The Australian Women's Weekly (1933 - 1982)(about) |
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Saturday 18 February 1939
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EW
and a LADY
By . . ?
JOAN ELMAN
m Illustrated 1
I by
, FISCHER
li
Shirley demonstrated
cars! Her career came to a climax when Diana stepped in . . ?
rt?,
y* »HE black and chromium
? frontage of Mlnnlson's M Motors in Great Port ^4, land Street was already
blazing with neon as Shirley drove up the side-lane into the garage at the rear.
Oh, but this had been a day oí days ! Three demonstrations since ten o'clock. Careers for women? rjgh!
Leaving the car to be washed down ready for to-morrow's work, she walked into the showroom, tucking the wind-blown wisps of dark hair under her blue leather helmet. And then her slender young body stiff-
ened as she looked into the street.
He was there again. At intervals of a week or more he would look into the window. Twice he had t»me ir. to ask for catalogues; once *e had shown him a new electrical ?ear-change. Usually he was alone, tot this time a woman was with
him.
Jean glanced up from her clatter :r:? typewriter. "Maitland," she said wisely. "Howard to friends. Rich, and Id have said unattached until to-night, but now it looks « though the Ash is hooked, my
"Yes," said Shirley, "and hooked Properly. That, my dear, is Diana Pembroke; finished second in the Three Hundred Mile at Brooklands lM Saturday."
"Hmm! Blt out of your reach, 'hen, isn't he? Bet he's got his (ye on the Velden. He bought an A1cl3 here last spring."
One can't see much through shin- to? glass, and one doesn't peer too closely. But Shirley glimpsed those *ell-remembered shoulders, broad awt strong under their rough tweed. He was shifting a big pipe to the other corner of his wide mouth. For a moment he looked at her, a flicker *f recognition crossing his face. Tnen he turned quickly to his svelte companion, and Shirley saw his eyes Hance merrily as he laughingly 'eolied to something she had said.
With a grim little smile she watched them climb into the car at the kerb and drive off. Men, clean looking and strong like Maitland, made her remember the things she tried so hard to forget. He belonged to a different world, the world she had left behind eighteen months
ago.
She found herself gazing longingly at the vanishing rearlight of his car. It was ridiculous, of course. You couldn't expect the Howard Mait- lands of this world to understand the hopeless longing, the sense Of imprisonment which roaring streets and flying traffic put into the heart of a country girl in Great Portland
Street.
S O METHING bitten
you?" Jean asked, flicking an in-
voice out of her machine.
"Tired, that's all." Shirley said, wondering if that one word could convey all the aching weariness that racked her from head to foot. "You're lucky, though, if only you knew it." Shirley's fresh loveliness, even after a hard day's work, always made Jean feel just ordinarily pretty. "There aren't many women car demonstrators. It's more romantic than sitting here all day banging this mouldy typewriter."
"Romantic!" Shirley skimmed her gauntlet« across Jean's desk. "Well, you can call it that if you like! Driving a middle-aged doctor to Croydon in a ten horsepower coupe. He may buy and he may not. Most likely not, and then bang goes my
commission."
She pulled open the door markeü "Staff Only." and opened her locker. "Hang about the showrooms," Mr. Minnison would say, "when you're not out driving. Let 'em see you. Gives the human element. Im- proves the look of the place."
Well, lt was too late to improve the look of the place to-night Shirley clenched her hands in mute anger every time he said that. She was Just expected to be part of the
"The question is," said Howard, "what's to be done '*»
with it? Mechanic or blacksmith?"
decoration ... it didn't- matter that she was as good a driver as any in London ... as good as Diana Pembroke if it came to a show- down. Minnison's was a temple of speed and luxury. The ten great cars-on display were set against a background of lofty walls, cun- ningly flooded with concealed light- ing. There were steel chairs and glass tables. There were high palms banked in every corner.
And Shirley was the high priestess in her blue leather uniform and helmet; a lovely, alluring priestess to tempt victims to Mr. Minnison's altar . . . that big counter over which the big cheques passed.
A little spasm of envy for the fair-haired Diana, who already had fame and money, and was now ang- ling for Howard Maitland, made her bite her lip angrily.
"You're a fool, Shirley Adams!" she told herself, peeling off the blue uniform.
