The best method of control, she thought, would be for me to suggest a sum which would cover all her expenses of every kind and for her husband to pay that into my account... "Hilda's pocket-money," we agreed to call it...
It seemed an admirable arrangement, but then Mrs. Surdan has the practical brain of a man in some ways...
I took Arthur completely into my confidence...
Will...
I had great difficulty in deciding on the right method of approach with Will. State the bald fact that the girl was coming—irrevocably and without appeal; Will might have taken a dislike to her and made my already difficult task harder. Make any mystery about it, and she might have become the fruit of the one forbidden tree, as it were, a sort of morbid craving. And that was the last thing I wanted... In the end I told him frankly: she was young, pretty and the only child of very rich parents who wanted to launch her on "the great world", as the literary people call it...
"And I expect you to help me," I told Will. "I don't know the young men of the present day."
"I must have a look at her before I wish her on to any of my friends," said Will, not very encouragingly.
You know, there are some people who feel they owe themselves a grumble... As soon as Hilda arrived, Will behaved charmingly. You have seen her about in London, I expect? Oh, well, she is really pretty: small, exquisitely finished, with that "look-you-straight-in-the-eyes" air which so many girls seem to have acquired during the war. I felt—pace her mother—that she was thoroughly well able to take care of herself. Except, perhaps, in dress. The first night she came down in a frock which hardly reached her knees and seemed to stop short at the waist—bare arms, bare shoulders, bare back; I was quite shocked for a moment when Will came into the drawing-room without knocking... However, so long as it did not set him against her... You see, I was simply not equal to taking her out to daily luncheons, dinners, plays, dances; inevitably a good deal devolved on Will, but he was truly sweet about it... Seeing how répandu he is...
At the same time, I was in a difficult position, for, while I never dreamed he would look at her as a wife, I should have liked him to establish some sort of claim on the girl's father; and, if Will did not marry her, I was not doing much to help the Surdan fortunes. You know what men are! So long as Will was considered her natural protector, the others kept away for fear of "poaching", as it were. I felt it was a pity for them to be about together so much. I'm not ashamed to call myself old-fashioned... And these garish new restaurants and poor Hilda's "uniform undress", as Will rather wittily expressed it, made them very conspicuous...
The girl felt it, too. One day, when he'd devoted half the night to looking after her at a ball, she came to me—in real trouble, I thought—, and we had a serious talk. I told her that, if she had not spoken, I should have; Will was devoting himself to her so good-naturedly that he was neglecting his own prospects and doing nothing to secure an appointment.