Chapter XVIII

Gloria went back into the sunroom, and picked up a magazine, wondering how to present May's very weak case to her mother-in-law.

"That was May Seymour on the phone," she began.

"I wish you wouldn't see so much of that woman," Mrs. Gregory replied. "As I've told you before, she's a thoroughly bad woman. I heard some dreadful stories about her and that good-for-nothing Carewe the other day. She doesn't deserve that nice husband of hers. And as for Carewe, he ought to be tarred and feathered!"

She shook out the paper vigorously.

"I suppose it's from her you got your idea of driving all over the country-side with that actor you were with the other day!" Mother Gregory continued. "She seems to think she can gad all over with Carewe, and never have a word whispered against her! Well, she can't. One of Dr. John's patients brought her name up before the Home Women's Club the other day ... and it was voted down quicker than it went up, let me tell you!"

Gloria saw how utterly hopeless May's case was.

A burning thread of terror went through her like a dart of lightning.... This was what women could do to one of their own sex who stepped over the boundary of good behavior that they have laid down for themselves throughout the centuries!

Women had made May a pariah—an outcast! They had kept her out of their clubs—given her the cold shoulder.

They had shown her that if she wanted to defy them, she would have to walk alone ... as other foolish and defiant women had walked alone, and worn the scarlet letter of shame and solitude.

Gloria wondered what would happen to her if her women friends knew that she had been seeing Stanley Wayburn alone!

She wondered what they would do when they did find out ... if they ever did. For Gloria knew she could never refuse to see Wayburn so long as he wanted to see her.

Soon after May's tearful telephone message, Mother Gregory got up to go. She wrapped herself in her black broadcloth and furs that always smelled of moth balls, and pecked Gloria on her cheek.

"Good-by," she said severely. "And I hope that your friend, Mrs. Seymour, will be an example to you of what happens to foolish wives who go traipsing around with men who wouldn't marry them if they had the chance! ... Decent women simply won't have anything to do with them. And you can tell May Seymour for me that until she gives up that Carewe, she can whistle and wait to get into the Home Women's Club, or any other club where I'm a member! For I'll vote her down every time! She's a disgrace to this town!"

Mother Gregory jerked her veil down over her Roman nose, and swept out of the house like a ship in full sail.

... So, Gloria thought, it was Mother Gregory who had kept May out of the club! What a hateful woman Dick's mother was!

And how dreadful for May to know that hundreds of women were against her, wanted to have nothing at all to do with her! To know that dozens of tongues were wagging about her and her affair with Jim Carewe! ... And yet, Gloria knew that but for the grace of Providence, she might be in the same boat with May Seymour, this very minute!

For some one, besides Mother Gregory, might have seen her and Stan Wayburn in her car, just as people had seen May and Jim together! And there would be talk and talk ... until the whole town would be talking about her and Stan....

Gloria shivered as she picked up the telephone and gave May's number.

"Maysie, dear, I just finished talking to Dick's mother," Gloria began unhappily when May answered her ring. "I did my very best for you ... but it's no use! She says there's not a ghost of a chance for you to get into the club.... You're right, there has been a lot of talk about you and Jim! At least, Mother Gregory says there has..."

"The old hypocrite!" May broke in harshly. "I'll bet she's at the bottom of the whole thing! She's always hated me the way a lot of other women in this town have ... because I married their dear, dear doctor! ... Women always have a cozy corner in their hearts for the family doctor. And they sure do hate him to have a wife. I've found that out!"

Gloria laughed in spite of herself.

"But not Mother Gregory!" she protested. "Why, she's old enough to be Dr. John's mother..."

"Oh, I don't mean she's in love with him, you poor prune!" May broke in. "That's absurd. But just the samey, women like to think that their sympathetic doctor takes a personal interest in all their aches and pains. They love to go to him with their troubles.... Oh, I could tell you a thing or two about being a doctor's wife, if I wanted to! You don't know the half of it, dearie!"

May paused for breath. Then she went on in her high voice:

"Well, even if I can't get into a woman's club, I suppose the stores are still open to me.... How would you like to go shopping with me this morning?"

"I can't leave the house to-day. I'm busy," Gloria fibbed.

She wondered how May would feel if she knew the truth ... that Dick had forbidden her to be seen anywhere with May? ... Not that that would have stopped Gloria, if she had wanted to be seen with May!

But she didn't ... she was afraid of being talked about, along with her. She didn't want to be classed as a "bird of a feather" with May Seymour. No, indeed!

... Gloria began to perceive, dimly, that neither law nor law makers rule this world of ours, but that four little words do ... "What Will People Say?"