With it, all the luxury lent to her by Minnison's was shed. The moment the first corner was turned, big cars and gleaming walls were forgotten. She was just an ordinary, not-too well-dressed girl waiting in a long queue for a bus.
In her one room she drank luke- warm tea, and choked over scram- bled eggs on toast. The Inde
Romance On Wheels
pendent bachelor girl! It was no use. She couldn't eat to-night. One can't eat and think bitter, hard thoughts at the same time.
Cars! She loved them, of course She'd always driven well, always loved to feel the thrilling pull of surging power under her Angers.
But there had been horses at Meads, before her father crashed, and died. Shirley sighed regretfully as she creaked into the basket chair in front of the hissing gas-fire. How she had missed those horses during the heartbreaking months before Minnison's had engaged her.
Things were better now, of course Sitting in a sports car wasn't quite the same as being in the saddle, but when her hands were on the wheel or flicking the gears into position,
a trace of the old thrill came back.
Drowsily she curled her slender legs into the chair, while the fire's glow flushed her young face and smoothed away its tired lines. She smiled wistfully. Howard Mait- lands easy swing as he hoisted him- self into his car! His strong gloved hands lying easily on the wheel!
Something told her that he under- stood horses, too.
And he did!
She knew it, that golden morning, by the way he stood critically gazing at the Velden, while Mr. Minnison smirked and rubbed plump hands in the background.
"Comes from a good stable," Howard was saying slowly. "I'd a Velden four years back. Doing hack-work now on the farm." His crinkling grey eyes lifted from the car's shapely lines and took stock of Shirley. "Drive her"
"Anything," she smiled, "on
wheels."
"Our lady demonstrator, Mr Maitland," put in Minnison, with a sideways nod of his birdlike head
"Ah! Thought she was just part of the color scheme. The musical comedy rig. I mean."
Shirley flushed. But the blue leather was Minnison's idea, and the tilt was at him.
"We can arrange for a demon
stratton any time you like," Minni son said politely.
"That means to-day. Threshing to-morrow."
"I-I beg your pardon, sir?"
Howard Maitland took out his pipe. "Threshing. Mechanical separation of wheat from surround- ing chaff," he explained. "Old agri- cultural custom. It's now or never for the car."
Shirley had been swinging the blue helmet in her fingers. "I can be ready in ten minutes, Mr. Mait- land," she told him.
"Good. I'll probably keep you all day. Like to get to know a car." Hts steady eyes swung back to Minnlson. "I'll pay for the privi- lege. Charge it up to me."
Shirley diplomatically lifted the
house phone on Jean's desk and asked the garage staff to fill up the demonstration Velden. But Mait- land shook his head
"This." he said, "is the car I'm buying. And this is the car 111 take." Minnison spluttered, but his customer merely flung an amused glance at Shirley behind his back. "Don't worry! VB pay for it to be cleaned up if I don't keep it, but the chances are I shall. Ready, Miss
-?"
"Adams," Shirley said.
"Miss Adams. And if you've any alternative to that"-he waved a hand down her uniform-"I'll be grateful."
c
k_jHE went to the locker-room and changed into, her well-worn tweed coa and beret! So the day was booked by Howard Mait- land, who, most probably, was pay- ing twelve hundred pounds to im- press the blonde heroine she had seen leaning on his arm beyond the
showroom window!
Oh, it was going to be lovely! Shirley pulled the beret sideways with a vicious little tug. She'd seen the limpid adoration in Diana's eyes as they fluttered up to Howard's. Glances like that spell marriage for a man.
And-Shirley realised it with an unpleasant contraction of the heart -the idea of Howard Maitland marrying Diana was a horrible thought.
"Idiot!" she stormed at herself. "You've seen him four times and spoken to him twice. Idiot!"
And came back to the showroom very self-possessed.
"That's better!" Howard said, holding open the door and fitting himself beside her. "Much better!"
He was silent as she eased the Velden across the pavement and down the street. "Reigate first," he Instructed, "and then I'll tell you."
Please turn to Page 40
A New Car and a Lady
Continued from Poge 5
R EIGATE?" she
repeated incredulously, a smile of de- light parting her lips. The real country! Happily she snuggled Into the deep seat and threaded the car through the maze of traffic, while Howard watched her, an amused gleam in his eyes.
