CHAPTER IX
The Dinner Party
Tonight, as the group of Camp Fire girls were seated at dinner, their appearance afforded a striking contrast to the ordinary simplicity of their lives within the past few years which they had spent together.
The long oval dinner table held a basket of white roses in the center. Above the roses and attached to the crystal chandelier was a white dove. On the table were white candles and two silken flags, the United States flag and the French, which lay one beside the other across the white cloth.
Seated at the head of the table and presiding over her peace dinner was Miss Patricia Lord, but a Miss Patricia whom no one of the Camp Fire girls had ever beheld before tonight.
Vanished was her usually shabby and old-fashioned attire! In its place for this occasion she wore a gown of black satin and lace of unusual elegance. Indeed, through the art of her French dressmaker even Miss Patricia’s ordinary ungainliness had been metamorphosed into a unique distinction. Never lacking dignity even in the shabbiest attire through sheer force of personality, tonight she was almost handsome as well.
Her hair had been arranged by a hair dresser, so that the soft waves over her forehead gave her a less severe expression, a slight color due to the excitement of her dinner party and her gratification over Mrs. Burton’s and the Camp Fire girls’ appearance, made her cheeks glow with something approaching the past radiance of youth.
Moreover, Miss Patricia was finding herself agreeably entertained by the guest who sat upon her right.
Mr. David Hale was probably not aware of what extent the dinner, with its suggestion of a peace table, had been hurriedly arranged in order to impress him. But if Miss Patricia had desired to make an impression, she had accomplished the result she wished to achieve.
As he talked to Miss Patricia, whom he discovered to be an extremely well informed woman as well as a decidedly original character, he was at the same time able to observe with a good deal of pleasure the group of charming girls by whom he was surrounded.
Any other hostess than Miss Patricia Lord, under similar circumstances, would have seen that Bettina Graham was placed beside her new acquaintance, who had been so kind after their unexpected meeting. But any one, who has learned to know Miss Patricia, by this time must have appreciated that her tactics were not always those of other people.
Bettina did not sit next Mr. Hale but almost directly across from him. Yvonne Fleury was placed on his other side. As Yvonne was French and the young man an American, they might be supposed to be interested in making each other’s acquaintance. So far as Bettina was concerned Miss Patricia had a definite purpose in her dinner arrangement. Mr. Hale was not to imagine that his passing acquaintance with Bettina, or his opportunity to render her a personal service, was necessarily to lead to further intimacy.
In Miss Patricia’s eyes Bettina had appeared, before a stranger, in an extremely unfortunate and undignified position. She must therefore be restored to proper dignity both by her own behavior and the attitude of her friends.
In the adventure between Sally Ashton and Lieutenant Fleury,2 Miss Patricia had been actuated by this same motive, although she had expressed it so differently.
Tonight, in spite of her critical attitude, Miss Patricia was fairly well satisfied with Bettina Graham’s demeanor. Whatever Bettina’s impression of herself as lacking in social grace, she had been witness for many years to the charm of her mother’s manner, to her gift for knowing and saying just what the occasion demanded and must have learned of her.
In her greeting of Mr. Hale on his arrival earlier in the evening, Bettina had displayed just the proper degree of appreciation of his kindness, neither too much or too little. Immediately after she had effaced herself in order that he might devote his attention to her Camp Fire guardian and Miss Patricia.
If the young American had become interested in Bettina through their romantic encounter, Miss Patricia had decided that he could be allowed the privilege of looking at her, or even of addressing a remark to her across the table, but for the present this was sufficient.
If her own judgment counted for anything, Bettina was well worth observation on this particular occasion.
Notwithstanding her leniency in regard to Bettina’s previous costume, Bettina had answered her unspoken wish and was now wearing her prettiest evening gown. The dress was made of white chiffon with bands of silver embroidery over the shoulders and around the waist. She also wore a little fine string of pearls, a gift from her father several years before.
Bettina’s fair hair was bound closely about her head in two heavy braids; it was a characteristic of her’s that she was always at her best in evening clothes, partly because her head was so beautifully set on her long, slender neck.
She was next Ralph Marshall and on his other side was Peggy Webster. Peggy wore a rose-colored gown and with her dark hair and eyes and brilliant color formed a striking contrast to Bettina’s fairness.
How utterly different had been the circumstances of the lives of this particular group of Camp Fire girls before their association with one another! And yet in their own way each girl appeared tonight at almost equal advantage!
Vera Lagerloff was the daughter of Russian peasants who had emigrated to the United States and were at present small farmers upon a portion of Peggy Webster’s father’s large estate.
