The girl in the blue dress (24 page)

Beverley looked him straight in the eyes. Then she smiled,
although she knew that she was saying her final goodbye t Geoffrey, in all that
mattered, and she man
aged to say quite
firmly,
"You're right, of course. It wouldn't be tactful for me to
turn up here often in the near future. But that still doesn't mean you and I
won't see anything of each
other later. It
just means that you will have to get well
quickly, so that we can meet
elsewhere."

"Are you trying to arrange some clandestine
meeting with me?" he enquired, with a good deal of enjoyment.

"Not exactly." Beverley smiled. "But
I promise you we will not lose sight of each other, even though I'm not going
to be your daughter-in-law."

"All right. Though I .suppose Franklin Lowell
will be having the last word now on how your time is spent."

"Franklin, Oh, yes. Yes, of course. But I
shall have some say in it too."

"I'll be bound you will!" He looked at
her with approval still tinged with regret. "You're really what I mean by
a girl of spirit. I'm sorry Geoffrey hadn't the sense to appreciate you. Yes, I'm
truly sorry. And I only hope this Wayne girl is worth half as much as you."

"You'll love her, "
Beverley predicted confidently.

"How do you know? You don't know what I love, "
he retorted crossly. But he bade her a friendly goodbye after that. And
Beverley went downstairs, with the curious feeling of having passed a stiff
examination, without deriving much sense of elation from the fact.

Geoffrey was waiting for her at the foot of the
stairs, and she had the impression that he must have been walking up and down
the hall for some time, even possibly coming halfway up the stairs from time to
time, in doubt whether or no he should interrupt the con
versation.

"Well?" he said, too anxious to put his
query less than crudely. "What happened?"

"Come into the library, or somewhere where we
can talk more privately, " she told him. And it was she who led the way
into the silent, empty room where, half an hour ago, they had had their
revealing discussion.

But she had no wish to keep him in suspense, and
as soon as he had closed the door, she faced him
and
said, "It's all right. I've told him everything.

"Everything?"
Geoffrey looked slightly alarmed.

"Well, everything that was necessary."
She pushed
back her hair with an
unconsciously weary little gesture.

"I explained that we had mutually come to the
conclusion that we really only, liked each other as very good friends, and that,
in fact, we both wanted to marry someone else."

"Both?" Geoffrey said.

"I had to make it both. Otherwise he would
have gone off the deep end, with some idea that you didn't value me at my real
worth, and that you needed to be
taught a
lesson by him."

"Good lord!"
Geoffrey looked rather disgusted.

"It was all rather melodramatic and Victorian
at that point, " Beverley conceded. "But I managed to imply that this
was the way I wanted things too. I think he was genuinely disappointed that I
was not going to belong to his family, after all. But I told him how lovely and
charming Sara is, "

"You, you spoke about Sara personally?

"Certainly. The sooner he knows about her, the
better. Besides, it all sounded more real and convincing if I gave actual
names. And maybe it left less for you
  
162
to
explain." She smiled at him, and it was the smile she might have used to
someone much younger than
herself. '

"Oh, Beverley, how good you are, " He
came near to her and took her hand, though really she would
have much preferred him not to touch her. "I
don't
know what to say to you, how to thank you, "

"There's nothing to thank me for. I kept on
telling him that you and I remained good friends, and it's true, I hope."

"Of course!"

"Well, I only did what a good friend
should."

"And you don't think the shock was too much
for him?"

"No. I think he was healthily annoyed at one
or two points. But I saw no signs of physical strain because of it. In fact, he
struck me as being a great deal brighter and more energetic than he was
yesterday."

Geoffrey was silent for a moment, and she saw, from
his expression, that he was slowly digesting the wonderful fact that he was
free to take his happiness where he knew he would find it.

But, even then, he needed absolute reassurance. He said,

"You told him categorically that, that, "

"You and I are no longer engaged." She
finished the sentence for him quite calmly. And, as though to give point to the
words, she drew off the beautiful ring she had worn with so much pleasure and
held it out
to him.

"Oh, Beverley, I wish you'd keep the ring. It,
it suits you somehow, and, "

"No dear. I couldn't do that, you know."
She still spoke calmly, though she felt a great desire to break down and weep
at this moment. "Please take it." And she put it on the desk beside
him, since he seemed
unable to go through
the actual motions of taking back his ring.

"I also told your father that you and Sara
will be announcing your engagement quite soon. And I hinted very strongly that
I should be doing the same."

"With whom?" he asked quickly, and for a
moment
he looked startled and, in some quite
illogical way,
annoyed.

She hesitated for a fraction of a second. Then she said
resolutely, "He will probably mention it, if I don t tell you. I simply
had to name someone, Geoffrey, or else your father wouldn't have accepted my
story about this being a mutual arrangement. I told him I was going to marry
Franklin Lowell."

"Lowell? But you're, not, are you?”

"No of course not. Don't be silly! I had to
invent someone, I tell you. To name an actual person.

"Yes I understand that. But, Lowell! It seems
a bit near home, somehow. What's he going to say, if he ever hears of
this?"

"He won't hear of it, " said Beverley
hastily. You must see to that! Your father won't be in any position to talk to
anyone in the outside world for some time.

His life is bounded by his bedroom. He hasn't even a
telephone there. And, long before this situation changes, he will have got used
to your being engaged to Sara. Then presently, just as a matter of interest, you
can let him know that, that my engagement didn't
come to anything."

"He'll be upset about that."

