CHAPTER VIII

A Home in Versailles

It was toward dusk.

In a large, low grate inside a French drawing-room a freshly lighted fire was burning. Curtains of heavy, dark red silk were closely drawn over the long windows.

Before the fire a young girl was seated in a chair beside a Madame Recamier couch upon which an older woman was lying.

They were both apparently dressed for a late dinner, the girl in a costume of dull blue crepe, her companion in what appeared to be a combination of tea gown and dinner dress. The gown was of pale grey silk and chiffon with a lining of rose. The sofa was piled with a number of grey and rose colored cushions.

The drawing-room was a fashionable one revealing wealth and taste in its furnishings and following the usual French design.

The walls were ivory in tone and embellished with garlands of cupids and flowers. The larger rug, which covered the entire floor, was of French tapestry, the furniture of the drawing-room had been copied from a set of the furniture of the great Napoleon, preserved in the Louvre Gallery in Paris.

On the white mantel there was a tall French clock and two beautiful Sevres vases and a small crystal bowl of flowers.

The woman and girl evidently had been talking for some time.

“Well, Bettina,” Mrs. Burton continued, “after all perhaps you are fairly fortunate to have gotten out of last night’s adventure as well as you have! You look a little more rested since your sleep and you insist you have not taken cold. Last night there was nothing which could occur in the most sensational novel, which I did not imagine had happened to you. Yet what did occur was more unexpected and more picturesque than any of my fears!”

Bettina smiled.

“A pity, wasn’t it, that such a romantic experience should have befallen me rather than one of the other Camp Fire girls! I am really such a prosaic person! All night I did my best to entertain myself by composing a long drawn out story for my own amusement, and yet all the time I knew that I was cold and hungry and dreadfully homesick for you. I really never shed a tear, although I should have liked to shed floods of them. But I am sorry you had to suffer such anxiety. Small wonder that Aunt Patricia received my return so ungraciously. I believe her first remark when we met in the hall, was, that either I was to sail for home at once, or you were, as she would not have you so harassed.

“I found it somewhat difficult under the circumstances to maintain my dignity before my rescuer, when Aunt Patricia began her lecture. If I had not showed signs of breaking down and demanded to be taken to you at once, goodness knows what might not have happened!

“I was sorry to leave Mr. Hale with Aunt Patricia when he had been so kind; I suppose he received the rest of the lecture which was intended for me. At present I am grateful to possess a distinguished father; not only did Mr. Hale know him, but when he explained to the French officials that I was Senator Graham’s daughter, they became much more lenient in their manner toward me. Perhaps though I am not yet through the unfortunate results of my curiosity. It would not surprise me if I were kept under surveillance for some time by the French authorities. They must be convinced I had no sinister motive in concealing myself in the secret garden. The old gardener helped me by explaining that he had accidentally left the little gate open and closed it before dusk without entering the garden again.”

Stretching out her hand Mrs. Burton now placed it on Bettina’s hair, lit with gold from the flame of the fire.

“Promise me, Bettina, and each one of you Camp Fire girls must make me the same promise, you are never to go out alone again while we are together in France. I was worried over Sally’s coming back without you, although I then supposed you to be with Peggy and Ralph. In fact I did not know you had not returned with them until hours later. Aunt Patricia insisted that the information be kept a secret from me and ordered me to lie down in my own room under the usual pretence of my health. But I think I was suspicious all evening. I always feel restless when anything is going wrong with one of you Camp Fire girls, and hearing the talking and confusion in the house later in the night I demanded to be told the difficulty. You must forgive Aunt Patricia’s reception of you, however, Bettina as she was wretched about you. You know she is devoted to your mother and we both had visions of having to cable to your father and mother that their beloved daughter had vanished, been swallowed up in this foreign land.

“But don’t worry over Aunt Patricia’s treatment of your new acquaintance, Mr. Hale. She is as grateful to him as you and I, rather more so, since she has asked him to dine with us tonight when I should have preferred to have you girls alone.”

At this moment Mrs. Burton leaned back upon the cushions of her couch, while Bettina gazed into the fire without replying. She was more unhappy over the events of the past night than she wished to confess.

