Part 28 (1/2)

”You've got to let them do the lion's share, child. Just you sit still, and listen, and pretend you like it--even though you're bored to extinction.”

”And they never need to pretend anything, I suppose? No, I think they're horrid. You don't like them either, Evvy, do you? ... any more than I do?”

Evelyn laughed.

”Say what you think they are,” persisted Laura and waggled the other's arm, to make her speak.

”Mostly fools,” said Evelyn, and laughed again--laughed in all the conscious power of lovely eighteen.

Overjoyed at this oneness of mind, Laura threw her arms round her friend's neck and kissed her. ”You dear!” she said.

And yet, a short time afterwards, it was on this very head that she had to bear the shock of a rude awakening.

Evelyn's people came to Melbourne that year from the Riverina. Evelyn was allowed considerable freedom, and one night, by special permit, Laura also accepted an invitation to dinner and the theatre. The two girls drove to a hotel, where they found Evelyn's mother, elegant but a little stern, and a young lady-friend. Only the four of them were present at dinner, and the meal pa.s.sed off smoothly; though the strangeness of dining in a big hotel had the effect of tying Laura's tongue. Another thing that abashed her was the dress of the young lady, who sat opposite. This person--she must have been about the ripe age of twenty-five--was nipped into a tight little pink satin bodice, which, at the back, exposed the whole of two very bony shoulder-blades. But it was the front of the dress that Laura faced; and, having imbibed strict views of propriety from Mother, she wriggled on her chair whenever she raised her eyes.

They drove to the theatre--though it was only a few doors off. The seats were in the dress circle. The ladies sat in the front row, the girls, who were in high frocks, behind.

Evelyn made a face of laughing discontent. ”It's so ridiculous the mater won't let me dress.”

These words gave Laura a kind of stab. ”Oh Evvy, I think you're EVER so much nicer as you are,” she whispered, and squeezed her friend's hand.

Evelyn could not answer, for the lady in pink had leant back and tapped her with her fan. ”It doesn't look as if Jim were coming, my dear.”

Evelyn laughed, in a peculiar way. ”Oh, I guess he'll turn up all right.”

There had been some question of a person of this name at dinner; but Laura had paid no great heed to what was said. Now, she sat up sharply, for Evelyn exclaimed: ”There he is!”

It was a man, a real man--not a boy--with a drooping, fair moustache, a single eyegla.s.s in one eye, and a camellia-bud in his b.u.t.tonhole. For the s.p.a.ce of a breathless second Laura connected him with the pink satin; then he dropped into a vacant seat at Evelyn's side.

From this moment on, Laura's pleasure in her expensive seat, in the pretty blue theatre and its movable roof, in the gay trickeries of the MIKADO, slowly fizzled out. Evelyn had no more thought for her. Now and then, it is true, she would turn in her affectionate way and ask Laura if she were all right just as one satisfies oneself that a little child is happy--but her real attention was for the man at her side. In the intervals, the two kept up a perpetual buzz of chat, broken only by Evelyn's low laughs. Laura sat neglected, sat stiff and cold with disappointment, a great bitterness welling up within her. Before the performance had dragged to an end, she would have liked to put her head down and cry.

”Tired?” queried Evelyn noticing her pinched look, as they drove home in the wagonette. But the mother was there, too, so Laura said no.

Directly, however, the bedroom door shut behind them, she fell into a tantrum, a fit of sullen rage, which she accentuated till Evelyn could not but notice it.

”What's the matter with you? Didn't you enjoy yourself?”

”No, I hated it,” returned Laura pa.s.sionately.

Evelyn laughed a little at this, but with an air of humorous dismay. ”I must take care, then, not to ask you out again.”

”I wouldn't go. Not for anything!”

”What on earth's the matter with you?”

”Nothing's the matter.”

”Well, if that's all, make haste and get into bed. You're overtired.”