"It's a big brute for such a small child to handle," he said, as they ! cleared the last suburban ribbons.
"Watch!" she answered, and put her foot down.
The white road roared beneath them. There was scarcely a sound from the engine; nothing but the risp oí tyres and the scream of wind. Unconsciously she pulled off
I her beret, letting her hair stream ! out behind her head. And respond-
ing to her mood he leaned forward and folded the shield flat.
"Good!" he declared boyishly, after ten miles of lt. "Now let's And
¡ the lanes and just potter along."
She twisted to the left at the next signpost and plunged into the narrow byways. "Know this country?" he asked curiously.
"I was born in it!" she breathed.
"Then you're human! So was L Get up to town once a week just to keep in touch, and I could sacrifice that without breaking my heart."
"You're lucky, Mr. Maitland."
"Don't I know it!" He leaned back contentedly. "Suppose you have a spot of lunch with me? My place isn't far. Mind if I take over for a while? I suppose it's against the rules, but I'm pretty good with a
car."
They changed places, though it was against the rules, and Shirley wondered what on earth Minnison would have said. Slowly they went on, through deep-tinted woods where the noonday sunlight lay in pools of liquid gold among the clearings.
"Are you satisfied with the car?" she asked, trying to wrench her thoughts back to business.
"Don't be funny!'' he said. "Ho- ho; bless me if that Isn't Diana! We'll not stop. She'll keep us an ? hour, and I want the car to be a ; surprise to her."
Shirley bit her lip as they moved I past the white-painted gate. Diana!
Prettier than ever, dressed exqul
sitely and expensively, standing there with two golden retrievers as though posing for her photograph.
Ignoring Shirley after a first criti- cal glance, she smiled possessively af Howard. But he only raised his hand, and they slid quietly down
the lane.
"Here we are!" he announced, slowing down. "The ancestral home. Get out and have a look at it."
It fitted snugly among the trees, a long, low house covered with a flaming mantle of creeper. Shirley gave a little gasp of delight.
So like Meads! The same old, twisted chimneys, the same blue smoke rising slowly into the clear sky.
It was too much! Howard Mait- land heard a small, stifled sound be- side him, and turned to Shirley curiously.
"You're crying!" he accused, put- ting his hands on her shoulders and twisting her round until her shining eyes met his.
"Nonsense!" she replied angrily, trying to pull herself away.
Whistling softly to himself, he walked slowly to the front door
"This isn't one of those all-male establishments you read about," Howard said cheerily. "There's a housekeeper and a maid or two. Can't stand menservants. They give me the jitters."
The Velden Twelve was safely parked at the rear, and Shirley was cool and sensible again. Why cry for the moon? Par better to realise that this one glowing day was a miracle never to be repeated, and live every eager moment of it.
"It's too wonderful to be true," she murmured, gazing across the smooth
lawns.
"Mmm." Howard fumbled in his heavy jacket for his pipe. "Grand place, eh? That's a mulberry tree, believe it or not." He nodded towards a bushy giant at the edge of tho clearing. "Good tree, that. Like trees?"
"Oh . . . don't!" she answered, thinking of her Brixton window-box.
"Grand things, trees. They don't die on you like dogs, they don't kick like horses Always depend on _ 'em." .
"You must have a wonderful farm to keep all this going," Shirley said.
He stared down at her for a moment, then burst into a hearty laugh.
"It doesn't! Sit down a bit. Grass is dry enough. No. the farm's a hobby. Mind, it pays. Polks say I'm useless. Maybe. But I was born with money. Not my fault. It doesn't suit me to go into business and rob people's eyes out, so I stay the country squire and look after the tenants. The farm just keeps me
out of mischief."
He packed the pipe and Ut it with a steady brown hand, looking at her
over the bobbing match-flame with " eyes dancing with laughter.
"And you're quite happy here?"
"Happy?" He was silent a moment. "Well, thereabout. Too busy to think about that as a rule." He looked at the rambling house. "But lonely sometimes, winter nights, that's all." He leaned back on one hand. "Now, what about you, my good woman?"
"I sell cars." Shirlev replied.
"Not because you like it. Why? Come along . . . out with it."
She told him a little, and he filled in the rest. "Same old story," he commented briefly. "Well, let's go in and eat."