Vera was perhaps not beautiful in the opinion of most persons, but was singularly interesting, with her long Slavic eyes of a curious grayish green shade, her heavy hair, and her expression of dignity and intelligence.
Moreover, she also had been transformed into greater beauty through the art of Miss Patricia’s newly discovered French dressmaker.
Vera’s dress was of an unusual shade of green, a little like the color of her eyes, a shade few persons could have worn, but peculiarly suited to her. Following simple, almost severely plain lines, the dress was trimmed with an odd piece of old Russian embroidery, of bronze and green and blue threads.
Alice and Sally Ashton were both in white; as Alice had reddish hair and the complexion which usually accompanies it, white was always more becoming to her than anything else. But tonight Sally looked too thin and white herself to have worn so colorless a costume. One can scarcely imagine how Sally had altered in the past months; her soft rounded outlines had disappeared and she was now almost painfully thin. There were hollows under her brown eyes, which had lost their childish expression, and hollows in her cheeks, where the dimples which she had so resented had formerly been.
Mary Gilchrist wore a blue dress made as simply as possible, which emphasized the almost boyish grace of her figure. Her hair, with its bright red lights, was piled in a loose mass on top of her head, her cheeks were glowing.
In spite of the change in the conditions of their present Camp Fire life, Mary Gilchrist had not given up her outdoor existence. A portion of nearly every day she devoted to driving wounded, convalescent soldiers about in her motor car in order that they should enjoy the air and entertainment.
Yvonne Fleury wore a violet crepe as she had promised her Camp Fire guardian not to wear mourning, but did not wish to appear in any more brilliant color.
There was only one sombre note tonight at Miss Patricia’s table; a young girl, a stranger, who sat near Mrs. Burton, was in black. The dress she was wearing, although of an inexpensive material, was light in texture and not unattractive. Nevertheless, its wearer seemed to feel both shy and uncomfortable. She must have been about nineteen or twenty, older than the Camp Fire girls.
Some weeks before, having introduced the young French dressmaker, Marguerite Arnot, into her family, Miss Patricia had since insisted that she become an actual member of it. In spite of her work she was expected to appear with the family at the table and to share in so far as possible in the ordinary daily life of the other girls. Tonight vainly had she pleaded to be spared the ordeal of a fashionable dinner, only to find Miss Patricia adamant.
Mrs. Burton was placed beside a former acquaintance, whose appearance as one of the guests at Miss Patricia’s hastily arranged dinner, had caused her a moment’s surprise. No suggestion had Miss Patricia made to her, that she intended inviting Senator Georges Duval, for whom she had always expressed a decided antagonism.
But after a little consideration of the matter, Mrs. Burton understood Miss Patricia Lord’s sudden change of front.
During the months of their work in one of the devastated districts of France, Miss Patricia had at least appeared to dislike her friendship with the distinguished Frenchman. However, since their arrival in Paris and now at Versailles, there might be a number of ways in which a French senator might be of service to the Camp Fire girls. Bettina’s recent adventure particularly emphasized the fact that his friendship might prove useful. And Miss Patricia was not in the least averse to using persons for the sake of her friends, provided that she did them no harm.
Her invitation tonight to Senator Duval to meet the young American named David Hale, had a well thought out purpose behind it.
Should Bettina become involved in suspicion and gossip due to her last night’s experience, they would both have learned to know Bettina’s position. They would also understand how entirely accidental her entrance into the secret garden had been and how impossible to leave after the small gate had closed behind her.
Certainly the French authorities must accept so simple an explanation.
Mrs. Burton also felt a little amused by Miss Patricia’s now transparent reason for desiring her to be more elaborately dressed for dinner than she had originally intended.
As a matter of fact on retiring to her room she had hesitated before putting on the exquisite costume which Aunt Patricia had evidently just purchased for her from one of the best known designers of women’s clothes in Paris. The ungraciousness with which she had been ordered to her room and told to dress a second time was also explained. For years, ever since Miss Patricia’s inheritance from her brother of her large fortune, both Mrs. Burton and her husband, Captain Burton, had been protesting against the extravagant gifts which Miss Patricia frequently insisted upon bestowing upon them, and especially upon Mrs. Burton, who was the one person for whom she cared most in the world.
Whatever Miss Patricia’s economies and conscientious scruples with regard to spending money upon herself, she had no such scruples in connection with Mrs. Burton.
Therefore risking the possibility both of wounding and offending Miss Patricia, Mrs. Burton had positively declined allowing her to bestow upon her any gifts of value.
