Part 34 (2/2)
”I feel he's less amusing,” declared the girl, walking beside her.
”And how,” asked Golden, ”does that young Mr. Ellerton 'amuse' you, then?”
”Well, he gives me a good time. I like being with him. He rattles away all the time. _He_ doesn't snap my head off----”
For half a minute there was silence as they walked along. Then Golden stopped by one of those dimly-gleaming lamps and peered down into her friend's small, mutinous face; her voice dropped a whole note as she said slowly:
”Olwen! You wouldn't do such a thing as play Mr. Ellerton off against Captain Ross to make Captain Ross jealous?”
”Oh, no,” Olwen said quite honestly; forgetting something as entirely as a change of mood can cause one to forget. She had mischievously enough, allowed Captain Ross to go on thinking that the young R.N.A.S. officer had held her hand.... She didn't even care enough to remember it....
But at her answer the American girl heaved quite a sigh of relief.
”Forgive me,” she begged. ”Forget I said that. I ought to have known it wasn't like you.”
And here Olwen really felt herself humbled by the standards of the straight young G.o.ddess at her side. For the first time the younger, less womanly but more feminine and complex girl suffered a pang of remorse on account of a certain little Mr. Brown. Him she had certainly made use of at Les Pins to annoy Captain Ross. The blackberry time was not intentional; but that time on the terrace? Would Golden ever have talked to a young man ”at” another young man? It would be better, she knew, if every girl could think and act like Golden ... it would be better....
But to every girl her problems.
Golden went on, ”You've done it without wanting to, then. He was scared tonight that Mr. Ellerton would sit by you. You aren't out to make him jealous, but have you wondered if he thinks that's what you're doing?
I've told you that he watched every look of yours!”
”But I don't believe it,” persisted Olwen, feeling somehow more disturbed, less contented with life as it was then she had been that day. ”Why should I?” and into her voice there crept another note.
It was a note of unspoken irritation, exasperation, and appeal. In how many soft girl voices does it not sound, telling of budding emotions nipped by the frost of silence--of hopes that had grown tired of raising their heads--of womanly impulse turned back upon itself--of influences that might have made the suns.h.i.+ne of two lives, but that dies of forbiddance because some man has shown himself so near to speaking----and has not spoken!
”He cares,” said Golden with the conviction of some young great-eyed oracle.
A pa.s.ser-by separated the two girls for the moment. As they came together again Olwen retorted, ”Then why can't he say so? Men do, when they like a girl well enough. Your Jack did, in a minute.”
Golden gave a happy little laugh. ”But, as I say most every day, you British are so queer! You're so different! Some of your men want to propose before they even say 'Pleased to meet you.' Others seem to have this habit of waiting and waiting until some cows of their own come home, I guess.”
”It's the second sort that I don't understand,” sighed the Welsh girl.
”If a man is fond of a girl, why doesn't he want to say so at once?”
Golden shook her head. ”Now that is something that I can't tell you.”
Presently Olwen said, as if getting rid of something that had been a little on her mind, ”I read in a book of essays about engagements and things, that Mrs. Newton lent me, that '_a Proposal was one-half the Engineering of Some Girl, and one-half the False Pretences of Some Man_' ... but I hope that's not quite true....”
”It is not true,” said the American girl serenely. ”It's ugly.”
With this profoundly simple remark, uttered as if it were some creed, she turned with Olwen down Warren Street; and they were half-way to Baker Street station before either of them spoke again.
Then said the Sunburst Girl, ”I wouldn't have missed this walk. I think you needed to talk to somebody who knows Love's lovely.”
”Somebody who seems to upset things I thought were _settled_,” grumbled Olwen, affectionately.
”That's why I'm glad I came with you. I just hate to see you in a hurry to settle all the wrong things!”
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