hattie. And fix a little salad of some kind, too.”

“Oh, all right. It’ll piece out. But you just baby those folks, I say. After they acted like they did I should say it didn’t matter if they had anything to eat or not. But I’ll make it.”

Hattie went away with a chastened look on her grim face, and Dale smiled after her and went upstairs to write an answer to her letter and send it immediately so it would get to her beloved at the first possible moment.

So she sat joyously down and began to write.

It was quite a good deal later that Dale heard a sputtering of angry voices, mounting to a perfect tornado of sound that bore the accents of Hattie in her most indignant mood. And then haughty indignation from her aunt, interspersed by screaming denunciations from both Corliss and Powelton.

Dale smiled, half-amused, and went on with her writing, but she drew a sad little sigh. It was scarcely possible to continue writing loving words when arguments were going on so near to her. She folded her letter, locked it away in the little secret drawer of her desk, and took out fresh paper. There were other notes she must write. She would get those done now while her mind was likely to be distracted. She could not bear to write to David out of the midst of annoyances. He would have enough battles to think about without getting even a hint of her own home-front battles. He must not even get the subconscious atmosphere of distress.

So she began to write thank-you notes to people who had sent flowers to Grandmother’s funeral and to some who had written beautiful letters of condolence. She soon grew interested in getting as many as possible ready for the mail. She had no wish to go down into the atmosphere she was sure she would find in the dining room. So she wrote on.

But after a little while she heard footsteps coming up the stairs and then became aware of someone standing in her open door, looking severely at her. But even then she did not stop writing or look up.

“Oh, so you
pretend
to be
very busy
!” said the sharp, querulous voice of the aunt. “You have no apologies to offer for the outrageous way in which I was treated last night.”

Quietly Dale looked up, her pen poised for the next words she was about to write. “Apologies?” said Dale with a surprised lifting of her brows. “Apologies for what? Or—did you mean
you
came to apologize?”

“
I? Apologize?
” screamed the aunt. “Why should
I
apologize?”

“Well, I am afraid I wouldn’t just know what you would consider a sufficient reason for apology,” said Dale, speaking gently, almost as one would speak to a child who had misbehaved. “Perhaps you did not realize that the whole street, who are all very dear friends of Grandmother’s, were greatly scandalized at the sounds of hilarity that proceeded from the home where she had lived, so soon after her death. You see, the people around this neighborhood are quiet, respectable people who are not in the habit of attending nightclubs and getting even slightly tipsy, and to hear such sounds coming from Grandmother’s home shocked them. But you are a comparative stranger here, of course, and did not know those people who came here and probably thought you could not help what your guests did. I felt rather mortified for you.”

“
What?
” screamed the aunt. “
You
felt mortified for
me
? You outrageous little baggage you! And what did you think of yourself, coming in to
my party
and bringing a lot of old fogies and practically sending my guests all home? Have
you
any apologies? Oh no! You turn on us, your guests. It is a pity that Grandma couldn’t have lived long enough to know just how rude you were to her nearest relatives.”

Dale looked at her aunt steadily. “Aunt Blanche, what did I do but come to my own home, where I had a perfect right to come, and expect quietness and respectability, and introduce my friends who are among the finest in our city? I am afraid I do not see any reason for apology in anything I did. And now, Aunt Blanche, since we are coming to some understanding I think I should go on and explain that I am starting a school for the children of defense workers here in the house and that after next week I shall not be free any longer to entertain guests. I am sorry to have to seem inhospitable, but the matter has been all arranged, and I have promised to undertake it without any further delay. I don’t know what your plans are or whether you were arranging to stay in this region longer than next week or not, but if you feel that you would like to stay I think I can suggest several nice places down farther toward the city where you might secure board.”

“Well,
really
!” said Aunt Blanche, rising and snapping her furious eyes. “So we are being turned out of the house, are we? Well I shall certainly remember that.”

“But I haven’t meant it that way, Aunt Blanche. You see, I have a regular job, at least for the duration. Grandmother helped me plan it. Besides, Hattie is going to the hospital for an operation pretty soon, and I can’t possibly look after twenty children and cook meals for a family besides. I’m sure you must see how it is.”