An ordinary evening frock, Miss Patricia would of course declare possessed no value. Yet Mrs. Burton had appreciated that the dress she was at this moment wearing at dinner was not of this character.
She had felt she should refuse to accept it, but she had not wished to hurt Miss Patricia and also she had not wished to relinquish the dress once she had tried it on.
It looked simple, yet Mrs. Burton had a sufficient knowledge and appreciation of clothes to recognize the exceptional beauty of her present gift.
As she sat talking and laughing with Senator Duval, Miss Patricia surveyed both Mrs. Burton and her own purchase with entire satisfaction.
The dress looked as if it had been designed solely for Mrs. Burton and could have been successfully worn by no one else.
Once Miss Patricia nodded with a peculiar satisfaction which, had her action been observed, no one would have understood.
As a matter of fact she was thinking that there were persons who insisted that Polly Burton, the well known actress, was in no sense a beautiful woman and that her success was due entirely to her magnetism.
Miss Patricia was wishing that these same critical persons might have beheld Mrs. Burton tonight.
The new evening frock was an unexpected combination of yellow and bronze chiffons and so skilfully were the delicate materials arranged that there was never a decided contrast. The two colors seemed to melt into each other as if they had been a combination from an artist’s brush.
The dress might have obscured another woman’s personality, making the woman appear of less interest than her costume, but this was not true of Mrs. Burton.
Every now and then one of the Camp Fire girls would glance toward Mrs. Burton with a fresh appreciation of her charm. Until tonight they had not seen her in this particular setting of richness and elegance.
During the years of their outdoor Camp Fire life together, Mrs. Burton had lived almost as simply and plainly as her Camp Fire girls.
Yet it was an interesting experience for all of them, this brief change into sumptuousness which Miss Patricia’s generosity was affording. Mrs. Burton revealed her own enjoyment of it.
At present her blue eyes were glowing with enthusiasm, as she sat talking with interest to her present dinner companion.
“I wonder if the French people will ever realize how glorious we feel France has been in the past four years to have endured so patiently and so courageously all the long strain of the war fought upon her soil. Remember that in the old days one always spoke of France as ‘La Belle France.’ Now I think she has earned the new title of ‘Glorious France.’”
But at this moment Mrs. Burton and Senator Duval were no longer able to continue their conversation, since at a signal from Miss Patricia, her guests were about to leave the table.
CHAPTER X
Camp Fire Plans and Purposes
On the following evening, after an earlier and far simpler dinner, with no guests present, at half past seven o’clock, the group of Camp Fire girls assembled in their French drawing-room for their first ceremonial meeting since their arrival at Versailles.
The girls were wearing their Camp Fire costumes and the honor beads acquired by most of them through several years of membership in their Camp Fire group. The only new members who had been recently admitted were Mary Gilchrist and Yvonne Fleury, who had been taken into the Camp Fire during their residence in the old French farmhouse on the Aisne. Marguerite Arnot, who had only made the acquaintance of the other Camp Fire girls in the last few weeks was not at present a member of the organization.
Assuredly the present drawing-room had never before been the scene of so unusual a ceremony! The atmosphere it created, with its artificial and conventional furnishing, was in truth a far cry from the simplicity and outdoor setting of the original camp fires.
Nevertheless, the Camp Fire girls had no idea of giving up their ceremonial meetings for any such reason. This evening to the best of their ability the drawing-room had been adapted to their purposes.
In the grate a fire burned brightly; on the high white mantel, instead of its usual ornaments, were three white candles, representing Work, Health, Love, the symbols of the American Camp Fire.
The candles were lighted, and there was no other light in the room, save one shaded lamp in the background.
Seated in a semicircle about the fire on the ceremonial cushions were the girls; Mrs. Burton had not appeared. She would come in later.
Miss Patricia had announced that she would not take part in the present ceremony and would not be seen until about bed time.
Now and then, either because she was too much engaged with some interest of her own, or because she wished the girls to feel greater liberty for their discussions and plans, she refused to be present at the Camp Fire meetings. Yet if Miss Patricia had any particular suggestion to offer, or command to enforce, she was then very much in evidence.
Tonight, before the arrival of the Camp Fire guardian, Bettina Graham had taken charge of the meeting at the request of the other girls.
“We are supposed to begin a discussion of our plans for any new Camp Fire work we wish to undertake in France,” Bettina announced.
“Since we were forced to retreat from our farmhouse on the Aisne to Paris, we seem not to have had any definite purposes. Tante and I spoke of this the other afternoon and decided to bring the question up before the Camp Fire for an open debate. Any one of us who has any idea of what character of work our Camp Fire group should undertake in France for the next few months, will please state it.
