Chapter V Renunciation
At the door of Mrs. Burton’s private sitting-room, which was slightly ajar, hearing voices inside, Bettina paused. She had changed her wet outdoor costume for a simple dinner dress, but did not wish to disturb any visitor, knowing that her Camp Fire guardian saw only intimate friends at this hour and in this room. The room in which Bettina was standing at present was the ordinary reception room.
Mrs. Burton was speaking and an instant later Bettina caught the sound of her own name.
“I did not dream, my dear, that Bettina could be so selfish and unreasonable. I confess I am deeply disappointed in her! Save that she told me what she wished with her own lips, I could never have believed she could be so inconsiderate of you.”
Then a voice followed which surprised Bettina, although it was the one voice with which she was more familiar than any other.
“But, Polly, perhaps you do not understand Bettina. She never before has seemed either selfish or unreasonable. And if she now appears inconsiderate of me, the fault probably is mine. Bettina should have had a more serious-minded mother, one who would not have asked her to waste her gifts and her beautiful, generous nature in a society existence. I have been talking with Anthony since Bettina came to you. He seems unusually severe and for the first time I can recall is annoyed with his ‘Slim Princess,’ the title he used to bestow on Bettina. Anthony declares that Bettina should wish to be with me beyond any other possible desire and that she particularly needs my influence. This I am afraid is not true. I have been struggling to make Anthony see, and you must recognize this as an excuse for Bettina, Polly, dear, that her wish at present is merely an inheritance from Anthony. For as long as I can remember Anthony has been working to better conditions for people whom he considers less fortunate than himself. This has kept him many years in political life, when often his own desire has been to retire. Now Bettina simply is longing to express the same ideal in the work that, as a young girl, she feels herself by nature fitted for. I have been standing in her way, I am afraid the selfishness has been mine, although at first I was unable to see the situation in this light. I am so proud of Bettina and so wanted her to be with me in order to introduce her to the brilliant and charming friends Anthony and I have acquired in our years in Washington.”
“You are an angel, Betty!” Mrs. Burton responded.
Her companion laughed, for the first time her voice revealing a happier tone.
“Polly, there is only one human being in this world possessed of fewer angelic attributes! That person is your famous self. It is ridiculous and not in the least fair of you to be so critical of Bettina. I presume you have forgotten that when you were a girl you disappeared—was it for over a year?—from all of us who cared for you. At that time you deliberately set out to try your fortune in so reprehensible a career as the stage. Now if Bettina had chosen so undesirable a profession as yours, I might be unhappy. The work she wishes to do is constructive and unselfish. I went to call on Miss Merton, the friend Bettina made last summer who interested her in social settlement work. She has a very different impression of Bettina from the one you seem to have acquired as her Camp Fire guardian. She is a remarkable woman and I never wish to forget what she said to me. She even agreed that Bettina should remain this winter with me and do what I planned for her, yet she believes that Bettina has a wonderful personality and unusual gifts and that one day she will do work that may be of permanent value. Under the circumstances it is I who have failed Bettina. In the future she will remember and find it hard to forgive me.”
“Mother!” there was a little rush as Bettina entered the room. An instant after her arms were about her mother and her cheek resting against her beautiful soft hair.
“I have been playing eavesdropper outside the door for the past ten minutes and so heard Tante villify my character and your defence of me. She isn’t to be trusted, is she, dearest?”
Bettina glanced toward her Camp Fire guardian. There was a little flash of understanding between them.
Immediately Mrs. Burton rose from her chair.
“I am going into my room to dress for dinner, Betty. I don’t know what Bettina’s idea of you may be, but I am convinced that you are unreasonable and inconsiderate. I have merely seen your side of this question because of my affection for you. In return you tell me that I have no true appreciation of your daughter and that I have chosen a profession for which you feel not respect while Bettina’s choice is altogether admirable.”
Mrs. Burton’s eyes were lowered and her cheeks flushed as she moved toward her own door.
“Polly dear, I haven’t wounded you? Please don’t be angry with me, you never have been in all these years.”
There was no reply. Bettina whispered, “Don’t mind Tante, mother. I think she really intended to force you to defend me. Certainly I am grateful to her. Besides, she needs your criticism this winter, now her play is such a success and she no longer has Aunt Patricia or her Camp Fire girls to keep her in order. As for all those foolish, delightful things you said about me, I shall remember them always, although of course they are not true. When are you going home? I want to go with you, I mean to be the most popular debutante in Washington this winter. The other foolish dream of mine can wait.”
Mrs. Graham shook her head.
“No, Bettina, now I understand how you feel, I really don’t desire you to do anything except what you wish. Don’t leave us, please, Polly, not for a few moments, I want to talk to you. You can’t be offended. Miss Merton suggests that Bettina take some special courses in social work this winter and that she come to her for practical experience in the work two or three times a week.
“I won’t be lonely, I’ll run over to New York frequently to see you both. And remember, Polly, that you promised me that you would come to me in the spring, no matter if your play is the greatest success in New York. You assured Richard and me that you would not try your strength by a too long engagement. Besides, you have never seen our ‘House by the Blue Lagoon’. Bettina and I have given the place this title. It was Anthony’s anniversary gift to me. The house is on an island in the sea, but there is an arm of water that has cut its way into the land that is blue as the Bay of Naples. You’ll bring as many of your Sunrise Camp Fire girls with you as you can induce to come. This shall be my reward that you and Bettina both care more for what you are pleased to call your careers than for me. I shall try to persuade Aunt Patricia to join us. She must have relented by that time.”
Mrs. Burton shook her head.
“Never, dear! But of course I am coming to you. I lie awake at night and dream of the happy time we shall have together when the winter’s work is past. ‘The Blue Lagoon’, the very name is magical.”