Undoubtedly her mother would be seriously annoyed when the story of her escapade reached her. Before the present occasion Bettina had offended her mother’s ideas of conventional propriety, and she had really so little excuse for last night’s proceeding. Was there a possibility that the French authorities at Versailles might report the matter and that her father might be asked to substantiate her story?

Without realizing what she was doing, Bettina sighed.

“Don’t worry, Bettina,” Mrs. Burton answered, divining her train of thought. “I will write your mother immediately and explain the situation. It was my fault to have allowed you girls to go into the Park too independently. Your mother is always convinced of my innate unconventionality and that I need some one to look after me as much as you do.

“Besides, don’t let us take a simple circumstance too seriously. I much prefer there be as little discussion as possible of your recent adventure. I mean to speak of this to Mr. Hale when he dines with us tonight and I am sure he will agree with me. We do not wish any gossip in the village, or any chance for the newspapers to get hold of the story.

“I am rather amused over Aunt Patricia. It is my idea that we are to have rather a superior dinner tonight in order to impress this Mr. David Hale, who by the way has an extremely nice name and agreeable manners. Aunt Patricia may protest that our present elegance is a reward to you Camp Fire girls for the simplicity and hard work at our farmhouse on the Aisne, and also to restore me more speedily to health. But I don’t think she is above enjoying our temporary grandeur herself and of showing off just the least little bit to other people. I have also observed that violent as her attacks are upon men in a general fashion, she is always apt to take their side in a personal situation. I never have the least hope of her assuming I am ever right in any argument I may have with my husband. Now she and Captain Burton are determined to send me back to the United States as soon as our stay at Versailles is ended, while I want very much to spend the summer in England before we return home.”

As Mrs. Burton had intended it should be, Bettina’s attention was diverted from her own difficulty.

“Don’t try to explain Aunt Patricia to any one of her present family at this late date,” she replied, smiling reminiscently. “I think your group of Camp Fire girls has come to understand her fairly well by this time. At least we feel we owe your life to the splendid fight she made for your life after you were wounded by the German shell. When both the surgeon from Paris and Captain Burton had no further hope, she would fight on.

“Then think of all she has done for us since our arrival in glorious France, first at our farmhouse on the Aisne and now as guests in this charming French house! Why, we are actually wearing the clothes she has insisted upon having made for us, not only that we may be dressed in a proper holiday fashion to celebrate the approach of peace, but that she may keep her little French dressmaker Marguerite Arnot, her latest protégé, constantly employed. What an artist Marguerite is! If I could persuade her to return to Washington with me, mother would forgive me every fault.

“I suppose you also know that she rented this house in Versailles not alone for our pleasure and because it is such a charming home, but because she heard that Madame Forêt, whom we met at our pension in Paris, had no other income left since the war save the income from this house. She has two little girls to support; both her sons were killed in the war!”

Mrs. Burton nodded.

“Yes, Aunt Patricia’s kindness leaves one nearly defenceless. It is dreadfully difficult sometimes to be forced to disagree with her.”

She was silent a moment and then added:

“Sometimes, do you know, Bettina, I feel it is selfish even to rejoice over the approach of peace! There is still so much sorrow and suffering in the world! Only this morning I received a letter from my sister, Mrs. Webster, saying that her son, Dan Webster, is still a prisoner in Germany. I am glad not to have heard of his imprisonment until the war was over; I suppose now he will be released very soon. Moreover, Yvonne continues to worry over not receiving a letter from her brother, Lieutenant Fleury, although she knows he is only doing border duty with the Army of Occupation. I presume she fears he has not completely recovered from the injury through which Sally Ashton nursed him in such a surprising fashion.”

A moment Bettina gazed at the older woman, hesitating to ask a question. Then she said slowly and with some embarrassment:

“I know it is one of our Camp Fire rules not to gossip about one another. But do you mind telling me, Tante, what do you think has caused the change in Sally Ashton? She is so unlike the Sally we formerly knew! Yet she declares there is nothing the matter and is angry if one suggests she is ill. The doctor Sally saw in Paris said she had suffered a nervous breakdown. Perhaps it is absurdly sentimental of me, but I have wondered if she could have fallen in love with Lieutenant Fleury after her care of him?”