“No, I don’t see how it is at all,” snapped her aunt. “In the first place, you never had to take a job like that. And certainly you don’t need to begin it while we are here. As for Hattie, she isn’t the only working woman left in the world. And I’ll engage to get you another as good or better than she is. Certainly I’m not going to leave here to accommodate Hattie. Not until my business is finished, anyway.”

“I’m sorry, Aunt Blanche, but you can’t run my life for me. I’m of age, and this is my house. I’ll do all I can to find a pleasant place for you to board. I’m sure there must be one that wouldn’t cost you as much as you are paying now at the hotel.”

“
I
am paying!” screamed the angry woman. “It was not
my
idea going to the hotel, in the first place. It was
you
who suggested it, and therefore the paying was
your responsibility.
I told the hotel manager when I went there that they might send the bill to you, and it will probably be here in a day or two. I understand they send bills at the end of the week, or perhaps month. I don’t know which. But you’ll find out.”

“Aunt Blanche, I’m not going to argue with you, but certainly I am not responsible for your bills at the hotel, and I shall not pay any of them! You had no right to tell them I would. I shall certainly make that plain to their management. But I’m sorry you do not understand. I am not doing this to be disagreeable. I am only telling you what my present obligations and plans are. And inasmuch as you are not staying here nights, anyway, I didn’t think it would make so much difference to you where you ate. Besides, you haven’t seemed satisfied at all with our food. Certainly you wouldn’t want to be coming to meals with twenty children running all over the place, would you?”

“
Twenty
children! That’s ridiculous! What right did you have to take twenty children into the house, especially when you had relatives visiting you? This is the most absurd thing I ever heard of, and you might as well understand
now
as anytime that I
am not
going anywhere else. I am staying
right here
! We are the wife and children of Grandma’s son, and that at least gives us the right to stay in her house, even if she did see fit to leave it to you. And while we are talking about it, you may as well understand that Corliss is going to have Grandma’s room from now on. If you don’t unlock that door I shall get a carpenter this morning to do so, and you can’t do anything about it. I’ll see if I have to stay in a hotel because a little upstart of a girl like you takes a notion to be disagreeable. Now, I hope you understand. I’m going out for an hour, over to the hotel to get our suitcases. And when I get back, if Grandma’s room isn’t open I shall phone for a carpenter at once to knock down the door!”

Then Aunt Blanche rose with a grand gesture and left the room. Dale’s heart went down with a thud. What was she going to do about this?

Suddenly she got up, locked her door, and knelt beside her bed.

“Dear Lord, I’ll just put this all in Your hands. Will You please help me and show me what to do. Please don’t let me have to fight for my rights.”

For some little time after she rose from her knees she stood by her window looking out. Was she wrong? Could it possibly be required of her to let the vandal relatives into Grandmother’s precious room? Was she making too much of this? She did not worship that room in any sense, but it was a dear place to her with precious memories. Even now in her mind she could see Corliss jeering at the little framed sampler hanging on the wall that Grandmother’s little-girl hands had wrought:
“The L
ORD
is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the L
ORD
is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?”

She could see the sneer that would curl Corliss’s lips, the ugly antipathy that would register in her expression as she read that. She could see Corliss’s hands snatching the poor old sampler down and stamping on it, smashing the glass that protected it, if she were ever allowed the freedom of that room. She could see the derision that would greet the quaint old picture of Grandfather, with his old-fashioned haircut and the stock around his neck. Corliss simply wouldn’t be able to comprehend how anybody who looked like that picture could possibly be dear to anyone, and she would never stop her vandalism because somebody else reverenced the object of her scorn.

The quaint little vases on Grandmother’s bureau, with their guilt edges and their hoop-skirted maidens and old-time suitors. They would all come in for her contempt.