They sat opposite one another with cold chicken between them, and a cheese of the country to accom- pany creamier coffee than she had
tasted for years.
"Diana's coming up." he told her. "She'll be here any minute. She won't be satisfied till she's passed judgment on the new bus."
This time Shirley kept the smile fixed on her lips. But with Howard Maitland's kindly face peering at her between the flowers it was hard to believe that to-morrow would bring Minnison's again, and the blue uniform.
"Shall you want to go out again?" she asked casually.
"Just a flip. Twenty miles or so, if you're not too tired. Just put the Velden through its paces for her."
"Of course," she agreed bravely.
"Don't suppose you often get out so far on your job?"
"Not often." A little cloud had seemed to come between them.
"Mostly town birds! What's their idea of a trip?"
"Hampstead or Kingston, mostly. And they always want to meet me at night at a roadhouse."
"You don't?"
"Never. It's bad for business."
"I'll remember that," he promised, and suddenly sat upright as a bell sounded.
Diana met him at the door. "Don't bother to get up," she said with a
cool little laugh. 'Surely I can let myself in by now?"
She flashed him another of tho
tantalising smiles, and turned for a swift inspection of Shirley. "Some- thing new in demonstrators, isn't lt?" she murmured sweetly as Howard introduced them.
Shirley got up very deliberately. "I'll bring the car," she told Howard, and hurried away.
Standing over its purring engine while she made a minor adjustment, she steeled her heart. It wasn't going to be easy, but she must go
through with lt.#
And so it was a very cool and efficient demonstrator who tooled the Velden to the front of the house and opened the rear door for her two passengers. As they glided along the lanes she looked down at the vacant seat beside her. Now he was with Diana. They were talking about things that did not concern her. He had gone back to his own world.
SHE heard them
laughing. Fiercely she pressed the accelerator and swept the car at breakneck speed through the sunny countryside.
Then above the roaring wind she heard Howard's voice, and slowed to catch what he was saying.
"We're doing a theatre in town to- night. Think you could take us back horne to change and then drop us somewhere near Piccadilly?"
Us!
"Yes, of course," she agreed, and wrenched the wheel round.
Back, back . . to the end of the dream. Again the white gate and the sudden vision of the old house. But this time she sat outside while Howard and Diana went in together. She could hear them laughing and talking through the open window.
"You're not wanted!" throbbed the engine softly. "Keep right on with the job!"
She looked up to see Diana stand- ing by the car, smiling patronisingly. A very chic and freshly made-up Diana, very different from the wind whipped, powderless face that looked back at Shirley from the driving
mirror.
"Interesting job, yours," Diana
said.
"Sometimes," Shirley answered.
"You g«t well paid for it, I sup- pose?"
Shirley set her lips firmly. "I have to be back by six. Will Mr. Maitland be long?"
"Not many minutes, then you can run round to my place and wait till I dress." Her gloriously blue eyes swept the Velden's low lines. "I'll
spin your car down the drive until Mr. Maitland comes."
"I'm sorry," Shirley said, "but you
can't."
Diana drew back and looked at her. "Oh ... I can't! You know, I do quite a lot of driving."
"I know. I was at Brooklands last Saturday. But this car is only insured on demonstration while I'm driving it."
"I see!" Diana's plucked brows drew together as she asked sweetly: "And did you think about that when you let Mr. Maitland drive this morning?"
She smiled at Shirley's confusion. "After all, you're a paid servant. I mean ... if your firm knew you allowed liberties to attractive male customers and not to women ..."
She stopped with a little shrug. Taking out a lipstick, she drew it quite unnecessarily round her hard, bright mouth.
Shirley sat very still for a moment. After all, lt had been an unreal day. She didn't much care what happened. Slowly she climbed out of the bucket seat and stood aside, while Diana, with a trium- phant smile, slipped into the car and pressed the starter.
Shirley thrust her hands deep Into her pockets and watched. The great car bounded forward as the engine leapt under Diana's foot. She heard its spluttering roar as it died away in the distance.
Howard found her there ten minutes later.
"Where's the car?" he asked quickly.
Shirley nodded down the drive. "Somewhere in Surrey. Or Sussex. Don't ask me."
"You mean . . . Diana?" "I mean Diana!"
"But are you clean crazy?" Howard shook her shoulder. "Shell kill herself!"
