Winding Paths | Page 4

and then Miss Walton remarked: "You do

not mean to be guided by me in this matter?"
"Lorraine is my friend," Hal answered. "I cannot let myself listen to
anything that suggests a slur upon her."
"Not even if your brother expressed a wish on the subject?"
"I do not ask Dudley to let me choose his friends."
"That is quite a different matter. He is fifteen years your senior."
Hal was silent. She stood with her hands behind her, and her head held
high, and her clear eyes very straight to the front; well-knit, well-built,
with a promise of that vague something which is so much stronger a
factor in the world than mere beauty.
Miss Walton, who necessarily saw much of the mediocre and
commonplace in her life-work of turning growing girls into presentable
young women, felt her feelings undergo a further change. She also had
the tact to see an appeal would go farther than mere advice.
"I was only thinking of you, Hal," she said, a trifle tiredly. "I have
nothing against Lorraine, except that she is dangerously attractive if she
likes, and her love of admiration and excitement does not make her a
very wise friend for a girl of your age. You are different, and your
paths are likely to lead far apart in the future. It did not seem to me
desirable you should grow too fond of each other."
Even as she spoke she found herself wondering what Hal would say,
and in an unlooked-for way interested.
Hal answered promptly :
"I do not think our lives will lie apart. Both of us will have to be
breadwinners at any rate, and that will be a bond."
Her mobile face seemed to change. "Miss Walton, I'm devoted to
Lorraine. I always shall be. But you needn't be anxious. The stronger
influence is not where you think. I can bend Lorraine's will, but she

cannot bend mine. It will always be so. And nothing that you nor any
one can say will make me change to her."
They said little more, but when she was alone the head mistress stood
silently for some minutes looking into the dying embers of her fire.
Then she uttered to herself an enigmatical sentence:
"Beauty will give to Lorraine the great career; but the greater woman
will be Hal."
Shortly after that Lorraine departed, and about a year later embarked in
the theatrical world.
No one was surprised, but very adverse opinions were expressed among
the girls concerning her success or otherwise; those who were jealous,
or who had felt slighted during her short reign as school beauty,
condemning any possible likelihood of a hit.
Hal said very little. She was already reaching out tentacles to the wider
world, where schoolgirl criticisms would be mere prattle; and it was far
more serious to her to wonder what Brother Dudley would think of her
having an actress for her greatest friend.
She foresaw rocks ahead, but smiled humorously to herself in spite of
them.
"What a tussle there'll be!" was her thought, "and how in the world am
I to convince Dudley that Lorraine does not represent a receptacle for
all the deadly sins? Heigho! The mere fact of my disagreeing will
persuade him I am already contaminated, and he will see us both
heading, like fire-engines, for the nethermost hell."
CHAPTER II
If Dudley Pritchard's imagination did not actually picture the lurid and
violent descent Hal suggested, it certainly did view with the utmost
alarm his lively young sister's friendship with a fully fledged actress.

As a matter of fact, Miss Walton's prognostications concerning his
attitude to Lorraine Vivian, even as a schoolgirl, had been instantly
confirmed upon their first meeting.
For no particular reason he disapproved of her. That was rather typical
of Dudley. He disapproved of a good many things without quite
knowing why, or being at any particular pains to find out.
Not that it made him bigoted. He could in fact be fairly tolerant; but as
Hal affectionately observed, Dudley was so apt to pat himself on the
back for his toleration towards things that it would never have occured
to most persons needed tolerating.
She knew perfectly well that he considered himself very tolerant
towards much that was to be deprecated in her, but, far from resenting
his attitude, she shaw chiefly the humorous side, and managed to glean
a good deal of quiet amusement from it.
Considering the fifteen years' difference in their ages, and the fact that
Dudley was a hard-working architect in London, seeing life on all sides,
while Hal was still a hoydenish schoolgirl, it was really remarkable
how thoroughly she grasped and understood his character, and a great
deal concerning the world in general, while he seemed to remain at