... Well, people never would say the things about her and Stan that they were saying about May and Jim, that reckless pair! She would never give them the chance ... she would be too clever for them, Gloria made up her mind. There must be ways ... ways of seeing Stan without any one being the wiser! The thought of not seeing him at all did not occur to her.

She went clip-clopping upstairs in her blue satin mules.

Ranghild was cleaning out Gloria's clothes-closet.

The sight of all her dresses hanging there in neat, colorful rows made Gloria think suddenly of Myra Gail.

Lucky Myra! ... With clothes to burn, here she was getting ready to run over to Paris for two or three more trunksful of them!

And she would come back not only with clothes ... but with the latest thing in make-up and hair-cuts, too, no doubt! No wonder she was fascinating!

Gloria picked up the extension-telephone that stood beside the night-lamp. She gave Myra Gail's number.

"I saw by the public print this morning that you're going abroad, Myra," she said gayly when Mrs. Gail's cool voice answered. "How soon are you sailing, dear?"

"In ten days. Why, were you thinking of going along?" There was thinly veiled humor in Myra's tone.

"As a matter of fact, I was thinking of doing that very little thing!" Gloria said with spirit. "I'm tired, and I think a sea trip would be the very thing for me."

"Nothing like it for brushing the cobwebs out of your brain!" Myra commented as she hung up. "Better make up your mind to go along. Love to have you!"

Now, what did she mean by that, Gloria wondered ... by that phrase of hers, "brushing the cobwebs out of your brain?"

Did Myra think there were cobwebs in her brain? Had she recognized the troubled mental state Gloria was in over Stanley Wayburn?

... That was the trouble with Myra, the thing that made Gloria hate and fear her. She seemed to see everything that was going on everywhere, with those cold, gray eyes of hers. She never missed a trick!

Glory turned to Ranghild.

"If I went away for a few weeks, do you think you could manage the house alone?" she asked.

Ranghild went on brushing a green sports suit as she reflected. She was thinking that she had done every bit of work in the house all alone from the minute she had stepped into it!

"I think I could, Mrs. Gregory," was all she said.

"Because I may be going away in a week or so ... to Europe," Gloria went on.

The sound of her own words excited her. Going to Europe! Of course she was!

She was sure that she could make Dick scrape up the money for the trip, somehow or other. She would be very sweet and appealing with him ... and he would give her the money. Honey caught more flies than vinegar ... that was the big idea!

With Ranghild's help, Gloria dragged her wardrobe trunk from the guest-room closet, and dusted it off.

Gloria spent the rest of the day washing out silk stockings and handkerchiefs with soap-chips in her bathroom. She couldn't wait for washday, to get these things packed in her trunk. She was in a fever of excitement.

When Dick came home at half-past five, she was still hard at work, her hair tousled and her cheeks flushed.

Dick looked around the room in blank astonishment. Bureau drawers were flung open. Dresses were flung across the bed. A pile of lingerie lay, white as a cloud, on a chair.

Wordlessly, Gloria smiled at him across the chaos ... a siren smile from half-lowered eyelids and dimpling mouth.

"What do you think you're doing now?" Dick asked.

"Packing the things that I'm going to take with me," his wife answered.

"Take with you! What are you doing, leaving me?" He sat down on the lingerie piled on the nearest chair.

"Well, I should say not!" Gloria cried. "Did you think I'd leave you just because you were so angry and jealous, yesterday? Why, I like you to be jealous ... 'cause then I know you still love me ... see?"

She pattered across the room to him, and knelt beside his chair.

"Would you miss me terribly if I went away for a little while ... with Myra Gail?" she asked.

Dick sat up with a jerk.

"With Myra Gail? But, good Lord, she's going to Europe!" he gasped.

Gloria nodded.

"So am I," she said calmly, "if you'll let me?"

Dick made a gesture of despair.

"Honey," he said, "you can't go. I haven't enough money in the bank to pay for a one-way ticket ... Look here, let me show you!"

He took his check book from his inside coat pocket.

"Less than two hundred bucks!" he said. "Hardly enough to pay the current bills! You know, you've been hitting me pretty hard lately with these new clothes you bought, and your automobile ... and Ranghild's wages."

Gloria walked away toward the windows.

"Oh, sure, it's my fault we never have any money," she tossed back over her shoulder. "I suppose you never spend a cent on those special cigarettes you're forever smoking, or on taxicabs, do you?"

Gloria laughed impudently.

"Why don't you fire Miss Briggs, and get a stenographer who doesn't expect a small fortune in the way of salary, if you're so terribly poor?" she asked. "Sometimes I think you must be in love with that woman! Honestly, I do!"

Dick stood up.

"You can't go to Europe," he said quietly, and went downstairs.