Shirley looked at him in- credulously. "But she's Diana Penn broke!" she said. "The Diana! Why, I saw her win the Vallis Cup!"
"On the track," returned Howard crisply. "But I wouldn't trust her on the road with a pram."
Shirley sat down on the step, and Howard sank by her side. Neither of them spoke. Shirley had enough to think about. Twelve hundred pounds' worth of good motor-car in Diana's hands! And it was five o'clock. In an hour, Minnison's would be closing.
"Pretty!" she murmured to her-
self.
"What's that?" Howard had been watching the clear etching of her young profile against the sky.
Please turn to Page 41
A i\ew Car and a Lady
Continued from Poge 40
"N THING," she -
spiled "I was just wondering If it's
iceping on the Embankment y the'-' say."
mped to his feet. "I'm tak
jg the Alcis to look for her. She's ^en gone three-quarters of an hour. You'd better stay here in case she romes back."
He crunched ofl towards the
j^age She heard him starting up
car. He waved as he went
past, and she felt suddenly,
igly alone,
twenty to six! She wandered to
f of the lawn. Even the ticker chair and the gas-fire, sym
afe if unromantic existence,
peril now. Diana might jome back safe and sound even yet. out there would be an inquest all tl» same when she got back to Great portland Street.
ocks about the house were
¡trttinj rhe hour as she went in
And then the telephone bell
Hurriedly she picked up the re
A voice she knew came to ...ung and sharp.
'Mr. Maitlands home?"
Yes ' she answered, "but Mr Maitland isn't here."
Excited splutterings at the other ad of the wire. "Listen . . . he's oeen having a demonstration. A Velden Twelve tourer. This is
Minnison's. You've got that? The or has been found in a ditch near Horsley. No one with it. It was under trade plates, but the police lound one of our folders in the car and rang us up."
Shirley's voice was very steady, »Ith that steadiness which comes »hen the worst is known.
"I'm sorry. When Mr. Maitland
»mes in . . . "
"Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes ! But what about my demonstrator? What about a? car? Here I send out a twelve Mildred pound model . .. . "
Something snapped in Shirley's "Your demonstrator's here," she
*W breathlessly. "It's my fault the . a' is smashed up. Mr. Maitland ls
right so far as I know, and" Mi voice rose hysterically-"and I Ish I were dead!"
She dropped the receiver back on
t So the Velden was gone,
.kt lob was gone. And Diana would kIn hospital. Oh, she wasn't dead!
If she had been, the police would
have known.
No. Howard had found her and taken her to hospital, or to her home if she wasn't badly hurt. He would be bending over her now, full of blame for Shirley. He would never speak to her again. She knew the ways of big men with possessive blondes.
Well, there was one thing to do! Leave a note to say that she took all the blame, and then tramp to the nearest station. She felt through her pockets. Driving, she never carried a bag.
Seven and ninepence!
Grimly she reached across Howard Maitland's table for pen and ink.
Shirley was in the showroom early next morning, but Mr. Minnison was even earlier. He began his tirade before she had closed the door behind her.
"Twelve hundred pounds!" he chirped. "Nothing, js it? You hung up on me. When I ring up Maitland again he tells me to go to the devil And now you stroll in as if nothing had happened!"
Shirley stood very white and still , '111 make sure you never get another post in this trade!" Mr. Minnison spluttered on. "I'll have you black- listed with every firm in London."
The showroom door opened. "Come here, Jean!" he shouted. "I've some letters for you to type."
But it wasn't Jean. It was Howard Maitland who stood there, calmly fretting tobacco through his fingers.
"Morning," he greeted them. 'Haven't got long. Busy threshing." Mr. Minnison wilted, and Shirley flushed a bright crimson. In all her tumbled thoughts there had never been a single hope that Howard would stand by her.
"You'd better take a cheque for the Velden," he said coolly. "Good bus, Minnison."
HE flicked the
cheque across the counter. Mr. Minnison blinked. "But the police said last night ..."
"Oh, that! Local bobbies aren't overworked down our way. See a bus ditched and make a song about it. Big Five stuff, y'know. Never mind. It amused em."
"But it was deserted!" spluttered '
the car dealer.
Howard took out his pipe and looked Mr. Minnison squarely in the
face.
