The Collected Stories of Louis Auchincloss Read Online Free Page B

subjects closest to his heart. In short, she became accustomed to him; he fitted in with her riding and her hospital work. She had been worried at first, particularly in view of his initial revelation, never thereafter alluded to, of what he had once witnessed, but soon afterwards she had been reassured. It was all right. He would let her be.

4
    Mr. and Mrs. Spreddon, in the meantime, were holding their breath. They had almost given up the idea that Maud would ever attract any man, much less a bachelor as eligible as Halsted. It was decided, after several conferences, that what nature had so miraculously started, nature might finish herself, and they resolved not to interfere. This, unfortunately, they were not able to do without a certain ostentation, and Maud became aware of an increasing failure on the part of her family to ask their usual questions about what she had done the night before and what meals she expected to eat at home the following day. If she referred to Halsted, her comment received the briefest of nods or answers. Nobody observing the fleeting references with which his name was dismissed at the Spreddon board would ever have guessed that the parental hearts were throbbing at the mere possibility of his assimilation into the family.
    Maud, however, was not to be fooled. The suppressed wink behind the family conspiracy of silence was almost lewd to her, and it brought up poignantly the possibility that Halsted might be thinking of their friendship in the same way. It was true that he had said nothing to her that could even remotely be construed as sentimental, but it was also true, she realized ruefully, that she knew very little of such things, and the effusive, confiding creature to whom her brother Sammy was engaged, who frequently made her uncomfortable by trying to drag her into long intimate chats “just between us girls,” had told her that when men took one out it was never for one’s society alone and that this went for a certain “you know who” in the legal world as well as anyone else, even if he
was
somewhat older. Maud seemed to feel her breath stop at this new complication in a life settled after so many disturbances. Was this not the very thing that she had always feared, carried to its worst extreme? Was this not the emotion that was reputedly the most demanding, the most exacting of all the impulses of the heart? She had a vision of bridesmaids reaching for a thrown bouquet and faces looking up at her to where she was standing in unbecoming satin on a high stair—faces covered with frozen smiles and eyes, seas of eyes, black and staring and united to convey the same sharp, hysterical message: Aren’t you happy? Aren’t you in love? Now, then, didn’t we
tell
you?
    The next time Halsted called up she told him flatly that she had a headache. He took it very casually and called again about a week later. She didn’t dare use the same excuse, and she couldn’t think of another, so she met him for dinner at a French restaurant. She nibbled nervously on an olive while he drank his second cocktail in silence, watching her.
    â€œSomebody’s gone and frightened you again,” he said with just an edge of roughness in his voice. “What’s it all about? Why did you fake that headache last week?”
    She looked at him miserably. “I didn’t.”
    â€œWhy did you have it then?”
    â€œOh.” She raised her hand to her brow and rubbed it in a preoccupied manner. “Well, I guess I thought we were going out too much together.”
    â€œToo much for what?”
    â€œOh. You know.”
    â€œWere you afraid of being compromised?” he asked sarcastically.
    â€œPlease, Halsted,” she begged him. “You know how people are. I like going out with you. I love it, really. But the family all wink and nod. They can’t believe that you and I are just good friends. They’ll be expecting you—well, to