This was all plausible enough, and no real disparagement to Rodney, so Mrs Blackwood agreed.
Can I do anything for you? she asked her hostess at parting. Have you everything you want? Are your servants satisfactory?
Not in every respect, Mrs Varian frowned. But were lucky to keep them at all. Only by the most outrageous concessions, I assure you. If they get too overbearing, I may have to let some of them go.
Let me know, in that case, and I may be able to help you, and with a few further amenities, Claire Blackwood went away.
But if I were one of her servants I shouldnt stay with her! she confided later to a trusted friend. I never saw a more foolishly emotional woman. She almost wept when she told me about her cooks ingratitude! As if any one looked for appreciation of favors in a cook! And when she talked about Betty, she bubbled over with such enthusiasm that she was again moved to tears! It seems her first two little ones died very young, and I think theyve always feared they mightnt raise Betty. Hence the spoiling process.
And it also explains, observed the interested friend, why the parents discountenance the attentions of would-be swains.
Of course, but Betty is twenty, and that is surely old enough to begin to think about such things seriously.
For the girl, yes. And doubtless she does. But parents never realize that their infants are growing up. It is not impossible that Rod Granniss and Miss Betty have progressed much further along the road to Arcady than her elders may suspect. Why did the Varians come here, where Rod is?
I dont suppose they knew it, though, maybe Betty did. Young people are pretty sharp. And you know, Rod was here in June, then he went away and only returned after the Varians arrived. Yes, there must have been some sort of collusion on the part of the youngsters.
Maybe not. I daresay Miss Betty has lots of admirers as devoted as young Granniss. Cant you ask me to the picnic?
Not this one. Its very small. And there are to be some guests at the house, I believe. The family interests me. They are types, I think. Betty is more than an ordinary flutterbudget, like most of the very young girls around here. And the older Varians are really worth while. Mr Varian is a brooding, self-contained sort, I feel sorry for him.
There, there, that will do, Claire! When you feel sorry for a man I remember you began by being sorry for Lawrence North!
Im sorry for him still. Hes a big man, in a way, a genius, and yet he
He gets nowhere! Thats because he isnt a genius! But hes a widower, so hes fair quarry. Dont go to feeling sorry for married men.
Oh, theres no sentiment in my sympathy for Mr Varian. Only he intrigues me because of his restless air, his restrained effect, as if he were using every effort to keep himself from breaking through!
Breaking through what?
I dont know! Through some barrier, some limit that he has fixed for himself I tell you I dont know what its all about. Thats why Im interested.
Curious, you mean.
Well, curious, then. And how he puts up with that hand-wringing ready-to-cry wife! Yet, hes fawningly devoted to her! He anticipates her slightest wish, he is worried sick if she is the least mite incommoded or disturbed, and I know hed lie down and let her walk on him if she even looked as if shed care to!
What a lot you read into a mans natural consideration for his wife!
But its there! Im no fool, I can read people, you know that! I tell you that man is under his wifes thumb for some reason far more potent than his love for her, or her demand for affection from him.
What could be the explanation?
I dont know. Thats why Im curious. Im going to find out, though, and that without the Varians in the least suspecting my efforts. Wait till you see her. Shes almost eerie, shes so emotional. Not noisy or even verbally expressive, but her face is a study in nervous excitement. She seems to grab at the heartstrings of a mere passer-by, and play on them until she tears them out!
Good gracious, you make her out a vampire!
I think she is, not a silly vamp, that the girls joke about, but the real thing!
CHAPTER II
Betty Varian
Dad, youre absolutely impossible!
Oh, come now, Betty, not as bad as that! Just because I dont agree to everything you say
But you never agree with me! You seem to be opposed on principle to everything I suggest or want. Its always been like that! From the time I was born, how old was I, Dad, when you first saw me?
Mr Varian looked reminiscent.
About an hour old, I think, he replied; maybe a little less.
Well, from that moment until this, you have persistently taken the opposite side in any discussion we have had.
But if I hadnt, Betty, there would have been no discussion! And, usually there hasnt been. Youre a spoiled baby, you always have been and always will be. Your will is strong and as it has almost never been thwarted or even curbed, you have grown up a headstrong, wilful, perverse young woman, and Im sure I dont know what to do with you!
Get rid of me, Dad, Bettys laugh rang out, while her looks quite belied the rather terrible character just ascribed to her.