"When I ditch a car I don't try to lift it out," he explained. "Too big a strain. I hoof it to the vil- lage pub and have one. Then I send a team of cart-horses to do the dirty work. S'pose I owe Miss Adams an apology for pinching the old rattler while she was powdering her nose, but I couldn't resist it."
"Oh, well . . . naturally . . . old customer like yourself, Mr. Mait- land ..." Minnison made vague and polite noises in his throat. "I mean, we make allowances," he finished.
Howard nodded. "I'll say you do!"
And Shirley, nervously twisting her fingers, felt tears of shame prick- ing at her eyes. Not a word of blame for Diana! You could understand that, because he was in love with her. But to pay for a wrecked car just to shield a girl he merely pitied . . . no, she couldn't let him do that!
"Mr. Minnlaon," she began, "I've something to tell ..."
"I'll talk to you later," he promised unpleasantly, busy with the receipt
"Won't be time," Howard said airily. "I want your demonstrator for a day or two. Spot of driving work. Might even be a permanency.''
"It might be arranged," Minnison said doubtfully.
"It is arranged," Howard replied, indicating the outer door. "Come on, Shirley. Oh . . . and you'd better bring your blue kit."
Wondering if it was all a dream, she put the coat and helmet over her
. arm and followed him into the street. .
"Shall I put it on?" she faltered, sitting beside him in the Alcis.
He stared. "Good Lord, no! No, it'll do for the Hunt Ball, if I take you. Wave good-bye to Daddy Minnison. Here we go!"
And that was the last word he spoke until they had plunged down just the same winding lanes as yes ! terday, and came to a sharp, I treacherous bend.
"Look!" he said, pulling In to the grass verge.
I The Velden lay upside down in two i feet of muddy water. With a little
I cry of dismay Shirley leaped out of
the car and down the bank. The
' sight of the car, so sleek and lovely 1 only yesterday, brought tears to her I eyes.
The radiator was crumpled. Glass and twisted metal-work had burled themselves a foot deep in the soft earth.
"But . . . Diana!" she breathed.
Howard nodded towards the under- growth. "She landed there. Right among the wild roses. It's a wonder they didn't come in bloom for her."
"But why didn't she phone and let us know?" Shirley asked.
"She wouldn't. One of her nice habits, that. Get into filthy jams . . . other people too . . . then slips quietly out by the back door."
He clambered up the bank and turned to give Shirley a hand. "Question is," he said, "what's to be done with it? Cast your profes- sional eye over the corpse. Is lt a job for a mechanic, the village black- smith, or just the scrap bloke?"
"The scrap bloke, I'm afraid," she replied unsteadily.
"I was afraid so."
He drove on in silence. The rough tweed of his coat brushed her arm.
The sun brought out a warm, wholesome smell from that big sleeve; the smell of soil and tobacco.
"Tm not without money," he said, as the house came into view. "But twelve hundred's a lot."
"Ill never be able to pay you back," she answered miserably.
"Oh, I'm not worrying about that. But I'd set my heart on the Velden. Saw it the first time I saw you. Odd, that! Thought it would be a grand bus to do a honeymoon tour of Europe."
"Then that's why . . . you wanted Diana to see it?" Shirley kept her eyes straight ahead.
"Diana?" He switched off the engine. "The fellow who takes Diana will have to give her wagons lits and the Ritz!" he said. "I'm talking about honeymoons, my child. Trouble is, whether you'd want to wait another year for the Velden, or if this old crate would do? What do you think, now?"
The house swam Before Shirley's eyes, the twisted chimneys danced like marionettes on the steep roof.
"It would do!" she whispered.
H IS brown hands
dropped from the wheel and found hers. "Splendid. I'm . . . I'm not much good at this sort of thing." he confessed. "But ii the car's all right ... I mean . . . got anything against the chap lt belongs to? Or would he . . . sort of . . . weil, would he do, too?"
Shirley looked up at him. The grey eyes under their straight, freckled brows were very boyish and anxious. She smiled at him. Her eager lips were parted in the first real rap- ture of happiness he had seen.
"Hell do, too," she said quietly.
They moved forward. The long wings of the house stretched out to welcome them. Howard Maitland muffed a change most atrociously. For the first time in his long and blameless driving career he was handling his car with one hand.
(Copyright)