Sitting up a second time and resting her chin upon her hands, with the palms folded together in a characteristic attitude, Mrs. Burton answered:

“No, we must not gossip, Bettina dear. Yet I must say I am as much in the dark as you can be over Sally. So far she has not taken me into her confidence. If anything has made her unhappy in the past, or is troubling her now, Aunt Patricia alone may have some idea of the cause. I saw the transformation in Sally on the very day we met along the roadside during our retreat with the French refugees toward Paris. At that time I did not like to ask Sally what had affected her so seriously and I have never asked her since then.

“It is my own impression that something unfortunate must have occurred in the few days which Sally spent with Vera Lagerloff and Aunt Patricia at the farmhouse, after the rest of us started on in advance to the Château Yvonne. Sometimes I wonder if any of you girls will go back to your own country in the least like you were when we came to France to organize the first French Camp Fire? I suppose not, you have seen too much of courage and suffering among the French people. But I hope you will spare me any other engagement than Peggy’s and Ralph’s. I do wish you children were not growing up and away from our Camp Fire life together. You make me feel so dreadfully old these days!”

“But geniuses never grow old, do they?” Bettina asked, and then as Mrs. Burton smiled at her tactful rejoinder, Bettina added: “Don’t worry over me. But there is something I wish to suggest. Suppose we have a Camp Fire meeting as soon as there is an opportunity and discuss what work we should undertake in the next few months, while we await the coming of peace! Now the war has ended we must begin to make other plans. I was thinking of this last night as well as of my French romance in the long hours I was alone.”

Just as the Camp Fire guardian was about to reply, suddenly the drawing-room door opened and two persons entered the room. They were Miss Patricia Lord and Sally Ashton.

Immediately Miss Patricia switched on the electric lights so that the room, which had been in semi-darkness the instant before, at once became illuminated.

“What in the world are you and Bettina doing here in the dark, Polly? I never can endure darkness. I presume you are exchanging confidences and rejoicing over Bettina’s last night’s adventure, since you both are more romantic than sensible. Personally I am very much ashamed of such an escapade, and as a Camp Fire guardian you should be equally so. However, I do wish you and Bettina would both go to your rooms and dress for dinner. I hope to induce Mr. Hale to realize we are not the character of people he must suppose us to be. The young man tells me he is associated with the work of the Peace Conference. I presume he has heard that you are an actress, Polly Burton, and so naturally expects to find us all Bohemians.”

Always sensitive to any criticism of her career, Mrs. Burton flushed, but answered good naturedly:

“Very well, Aunt Patricia, I shall try to be as conventional tonight as possible, to persuade Bettina’s rescuer that we do not ordinarily permit our Camp Fire girls to spend their nights alone in secret gardens. But so far as dressing is concerned, why Bettina and I are both under the impression we are already dressed. We had our tea together in my room, where we were both lying down, and dressed afterwards.”

Miss Patricia Lord, who was wearing a dingy black costume which she had purchased at a reduced price some months before at the Bon Marché and had worn almost constantly since, now eyed Mrs. Burton’s grey and rose colored gown with extreme disfavor.

“You were not intending to appear at dinner in your dressing gown, were you, Polly Burton? Is that your idea of making a suitable impression upon our guest? I had a gown sent to you today from a shop in Paris. It is now on your bed ready for you to put on. If you do not happen to like it, it does not matter as I admire it very much. It will make you look older than the absurd clothes you ordinarily wear and is also more appropriate for a Camp Fire guardian. Sally Ashton will go to your room with you and help you to dress. Not that you should require assistance, or that your maid Marie is ever occupied with useful work, but because Sally has something she wishes to say to you alone.”

Miss Patricia’s manner then became slightly more gracious.

“You are looking fairly well, Bettina. Marguerite seems to have a gift for understanding the style of costume each one of you Camp Fire girls should affect. You need not change your dress unless you like. Dinner is to be served at eight.”