“To most of us it does seem a great enough experience to be allowed to live here at Versailles while the work of the Peace Conference is going on in Paris. I have wondered if in any possible way the Peace Conference could offer us a personal inspiration. Does it sound too visionary to suggest that we might in some small fashion work toward future peace?”
During Bettina’s speech the Camp Fire guardian had entered the room unobserved and now stood silent, listening to the discussion.
Always a little amused over Bettina’s idealistic points of view and considering herself severely practical, Peggy Webster smiled a little teasingly.
“I don’t believe we are going to be able to help forward the peace of the world very seriously, Princess,” she argued, using the other girl’s former Camp Fire title. “Moreover, I don’t believe many of us will pay especial attention to the proceedings of the Peace Conference, or understand them if we did. Perhaps you and Tante and Aunt Patricia may be the exceptions. The rest of us were not brought up in a political atmosphere as you have been on account of your father’s position in Washington. Our chief pleasure in being in glorious France at this time lies in the opportunity we may have to see so many famous persons. Never shall I forget President Wilson’s arrival in Paris and the wonderful enthusiasm of his reception! We must go into Paris again within a few days to witness the arrival of the Peace Delegates, who will open the plenary session of the conference at the foreign office on the Quai d’Orsai.
“So far as our own Camp Fire work is concerned, for the present don’t you think being so near Paris affords us the best chance for continuing the organization of a French Camp Fire? We did start a few groups of Camp Fire girls during the months we spent on the Aisne, but the second devastation of the country by the German horde probably separated the girls so that they may never meet again. Here in Paris we can start a number of Camp Fire units at the same time. We must also try to interest some prominent French women to go on with the French Camp Fire organization after we return home.”
There was a little murmur of applause as Peggy Webster ended her extemporaneous talk.
The next instant Alice Ashton interposed, in a slightly offended tone:
“I think your suggestion for our Camp Fire work in France for the next few months admirable, Peggy. But I don’t in the least agree with your statement that living here at Versailles during the dawn of peace, no one, except Bettina, is to be interested in the details of the Peace Conference. Neither do I see why Bettina’s suggestion, that we try in some humble fashion to help toward peace, need be altogether scorned. Each human being can contribute a tiny quota. In the future women are to be allowed the vote, which means a voice in just such questions as may decide war or peace. Our own group of Camp Fire girls is growing up so that in a few more years we shall perhaps be too old to think of ourselves as Camp Fire girls and must begin the work of guardians. If we believe in peace, if we preach and practice it among ourselves and in our Camp Fire organization, and if the Camp Fire becomes international, as it seems to be doing, why then just so many girls will be trained to lend the weight of their influence toward the future peace of the world!”
“Bravo, Alice! You have just said what I wished to say, only you have said it more convincingly. I did not wish to interrupt you and you girls were too interested to notice my entrance!” Mrs. Burton exclaimed.
She then sat down in a low chair which had been kept ready for her in the center of the group of girls.
“Suppose we try to follow Bettina’s, Peggy’s and Alice’s suggestions, as they seem to me not to oppose each other,” she continued.
“For my part I will undertake to find some interesting women in Paris who will agree to aid us with our French Camp Fire and take charge of it after we leave France. We must interest poorer French girls as well as rich ones, we must introduce them by letter to Camp Fire girls in the United States so they may exchange ideas and plans and learn from each other. I hate to confess the fact that you girls are growing older and must soon look forward to undertaking the duties of Camp Fire guardians, nevertheless it is true. Your efforts here in France will be a great help later on.
“In regard to Bettina’s and Alice’s points of view. Naturally we cannot see at present how any one of us can help toward the future peace of society. And yet Alice is right when she insists that every tiny quota does make some difference. Every life that both preaches and practices peace is an influence for peace.
“But there is a suggestion I wish to make, which may strike you girls as more impracticable than any one else’s. You girls must have read and heard, as I have recently, that a surprising amount of ill feeling has been developing between the French and American soldiers since the close of the war. Strange, isn’t it, when they were such loyal comrades in arms! But I suppose it is harder to keep up the morale during the slow approach of peace than under the greater excitement of war. Senator Duval told me the other night that there is also a secret German propaganda which is trying to create ill feeling between the soldiers of the Allied armies. Well, it may be possible that you girls will meet a number of these men in the next few weeks. Perhaps, more than you realize, you may be an influence for peace and good feeling between them! If the chance comes to any of you, do your best.”
At the farthest end of the circle away from Mrs. Burton, at this moment Sally Ashton’s expression changed from one of previous indifference to amusement, mingled with a faint sarcasm.
