The Angel in the Corner - Monica Dickens [120]
‘Thanks, Helen.’ She kissed her mother. ‘You’ve done more than you know by giving me that hat. You’ve made me want to get myself out of the slums.’
‘Then you’ll come?’ Helen clasped her hands. ‘You’ll come home with me and start a fresh life?’
‘Oh, no.’ Virginia shook her head, still smiling. ‘I’ll come for a visit, perhaps, when Joe and I can pay our own fares. But I’ll never come without him. You’ll never understand that, Helen. I don’t believe you understand what marriage is at all.’
‘Ha!’ Helen gave a short, but affable laugh. ‘At twenty-two, you tell me that. My heavens, the young are arrogant.’
‘Sure they are.’ Spenser came through from the sitting-room, his heavy feet making dents in the thick carpet. ‘The older you get, the less you know, and the less sure you are of what you know. That’s a cute hat, Jinny. Say –’ He looked closer. ‘Isn’t it that John Fredericks hat I gave you, Helen?’
‘You don’t mind,’ Helen said, a statement rather than a question. ‘I never looked very well in it, and look what it does for Jinny.’
‘I’m glad for her to have it. She’s beautiful, anyway, but in that hat she’s a knock-out. What have you two been doing? Talking about hats all the time, I’ll bet. I know what you women are when you get in a bedroom. You either discuss your husbands or your hats.’ His husky laugh and the coughing spell which followed it covered the fact that no one else laughed.
Helen and Virginia looked at each other for a moment.
Opposed as they were, they were still mother and daughter, and they could still agree by a silent glance to keep something to themselves.
‘Well, we’ve not been talking about husbands,’ Helen said, ‘so I guess it must have been hats.’
Spenser went with Virginia down the corridor to the lift. ‘Get that young man of yours to come along tomorrow,’ he said. ‘We won’t eat him.’
‘It’s not that,’ Virginia said quickly. ‘He couldn’t come tonight. He –’
‘Your old stepfather knows more than you think.’ Spenser squeezed her arm. ‘I’ve been making some inquiries on the side. I have my spies, you know. That’s one thing money can do for you. So don’t think I don’t know the way things are with you.’
‘We’re all right.’ The bravery of the words was hollow. Saying them made Virginia realize how far from the truth they were. But she would never tell Spenser that she had asked her mother for help and had been refused.
She pressed the call-button for the lift. ‘I’ll have to hurry,’ Spenser said. ‘I don’t want to say this in front of the elevator boy, and I didn’t dare say it in front of my wife, because I haven’t told her yet, and she likes to be the first to know things. I’m going to help you, Jinny.’
‘No, thank you. We don’t need any help.’
‘That’s my girl. I knew you’d say that,’ Spenser said with satisfaction. ‘You’re just as stubborn as your mother. That’s why I’m not going to talk to you. I’m going to talk to Joe. Send him round here tomorrow. Noon will do. We’ll have lunch,’ he said, in the tone of a man accustomed to having his summonses obeyed. ‘I know he’s not working, so he can’t make that an excuse.’
The doors slid back and Virginia stepped into the lift. She could not promise to send Joe to see Spenser. She did not know whether he would go. But even with this doubt, her mind was looking anxiously over his meagre wardrobe, deciding what he could wear to make the best impression.
Chapter 13
The Olive Branch was one of the most attractive public-houses in that part of London which lies between Portman Square and Cavendish Square. Pleasantly situated in a quiet cul-de-sac of neat, inexpensive houses, it was convenient both for the commercial folk of Marylebone High Street, and for the professional medical men who flew their small brass flags of success in the neighbouring streets and squares.
The clientele had once been heterogeneous, but since the war the unassuming little tavern had become increasingly fashionable among the kind of people who liked to refer in a sporty