The girl in the blue dress (22 page)

"I think so, yes. He referred to Grandfather
very flatteringly. Said he was the best man he ever heard the pulpit, and a
grand worker in the parish too."

"That's true, " agreed Aunt Ellen with emphasis.
"Though he was a little on the easy-going side with some who needed a firm
hand. Still, Mr. Revian wouldn't know that. Go on, Beverley, what else
happened?"

"I stayed to lunch, and meet Geoffrey's aunt,

"How did she react?"
Aunt Ellen displayed an almost professional interest in aunts.

"Politely rather than cordially, but that may
just be her manner."

"No, no. She's jealous, mark my words. She'll
make trouble if she can." Aunt Ellen wagged her head in gloomy
satisfaction.

"Oh, Ellen, don't be tiresome! Why should she?
exclaimed Mrs. Farman impatiently.

"Because she feels her own nose will be put
out of joint of course. But, in a way, that's a good sign. She
wouldn't bother to be resentful if she thought
Beverley
would soon be pushed out of the way."

"I wouldn't describe, her as resentful, "
said Beverley mildly. "Merely unenthusiastic."

"Well, they seem to have kept you there long
enough,
 
anyway, dear."
Beverley's mother smiled encouragingly at her daughter. "You must have
stayed a good while
after lunch."

"Oh, no, I didn't, really. I met Toni Wayne on
the bus and, I called in at the Grange with her."

"Why?" asked Aunt Ellen, who always liked
to get straight to the bottom of things. "To tell them about
Geoffrey's father?"

"Not exactly, " said Beverley
disingenuously. I went
to collect "some
work I'd like to finish this evening.
Besides, Toni had told me some
rather distressing news. Sara has broken off her engagement."

"Broken off her engagement? Then they won't
want you working for them any more, " cried Aunt Ellen,
unerringly selecting the blackest outlook from a
per
sonal point of view.

"I don't know about that. For the moment, I am
to go on with what I have already begun. But, no, I suppose they won't want me
for as long as I expected."

"That's the least of it, " declared Mrs.
Farman,
"especially as you're getting
married so soon yourself.

But I'm dreadfully sorry. Did you hear what the trouble-was?
How could she not want to marry that nice Franklin Lowell, I wonder?"

"I think she just decided she didn't love him,
after all, " Beverley said cautiously.

"With all that money, and a fine estate?"
Aunt Ellen laughed sceptically. "She's probably found some one who is a
better catch. Though how, and who it could be, " she frowned as she
obviously passed the cream of the county in hurried mental review, "I
really don't know. I'll go and see about some tea now."

And, satisfied that she had heard all the salient
points of Beverley's news, she hurried off into the kitchen.

"Will he take it very badly, Beverley?"
Mrs. Farman, who had developed quite a genuine affection for Franklin Lowell, looked
solemn.

"He is feeling pretty miserable at the moment,
I think. He brought me home just now, and we talked about the broken engagement
quite frankly, " Beverley explained. "But, at a guess, I'd say his
pride has suffered
more than his
heart."

"Pride can hurt an awful lot too, " remarked
Mrs. Farman, but she smiled slightly. "Was there someone else, Beverley?"

"Someone else?"

"I mean, did Sara Wayne decide that she wanted
another man whatever the reason?"

Beverley hesitated a moment. Then she said
curiously.

"I wonder what makes you ask that?"

"It's always a reason for a broken engagement,
or
one of the reasons. But, in this case, it
seems the most
likely reason to me. Franklin Lowell is a rather special person,
quite apart from his worldly advantages. It would be quite extraordinarily
difficult not to fall in
love with him, I'd
say, unless there were a strong
counter-attraction. And as for falling
out of love with him, No, no, Sara Wayne must have had a very definite feeling
for someone other than Franklin."

"Oh, Mother, do you think so?" Beverley
tried not to feel dejected and failed.

"So it seems to me. But there's no need to
look glum about it, darling. Once one has accepted the fact
that she has broken the engagement, I suppose the
reason
why is immaterial."

"I suppose so, " Beverley managed to say.
But she was glad that Aunt Ellen chose this moment to come in again with the
tea.

During the evening Aunt Ellen became almost
cheerful. Local affairs were of infinitely more interest to her
than world affairs, and she had a wonderful time examining
Sara Wayne's broken engagement from every
point of view. But it was only
when she remarked,
"This will make a
great deal of difference to the other Wayne girls too, " that Beverley
remembered guiltily that she had forgotten to ask Franklin what he intended to
do about Madeleine's year at the Dramatic Academy.

"There will be another chance, " she
assured herself remorsefully. "And there are rather a lot of other things to
think about at the moment."

Once or twice that evening she was severely tempted
to go out to the telephone box and ring up Geoffrey,
just to hear his voice and have some reassurance from
the sound
of it. But if she did that, she would feel bound to tell him of Sara's broken
engagement. And what she wanted above all else was to be able to see him when
he first received that news.

It was possible, of course, that Sara would herself
telephone and tell him, but, on the whole, Beverley
thought that unlikely. And so she waited, through an uneventful evening and a
rather restless night, alternately hoping for the best and trying to face the possibility
of having worst happening.