“Where did you receive the impression, Tante, that friendship between girls and men has ever been an influence for peace? So far I have not seen a great deal of the world, but I think it has more often been an occasion for war. However, you may know best!”
Sally’s unexpected rejoinder had the effect of a thunderbolt launched from a clear sky into a sun warmed atmosphere.
There was only one way to receive so ill tempered a speech. Mrs. Burton laughed, the girls following her example.
Of late Sally had been so unreasonably bad tempered, so nervous and irritable, that, having made up their minds, either that she was ill, or else seriously troubled, the Camp Fire girls had refused to pay any special attention to her rapidly changing moods.
Moreover, Sally had never made a pretence of wholly forgiving them for their suspicion of her during the time she was nursing Lieutenant Fleury back to health.3
In spite of Lieutenant Fleury’s appreciation of Sally’s kindness and self sacrifice, never afterwards had she and his sister, Yvonne Fleury, become intimate friends.
“Well, Sally, I was far from suggesting that any one of you girls develop a romantic friendship in the next few weeks. Difficulties only develop when romance creeps in.
“I think one marriage, Gerry Williams to Felipe Morris, and also Peggy’s and Ralph’s engagement is a sufficient supply of romance for our Camp Fire for some time to come! I am hoping Gerry and Felipe may join us when Felipe is finally discharged from the army. Gerry writes they intend returning to California and will make their home at their ranch near the spot where we spent our summer together ‘Behind the Lines.’”
Purposely Mrs. Burton had changed the subject of her conversation from a Camp Fire discussion to one which she hoped might be of personal interest to Sally Ashton. After her sarcastic little speech, Sally had flushed uncomfortably, as if sorry she had spoken, and Gerry Williams had been the only one of the Camp Fire girls for whom Sally had ever displayed any particular affection.
At present Mrs. Burton was more unhappy over Sally than she had dreamed possible, having always taken it for granted that Sally would be one of the persons who would accept life in an indolent, slightly selfish fashion, without much trouble either to herself or to other people.
Certainly she had altered. And something must have occurred which was responsible for Sally’s present state of mind and health.
As she was as much in the dark as ever, Mrs. Burton hoped that Aunt Patricia knew; but if Miss Patricia had expected that Sally would also make a confidante of her in the few moments they had spent together the other evening, she had been mistaken. Sally had appeared interested only in the approaching dinner party. In answer to a direct question she had merely protested that she had nothing to confide and did not understand why she was supposed to have changed.
Two hours longer the Camp Fire girls and their guardian continued to discuss the details of their new Camp Fire work in France.
Marguerite Arnot and Yvonne Fleury both offered to introduce the American girls to their acquaintances in Paris.
And this afforded the very opportunity Mrs. Burton had hoped for; Yvonne’s friends would probably be fairly well off, while Marguerite’s would offer a sharp contrast.
The young French dressmaker had been working in a dressmaking establishment when Miss Patricia had first learned to know her, and before becoming a member of the household at Versailles had been living in a garret in an old house in Paris. Tonight she explained that her friends were poor girls who were making their living just as she was.
It was actually toward midnight, with the Camp Fire rules of early bedtime forgotten, when a sharp knock came at the drawing-room door.
The girls and Mrs. Burton started guiltily; there was no need to ask who had knocked, the sound had been too peremptory.
The next instant Miss Patricia stalked in.
She was frowning and yet she carried a large tray of hot chocolate.
“Vera, please go into the dining-room and bring in the wafers you will find there,” she demanded, always preferring Vera’s aid to any one of the other girls. “Naturally the maids are in bed and asleep at this hour of the night. No other Camp Fire guardian than Polly Burton would have permitted you to remain until nearly morning. I suppose I shall have to allow all of you an extra hour of sleep.”
Still grumbling Miss Patricia set down her tray, allowing the girls to serve themselves, while she pretended to ignore Mrs. Burton’s apology.
“I am sorry, we had no idea it was so late. You are right, Aunt Patricia, I suppose I shall never make a really satisfactory guardian, no matter how many years I have the honor. But don’t you think we get on fairly well with you to supervise us? I wish you had heard our discussion to-night! We have many new plans and no one can say what rich experiences may not develop through them. At least we shall keep busy while we await the dawn of peace!”
Miss Patricia’s grim expression relaxed slightly.
“Certainly if peace of the kind we hope and pray for, Polly Burton, ever arrives upon this earth, it will be a peace which passes many people’s understanding at the present time.”
A few moments later, placing her arm about Mrs. Burton with an unconscious display of tenderness, Miss Patricia led the way toward bed.