As for the other possibility, the much stronger probability,
that he had indeed at one time loved Sara, what right had she to ask him to
admit the fact? "It isn't even my business if he loved her once but doesn't
any longer, " Beverley assured herself, with a splendid detachment which
reached no further than words. "What's past is past. If it is all over, "
But there, of course, was the nib. Was it all over?
Or did Geoffrey still hanker after the girl who was
divided from him by practical circumstances? Was he,
in fact, marrying
herself, as second-best, in order to console himself for the loss of the girl
he really
wanted?
When she was actually with Geoffrey, Beverley was considerably
reassured, for his manner to her was as
affectionate
and intimate as it had always been. It
was when she was away from him
that she questioned herself in tormenting detail about the real state of affairs.
And, during the hours that she sat sewing in her light, pleasant room at the
top of Huntingford Grange, there was all too much time to think things
over.
Sara made no further reference to their revealing conversation.
She remained polite and friendly al though, like her mother, not intimate. And
she was undoubtedly as pleased as Madeleine with the completed dresses for Lady
Welman's charity dance. In addition, like Madeleine, she expressed genuine and friendly
interest in the fact that Beverley too was coming to the dance.
She did not ask if Beverley's fiancé would be accompanying
her, but she must have passed on the
news of
the engagement, for Madeleine offered warm
congratulations and said she
supposed Geoffrey Revian, would also be at the dance.
Madeleine was far more expansive than her elder sister.
She used to come and talk to Beverley quite a lot, sometimes about Beverley's
affairs, as when she enquired about the engagement, but mostly about her own
theatrical hopes and aspirations.
"It makes them seem more real when I talk to
you about them, " she told Beverley. "I always remember the calm way
you listened when I first told you I wanted to be an actress, and how you spoke
as though anything were possible, if only one were sufficiently determined."
"Did I speak like that?" Beverley was
amused. "I hope I didn't encourage you unduly in something quite
unpractical."
"Oh, no. You merely gave me a new slant on how
to look at one's ambitions, " Madeleine
assured her.
"I'm always thinking now of just how I might man age
to have at least a year in London at the Academy. I'd know, after that, if I
were really any good, and I think I'd abide by their decision."
Beverley said nothing, but reflected that few who are
once bitten by the urge to act or sing ever accept the discouraging verdict of
others. They are always going to give themselves just one more chance and one
more year. However, her comments were not
necessary.
Madeleine ran on quite happily on her
own
steam.
"Of course, " she said, '"once Sara
is married, with
a flat in town, as well as
Eithorpe Hall, things will be simpler."
"But is she going to have
a flat in town?" Beverley
looked
up from her work.
"Oh, I expect so. In fact,
yes, of course she must! Everyone wants that, " Madeleine-declared
comprehensively. "Besides, think how useful it would be
for us all."
Beverley wondered if this view
had been presented,
in so many words, to
Franklin Lowell and, if so,
what his
reaction had been. But, whether it had or not, Madeleine's casual statement
made it increasingly
obvious that most of the Wayne family's hopes and plans
did indeed depend on Sara's marrying well.
Toni, too, of course, learned
very soon of Beverley's engagement, and she rushed into the room on her return
from school, still panting from the rapid ascent
of two flights of stairs.
"Is it true, Miss
Farman?" she enquired, with dra
matic
brevity.
"Is what true?"
Beverley looked up and smiled at
her.
"Are you really going to
many Geoffrey Revian?
"Yes. We've known each other' for a long time,
you know." Beverley explained, in as
matter-of-fact
a tone as she could, "and now we have decided to get
married."
"You aren't wearing a ring." Toni drew
near and
inspected Beverley's hand a trifle
disapprovingly.
"No. He's having his
grandmother's ring reset for
me. He
designed the new setting himself, and it's really lovely."
"Is it?" Toni stood
and looked at her, and Beverley guessed that the little girl was busily sorting
out
some-awkward contradictions in her
own mind. Then at last ' she said, "Miss Farman, "
"Yes, Toni?"
"You know what I told you
about Sara and Geof
frey Revian, the
first day you were here."
"I remember you did tell me something that was
worrying you."
"Well, when I told you I
saw them with their arms
round each
other, I guess 1 was mistaken."
"You mean you didn't see
them, like that?"
Beverley could not quite
disguise the eagerness in her
voice.
"No, I don't mean that I
did see them, but people
do sort of
hug each other for other reasons besides being in love, don't they?"
"I suppose they might." Beverley
endeavoured to sound as though she were speaking quite academically. "But
you also said that Sara was, crying."
"Maybe I was mistaken
about that too, "' said Toni soberly. "Maybe she just had something
in her eye."
"That's possible of
course, " agreed Beverley, hoping that her tone carried more conviction to
Toni than it did to herself.
"Anyway, I shall forget
all about it now, " declared Toni, brightening immensely all at once.
"If Geoffrey
Revian is going to marry you, there
can't be anything between him and Sara, can there? And in that case it's all
right for her to marry Franklin, and
everyone
will be happy."
Oh, blessed simplicity of
youthful logic! Beverley wished with all her heart that she could feel the same
happy conviction that all was now for the best in this best of all possible
worlds. But at least Toni seemed unlikely to indulge in any more worrying on
her own account, which was all to the good.