Grandmother’s old rocking chair with its patchwork cushions made of the pieces of family dresses of bygone days. Grandmother’s pretty little desk that Grandfather had bought for her, with its small bundles of precious letters and papers, every one of them heirlooms that under Grandmother’s direction had been left there for Dale to read over and put away among the other heirlooms. There hadn’t been time for her to go over everything since Grandmother’s last attack that brought her death. And she must do it quietly, without stranger’s eyes looking on. There was no use. She simply couldn’t let Corliss into that room. Not unless everything was first moved out, and there wasn’t any place to put the things if she were to try to do that.

She thought of the neat piles of Grandmother’s garments and the little gray dresses hanging in the closet, including the shining gray silk to be worn with the lovely white lace kerchiefs in the top drawer of the bureau. She thought of the fine silk shawl with long handsome fringe that Grandfather had bought for Grandmother on their first wedding anniversary. She imagined how Corliss might stretch it around her and sail out even into the street dragging it behind her as if it were an evening dress. Corliss was capable of all sorts of things like that. She remembered the groups of much-loved photographs of Grandmother’s old-fashioned family, even the daguerreotypes of her two boys, now dead. Oh, she couldn’t have Corliss laughing at their strange clothes, their little copper-toed shoes, as they stood sturdily beside the photographer’s chair, one hand stiffly outstretched to grip the plush arm. Oh, surely it wouldn’t be right to let the relatives in there, to destroy all that belovedness that Grandmother had meant to leave for her memory. They had often talked about it. So she wasn’t being just selfish. And it wasn’t as if it would have done Corliss any definite good to sleep in that room. It was just a notion she had taken, which would probably pass. Probably the only reason she wanted the room was because she knew that Dale treasured it, and she had always enjoyed being unpleasant to Dale.

However, of course she was not going to allow any carpenter to knock the door down. That was absurd. She would do her best to settle this matter peaceably, but if not, she would have to resort to—well, what could she resort to? Of course she might appeal again to Mr. Granniss, but she couldn’t bear to trouble him with such trifling matters of bickering. Well, she had told the Lord about it, now what was there else for her to do?

But down in the kitchen Hattie, who had hung around at the foot of the back stairs listening and had heard the whole conversation between Dale and her aunt, decided to take matters into her own hands. So she called up the back stairs to Dale: “I’m just goin’ down to the drugstore to get some more pills. I took the last one last night and I need some more. Is there anythin’ you want, Miss Dale?”

“No Hattie, not unless—why yes, we need some peanut butter and some cinnamon. You might get a yeast cake, too, and make a few cinnamon buns.”

“Yes’m,” said Hattie. “Okay by me,” and then under her breath, “though what you want to pamper that old battleax and her brats for I don’t see!” So Hattie made her hurried way to the drugstore and called up Mr. Granniss. She felt that he was a tower of strength at all times.

“Mister Granniss, sir, I hope I’s not interruptin’ your work, but there’s a question I like to ask. Is there any way you can stop a relative from tearin’ down a door when she wants to get in a room where you don’t want her? ’cause that old battleax of an aunt has gone after a carpenter to break down a door of Grandma’s room so her girl can have that for her room. And is there any way to stop her?”

“Why yes, I think there is, Hattie. Does Miss Dale know you are calling me? Did she ask you to?”

“Oh no, sir, Mister Granniss. And don’t you go tell her, neither. I just overheard a conversation, and I thought maybe I oughtta do somethin’ about it.”

“Well, don’t you worry, Hattie; I’ll look into things. I don’t think she’d dare go that far anyway.”

“Oh yes she would. You don’t know that woman.”

“All right, Hattie. I’ll look after it.”

“Okay, thanks, Mister Granniss!” And Hattie hung up and went for her pills and cinnamon.

What Mr. Granniss did was to call up the police headquarters that wasn’t far from the Huntley home.

“Is that you, Mike? Well, glad I caught you. This is Granniss. I think I want your help in something. It’s rather a difficult matter, and as usual I’m butting into affairs that don’t perhaps rightly concern me. So I thought I better rope you into it. You remember Dale Huntley, the little girl you used to look out for when she went to school?”