Early the next morning, the respectful chauffeur in
the big car came to fetch her once more to
Castleton. Mr. Revian was a little better again, it seemed, but he would like
to see Beverley once more. Mr. Geoffrey had not been able to come himself
because he was reluctant to leave his father. If Miss Farman wouldn't mind,
  
 

Miss Farman said she did not mind at all. And,
having bade her mother and aunt a hasty goodbye, she
stepped into the big car and was driven away in state,
while one or two
stragglers from early morning service stood in the main street of Binwick and
gazed after her in pleasant speculation.

The car was very beautiful and very comfortable, and
Beverley leaned back in her seat, trying hard to relax. But she knew, from the
way her hands kept on clasping each other tightly, that she was feeling nervous
again. Not because of the prospect of seeing old Mr. Revian this time. But
because she knew that she was nearing the vital test of her relationship with
Geoffrey.

It was he himself who came out to greet her, and his
welcoming hug and kiss should have been reassuring enough. But when he led her
into the library and said, "The old man's asleep at the moment, " she
knew that here was the opportunity which she had to grasp.

For a minute or two they talked of Geoffrey's
father and the slight improvement which had taken place since Beverley had been
there the previous day. Then, at a momentary pause in the conversation, she
heard herself say quite calmly, "I met Toni when I was going back on the
bus yes
terday."

"Toni Wayne? Did you? That gave you lively
company, I'll bet. She always has plenty to say for herself."

"Yes. She had even more than usual to tell me yesterday."
Beverley paused for a second, with the queer sensation that she was about to
launch herself into space from a great height. Then, though she looked straight
at Geoffrey, she spoke almost casually. "It seems that Sara has broken off
her engagement"

"Sara! broken, her
engagement?"

She was not really surprised that Geoffrey had lost
colour. Only a sort of leaden despair seemed to replace the anguish of
uncertainty.

"You mean, she's not going to marry Lowell, after
all?"

"Yes, that's what I mean. She is not going to
marry Franklin Lowell, " said Beverley quite exactly.

"But, " suddenly he got up and walked
from one side of the room to the other, "why not?" His voice
had gone hoarse. "What reason does she give?
I mean,
what reason did Toni give?"

"None Except that she just doesn't want to
marry him, after all. That was the reason Sara herself gave, when I saw her
later."

"Then you, you've seen
her?

"Oh yes. I called in at
the Grange on my way home "And talked to her about this broken engagement A
little. She was not inclined to say very much,
naturally. We aren't intimate friends after all.

"So that, you say, you've no idea why she did

'No I didn't say that. I said
Sara herself gave no specific reason. But, " Beverley went on, not knowing
whether a sense of justice or sheer nervousness or just
stupidity prompted her to say the words, "my
own view has
always been that Sara really
wanted someone else. Not Franklin Lowell at all.",

"I wonder what makes you think that."
Geoffrey
had sat down again now closer to
her, but she had the
queer impression that his defences were down his
clasped hands were stuck between his knees and his
face looked pale and drawn.

"Quite a number of things combined to make
me think it, I suppose, " she said slowly.
"At one time I thought it was best to ignore the fact, to put a line
under
the past. But now it's a different situation. He didn't reply. He just stared
at her, half apprehensively, so that she was slightly bitterly sorry for
him. Much more sorry than for herself. And it was
not
at all difficult to say quite gently. "It was you she wanted, wasn't, it, Geoffrey?
And if
things had been as they are now, it's
you who would …."

Geoffrey, groan and buried his face in his hands, "how
did you guess?

"I told you-there were lots of things-but none
of them matters now. The only thing which
matters i
s the fact that you and Sara love each other, and ……"

''But so do you! You've been such a dear,
loyal, loving girl, all the years I've known
you." He
looked up haggardly. "That's why I thought, "

"You thought you could make a good second-best
of things with me, didn't you?" She spoke without
bitterness. "You probably would have too, if Sara had been
permanently out of the running. But that isn't how things are, Geoffrey."

"They, could be still, "
he said, but without con
viction.

"Oh, no, dear!" She got up and came and
stood
beside him. "You don't think we
could really go on from here, do you? Not even if I would accept such a
sacrifice,
which of course I wouldn't. You couldn't
marry
me now, just out of friendship and a sort of
mistaken sense of chivalry.
Any more than I could
marry you, now that I
know it's Sara you really want."

"But, what are we to do?"

"Just break our
engagement and, and call it a day. Then you can go to Sara and tell her you're
free.
It's almost simple, really."

"No, it isn't. There's
the old man to consider." Dis
mayed
recollection flooded into Geoffrey's face. "He's
taken an enormous fancy to you. He talked of little else when I was with
him yesterday evening and this morning. He says you're the ideal girl for me, and
that
you've been the making of me, and other rather
chastening things."

Geoffrey grinned faintly for a moment, but then he became
serious again. "I can't imagine what sort of a shock it would be for him, Beverley,
to find I really wanted, I mean, that I proposed to marry someone else, after
all. It
would be enough to give him another
heart attack.

Quite apart from the fact that
he'd decide I was an irresponsible rotter, after all. Which I suppose I am, "
he added ruefully.

"Nonsense. Circumstances have just been
unfortunate. But, do you really think he would take it so hard?"

"I think it could even threaten the new
harmony between us."

"Then what are we to do?" She looked
blank in her turn.

"I don't know. That's what I was asking you
just
now, " Geoffrey said gloomily. And
at this moment the nurse came into the room to announce that Mr. Ravian was
awake and would be very happy to see
Miss Farman.

"All right. I'm coming, "
Beverley made a move
ment towards the
door. But Geoffrey exclaimed.

"Wait a moment! We've got
to settle this first."