"Well, then, he must be upset!" cried
Beverley, who felt suddenly that she had done absolutely all she was capable of
doing for the Revian family and that now they must look after themselves.
"It won't be a matter of great moment to him by then. He hardly knows me, really,
except as a girl he was very willing to accept into his family. He may be sorry
for me, " she winced, because she was rather tired of being an object of
pity and a cause for guilty feelings, "but it won't go further
than that. He'll be enjoying his return to health
by then,
and I, I'll be making quite a new life of my own."

"Will you, Beverley?" He tried to take
her hand again, but she avoided him. "Will you really not feel too badly
about this? I'd like to think, "

"I'll manage splendidly, " she told him
coolly. "I'd be a hypocrite if I pretended I was not quite badly hit by
this. But that doesn't mean I shan't get over it one day and perhaps be very
happy with
someone else."

"Oh, my dear, I do hope so!" Geoffrey
said this from his heart, prompted no doubt as much by an obscure sense of
guilt as by genuine good feeling.

They said goodbye after that. In a perfectly
friendly spirit, but rather awkwardly, as though they had suddenly become
well-disposed strangers, who had so little in common that it was difficult to
know how to treat each other. Then Beverley went away to catch her bus. For in
his agitation, or possibly his relief, Geoffrey forgot this time to suggest
that she should be driven
home in the car.

Beverley would have refused, even if the offer had been
made. But somehow this tiny indication that his thoughts were already so little
employed on her welfare made her feel indescribably dejected. Once more she sat
in the front seat of the bus on the way home, and
once or twice she had to put up her hand to wipe away an uncontrollable
tear, for all the vanished hopes and
dreams, and joys that had been
hers.

She reached home just in time for lunch, which
surprised Aunt Ellen, who immediately suspected disaster,
even before she
noticed her niece's ringless left hand.

However, at first she was too busy "dishing
up" to make many enquiries, and it was not until they were all having
coffee in Mrs. Farman's room after lunch that Aunt Ellen suddenly exclaimed,
 
"Beverley! You've lost your
ring!"

"No, I haven't." Beverley spoke curtly, for
she secretly dreaded another scene of explanation. "I've given it
back."

"Given it back!" For once her mother and
aunt spoke in unison, and her mother's tone was almost as dismayed as Aunt
Ellen's.

"Do you mean that you have broken your engagement,
dear?" her mother asked anxiously. While Aunt Ellen asserted with gloomy
triumph.

"No, he has! Just as I said he would. Beverley
isn't good enough for him now that he's a rich man."

"Oh, do be quiet, Ellen!" Mrs. Farman
hardly ever spoke so sharply to her sister, even when goaded, and Aunt Ellen
immediately assumed an expression of deep offence. "Let Beverley speak for
herself. That is, if you want to tell us about it, darling, "'Mrs. Farman
added.

"I shall have to tell you some time. It may as
well be now." Beverley managed to make her voice sound very well
controlled and matter-of-fact. "Geoffrey did not break the engagement. I
did. And I did it because I found that he was really in love with someone
else." _

"Oh, my dear, " her mother put out a
sympathetic hand to her, "I'm so sorry.",

But Aunt Ellen, who simply could not maintain her offended
silence in face of so many questions which
were
crying out to be asked, wagged her head critically
and enquired, "Why
did he get engaged to you, then, if he really wanted someone else?"

"It was all a mistake. Aunt Ellen. People do
make mistakes sometimes, you know, even about the things that matter most. You
may as well know now. The other girl is Sara Wayne."

"Sara Wayne?" Is that why she broke off
her engagement to Franklin Lowell? Nobody seems to know their own mind any
more. I don't know what young folk are coming to, " Aunt Ellen declared..

"They always made silly mistakes like this, her
sister reminded her, but she looked grave. "Was this really why Sara broke
her engagement, dear?"

"No " Beverley shook her head. "In a
way, it was the other way round. When Geoffrey heard that she was free he
rather gave himself away. I had been suspecting something for a little while, and
I asked him to be frank. You mustn't think he wasn't upset at having to hurt
me. But once I knew what the true position was, of course there was only one
thing

"Of course, " agreed her mother, but she
sighed.

"And what has old Mr. Revian to say to all this?"
enquired Aunt Ellen after a moment of
blackest thought.
"I suppose he's only too glad that Geoffrey is
going to marry someone from the county instead of a village
dressmaker?"

"On the contrary, " said Beverley dryly, "he
was a
good deal annoyed and upset. I had to
go to a great
deal of elaborate explanation and some pretence to
soften down the news sufficiently for him to
accept it,
in his weak state."

"Well, that's something, " Aunt Ellen
conceded grudgingly, the hurt to her family pride somewhat assuaged by the
thought of Mr. Revian regretting the attractive Sara Wayne as a substitute for
her niece.

There was silence for a moment. Then Mrs. Farman, who
missed very little, asked somewhat diffidently, "What did you mean by
saying, dear, that you had to resort to a certain amount of pretence, when you explained
things to old Mr. Revian?"

Beverley paused, chose her words carefully, and replied
as casually as possible,
 
"He
seemed ready to blame Geoffrey, ".

"Quite right too, " interjected Aunt
Ellen.

"And I had to imply that the arrangement was
mutual. That, in fact, I was as anxious to break the engagement as he
was."

"And how did you do that?" enquired her
mother, with some curiosity.

"By telling him that I too had changed my mind
and wanted to marry someone else."

"Who?" asked Aunt Ellen, on to that
interesting point like a bird on a nice fat worm.