Part 12 (2/2)
He was fair like his sister, but the resemblance ended there. His nose was long and sharp, his forehead slanting, his close-set eyes a greenish-gray. She wondered how anything human could look so like a fox, as she returned his quizzical stare with a direct, level one, and relinquished his hand.
”I'm pleased to meet you,” she remarked simply, and noted the quick flash of amus.e.m.e.nt which pa.s.sed from brother to sister. ”I reckon I can stand a little peace and quiet, after what I've been through lately. I don't hardly know where I'm at, yet.”
Vernon's mouth twisted suddenly as he turned away, and Angelica responded in obvious haste.
”Yes, I imagine you do feel rather upset. Mr. North must have seemed like a fairy G.o.dfather when he appeared with his astounding news for you.”
”A fairy G.o.dfather? He's kind of a hefty one, isn't he?” Willa smiled, adding quickly: ”He was real kind on the trip coming up; didn't seem like he could do enough for me, but I reckon he was glad to get me here at last.”
”As we are to have you, my dear.” A mild, genial voice sounded from the stairs' foot, and the three young people turned. ”Let me welcome you to your home. We hope to make up to you for being exiled for so long from it.”
A tall, iron-gray head bent, and Willa found herself gazing into keen, kindly eyes. Her own blurred as her hand rested between those of Ripley Halstead and something seemed to grip her by the throat.
Gentleman Geoff's face swam for a moment before her in a mist of tears.
She essayed an unintelligible phrase, and perceiving her emotion, he tactfully covered it.
”You must be starved; I know we are. Children, where's your mother?
After dinner we must have a little talk, eh? There will be so much for you to do and see that we shall have to plan out a sort of campaign.--Oh, there you are, Irene!”
Willa's secret anxiety as to forks being allayed by the discovery that service was laid for but one course at a time, she was able to give herself up during the meal to a frank study of her new-found relatives.
She was going to like Ripley Halstead; already liked him, and each pa.s.sing moment confirmed her first opinion. Concerning the others, she was not so sure. There was a mental reservation behind Mrs. Halstead's surface cordiality, and the bewitching Angelica seemed too seraphically sweet and gentle to ring quite true. Vernon was a type with which in a more crude stratum of humanity she had become familiar in the gaming-rooms of the Blue Chip. Weak without being absolutely vicious, crafty without initiative, he would be a mere tool in dominant unscrupulous hands or an average, decent fellow if his better instincts were aroused.
Dinner over, they repaired to the drawing-room, but the little family gathering soon disintegrated, to Willa's profound relief.
Angelica flitted away to a dance, Vernon betook himself to his club and Mr. Halstead, forgetting his expressed intention of a talk with her, shut himself in his study. When she found herself alone with her hostess, Willa mentally braced her nerves for a cross-examination, but the ordeal was deferred.
”My dear, you must be quite worn out. We have much to talk over, for we must all readjust ourselves, and become really acquainted, but you must rest first, and accustom yourself to your new surroundings.” Mrs.
Halstead smiled. ”I am sorry you did not like your room! I had planned it very carefully for you.”
”Oh!” Willa cried, in quick dismay. ”I didn't know! It was awfully pretty, but I'm used to air and s.p.a.ce and I didn't feel like I could breathe in it. I'll put them back to-morrow, and try it, all those hangings and things, if you say so.”
”No, you shall have your own room arranged as you please. You will soon grow accustomed to pretty things. We must get rid of that somber mourning at once, and plan a suitable wardrobe.”
”But----” Willa paused in dismay. ”Maybe Mr. North didn't tell you.
I--I have lost someone who was all the world to me! I feel somehow that I couldn't give up the black, not yet anyway. It would look as if I wanted folks to think I'd forgotten----”
”I understand. You refer to your former guardian? But, my dear, that life is behind you now, and you must put everything from your thoughts but the future and what we are all going to help you make of it.”
Willa rose.
”You are all very kind,” she said in a stifled voice. ”I'm bound to be a heap of nuisance to you, I'm afraid, though I made up my mind not to buck the game strong till I'd learned the rules. But don't ask me to be a piker and forget Dad! You don't know what he was to me! I appreciate what you-all are trying to do, Mrs. Halstead, and I sympathize with you, for it's going to be a tough job all around, no matter how I try to follow your lead, but don't stack the cards on the first deal, please. All I've got in the world now is my memory of the best friend that ever lived!”
”Your loyalty is very touching, dear child, and I would be the last to impugn it.” Mrs. Halstead put two rigid dutiful arms about her. ”Your clothes are a mere detail which we will take up later. You must go to bed now, and sleep.”
Willa stumbled from the room with a sense of baffled defeat as if she had incontinently b.u.t.ted against a wall of granite. Her aching heart cried out for familiar things and faces, but she steeled herself valiantly. She must play the game!
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