That evening Geoffrey gave her ring. They had been
out together, climbing the beautiful rising moorland slope which lay beyond
Binwick, and presently they sat down on the still warm turf, in the soft
evening breeze, and looked back on the village, lying below in its sheltered
hollow.
It was then that he felt in his pocket, with a
slight, conspiratorial smile, and produced the ring in its new setting.
"Oh, Geoffrey, " she leaned over to look
at it, so happy in its beauty and reality that almost the last vestige of her
fears departed, "how wonderful! It's even lovelier than the sketch
suggested."
"It's pretty good, " he conceded.
"But then it's for a very special person." And, slipping the ring on her
finger, he kissed her and said, "Now you're really
mine."
"I always was, " said Beverley, gravely
regarding her ring.
And at that he kissed her again and said,
"When are we going to be
married?"
She had the most absurd impulse to say, "When
I am sure that you don't love Sara Wayne better than me." But was this the
moment to spoil with unworthy
suspicions or
suggestions?
He had asked her to marry him. He had given her this
beautiful ring in token of the fact. And now he
wanted her to choose the very date of their wedding.
What sort of cad would she be assuming him to be if
she suggested at this point that perhaps he
loved some
one else? .
"Oh, Geoffrey, " she turned and hugged
him in a sudden access of hope and confidence, "when
ever you say. Except, " she added more
practically, "that I must finish my work for the Waynes first.
They're
relying on me, and I couldn't let them down,
even
for my own wedding."
"Of course not, " he agreed, and she
wondered if it were only her imagination which made his voice sound rather
expressionless. "But is the one situation really dependent on the
other?"
"Well, yes. Until Sara's wedding is over",
he sat up suddenly, but she saw he was merely brushing a spider off his sleeve,
"I'll be busy on clothes for her and her sisters. After that, I'd like
some time to make a few things for myself. Even a dressmaker likes to have a
trousseau, you know." And she
laughed.
He laughed too, she thought quite gaily, though she
could not quite see his face, as he had turned his head and was looking away
down the hill.
"I'll put in some intensive work myself, meanwhile,
" he declared lightly. And then she remembered Franklin Lowell's offer, and
she thought this was as good a time as any for mentioning it.
"Geoffrey, " she tried to pick her words
carefully, "would this be the right moment for you to have a London
exhibition, if that were possible? To show your work, particularly your
portrait work, to a larger public, I mean."
"Any moment would be the right moment, "
he assured her, with a laugh and a shrug. "But you know as well as I do
that it isn't a practical possibility. An exhibition, to be successful at all, requires
quite a considerable outlay. And I think", he
turned and touched her cheek lightly, "the expenses
of
getting married must come first."
"But if someone else paid the expenses, ?"
"Who else is going to?" He looked puzzled
and amused. And then, at something in her expression he was suddenly alert
instead of casual. "What do you mean?" There was a sharper, more
eager, note in
his voice,
"Franklin Lowell offered to pay the expenses
of a London exhibition of your work, as a wedding present to us both."
"Lowell did?" Geoffrey frowned.
"You're joking!"
"No, I'm not."
"But why should he make such an offer?"
The colour came and went in Geoffrey's face, but whether with excitement or a
sort of anger Beverley was not
quite sure.
"He said it was because he admires your work
and thinks I'm nice, " replied Beverley exactly. "He meant it very
kindly."
"Nonsense, " said Geoffrey. "Men of
Lowell's type don't go about doing unrequited acts of kindness. They expect
something in return."
"Oh, that's not true!" cried Beverley
angrily. "He's truly generous, and I think he likes making big gestures."
"Only so that he can pose as a fine fellow, and
feel that other people are under an obligation to him."
"Geoffrey, how can you say such things? There was
no suggestion of that at all. And, anyway, why should he want to have you under
an obligation to
him?"
"I tell you, because it makes him feel a fine fellow,
" said Geoffrey. But he grinned at her suddenly and seemed to find the
whole subject more amusing than annoying, after all. "I must say he has a
very fiery champion in you." He pinched the tip of her ear. "I didn't
know you were such friends."
"We're not, exactly. At least, he was interested
to hear that I was the model for that picture
he
has. You know, the one of me in the blue and
white dress. And, somehow, we
got talking, from that point. And he and Sara took me over to Eithorpe to see
it again. Then on the way home he asked about our future prospects, "
"With Sara there?" he asked carelessly.
"No, no. We had left her at Huntingford, because
she had a bit of a headache and didn't want to drive any further."
"But she knew about our engagement?"
"Yes. I had told them both, while we were
still at Eithorpe."
"I see. Go on."
"Well, then he said how much he admired your work,
and that he was sure that a London exhibition would put you on the map, so to
speak. I explained
that this was rather
beyond our immediate range,
and he made the offer I've told you
about."
"Just like that? out of the blue?"
"Yes. But he did add that there might be some difficulty
in making you accept, as he realized you didn't like him, " remarked
Beverley rather severely.
"He said that?" Geoffrey laughed.
"Yes. But he also said that it didn't matter, be
cause it didn't alter his admiration of your work."
"Or his liking for you?" suggested
Geoffrey shrewdly, but he smiled at her.
"He was kind enough to add that, "
admitted Beverley demurely.
"In fact, the offer was more to please you
than to,
help me?" Geoffrey leaned
forward and kissed her.