XXVI
On the way to the Hassons', he sought to solve the tangle of his domestic affairs.
He could not quite account for the errant streak in his blood, that drove him so joyfully toward the soft arms awaiting him. Surely he had an overplus of idealism.... Perhaps this was a part of it: of his endless search for perfection in woman ... for some woman, say, who held the magnificent sweetness his mother had received as the dear Barbour heritage. Louise had something of the understanding mother-spirit, that was the mountain's, that was his own mother's. And in turn the mountain wildness coursed in his blood; these had been his emotions, before he became its prodigal child.
The girl met him at the door, wide-eyed, a little wistful. "Well, Mr. Lover, you did come! Yesterday was lonely.... I have bad news; the folks have changed their plans; they'll be back, to-night.... We can take a ride, though."
His smiling lips straightened, but there was a dancing glow in his eyes. "Get your coat, girl," he said with affectionate curtness.
He turned from Highland Boulevard, the glitter of its lights reflected in the suave luster of the rain-damp pavement, into quieter, less-lighted Haviland Avenue. Into a darkened garage ran the car. Her eyes queried his. He pressed off the lights.
Over the cropped grass to the stone steps; inside the darkened porch he pulled out his keys, opened the door, led into the expectant hallway.
"Your ... home?"
"Jane is away," he said briefly.
The shades were pulled down carefully, a light lit. She sat, her eyes wide, on the hall couch, adjusting her skirts in the light. The dull gray paper brought out all of her ripe rosy loveliness; he paused, struck by the picture.... It was the couch on which he had last seen Jane sitting; a sardonic inner smile disturbed him.
"I don't feel that this is right, Pell—in her house——" Her deep eyes puckered in uncertainty.
Dominant lips closed her protest; she rested for a fleeting moment against him.
On the steps' landing he paused to point out tennis trophies gleaming against the dark woodwork.
Then they turned again, hand in hand, up the carpeted rounds to the dim silence above....
Before midnight he told her good-bye on the Hasson porch.
There were times, in the two weeks which followed, when Pelham viewed himself from without, with a definite disgust; when he realized that a furtive fraction of love could never make up for the big gap caused in the day's doings by the absence of Jane. Once Louise had to tease him out of this mood.
"I'm leaving you, Mr. Lover, on Wednesday.... Make my last three days pleasant."
He took her to the station. As they entered it, two cars disgorged another increment of the militia.
He rode to the first stop with her.
"You were a good lover," was her final praise. "Run down to the coast and see me sometime.... If you still want me."