The girl in the blue dress by Mary Burchell Read Free Book Online Page B

realized they
in no way described Franklin Lowell. He was not "quite" or
"rather" anything. There was nothing qualified or moderate about him.
She supposed one would always either like him very much or dislike him
intensely.
    Geoffrey seemed disinclined to continue the subject
of Franklin Lowell, And after a short pause she said, "I met all three of
the Wayne girls. I thought them charming."
    "Yes? Sara is the only one I know really
well."
    He said that with amazing coolness. "Although
I have met all the family at various times."
    "She's, lovely, isn't she?"
    "Yes. She was fun to paint."
    Perhaps if she had not had the key to the situation
Beverley might not have guessed, even then, that he was dissembling. But, knowing
what she did, she was keenly aware that he was being too casual, too objective about Sara Wayne. And suddenly it became unbearable
to her that Geoffrey and she should be telling each other less than the truth.
There had always been, or so she had supposed, the happiest, most open
relationship between them.
    That there should now be reservations, even a degree
of deception, was so dreadful that she felt the
tears come into her eyes, and she turned away and pretended to be
examining some other picture on the other side of the studio.
    She had no wish to prolong this scene. Indeed, she almost had the impulse to rush from the place. And, as soon as she had recovered herself sufficiently to trust her voice, she
said, "I mustn't 'stay, Geoffrey. I have to make quite an early start in
the morning. But I just wanted to come down and tell you my news."
    "I'm glad you did." He did not try to
detain her, she noticed. "You should be quite happy working at the Grange.
And, " -he paused, and she thought the faintest note of bitterness crept
into his voice, "with a wedding in the offing, you'll have plenty of work."     
    "That's what I thought, " Beverley said.
Then she bade him a hasty goodnight and fled.
    All the way up the village street she had
difficulty in restraining her tears. But she resolutely kept a cheerful, normal
appearance. For there was no saying whom she might meet, or who might be gazing
abstractedly from their front windows, to see how the world was faring.
    She got past with no need for more than a couple of
goodnights, called out to neighbours on the other side of the road, and by the
time she reached home she was in full control of herself once more.
    During the rest of the evening she contrived to be her
usual good-humoured self to her mother and her aunt, and it surprised neither
of them that she chose to go to bed rather early.
    "You want-to be nice and fresh for your first
day tomorrow, dear, " her mother said.
    While Aunt Ellen remarked what a dreadful thing it
would be if she missed her bus and was late the very first morning.
    Alone in her own room at last, Beverley faced the future,
in its new and disquieting terms. And, although the impulse to shed tears had
now passed, she felt dreadfully unhappy.
    It was useless to tell her self that, in practical
fact, Sara Wayne was engaged to someone other than Geoffrey, indeed, to someone
who would not be at all the kind to have any nonsense from a vacillating fiancée.
The one inescapable conclusion which had come to her out of the muddled
impressions of the day was that she herself was no longer the girl in Geoffrey's
life.
    The next morning, in spite of Aunt Ellen's anxious expectations
to the contrary, Beverley caught her bus in good time, and was walking up the
lane to Huntingford Grange, in the bright June sunshine, soon after half-past
nine.
    It was impossible not to feel cheered and even
elated by the beauty of the morning. And, after being kindly received and
comfortably installed in her workroom, Beverley felt bound to admit to herself
that the world still had some bright spots in it. She even dared to hope that, in
some as yet unexplained way, every thing
would somehow turn out as she wished it would.
    She had been ready to start