Beware the Young Stranger Read Free Page B

survived on charity. Ivy might have drunk herself to a bitter, self-pitying end. I picked up the scanty remains, John. I planned, I badgered loans from creditors and bankers who saw the chance of recouping their losses to my parents, I worked eighteen hours a day. And I rebuilt it, John, I rebuilt it.
    â€œNow—I know what drove me to do it. Given the chance, Keith will mature. He’ll pick up where I leave off.”
    As Dorcas spoke, cold purpose came into her eyes. Without knowing it, Vallancourt thought, in declaring herself she has warned me. The shadow of this boy Keith has fallen across us.
    He felt a touch of sadness; he knew the shadow had already darkened the relationship between him and this admirable woman. She would struggle in Keith’s behalf. And Vallancourt would fight for his daughter.
    â€œAs always, Dorcas, I’m glad things are open and aboveboard between us.”
    â€œI knew you would make inquiries about Keith. After all, she’s your only child. I wanted you to hear the truth about Keith.”
    He rose. She remained on the edge of her chair, looking up at him.
    â€œI wish I could read your face, John,” she said quietly.
    â€œI’m not given to snap judgments.”
    â€œWill you take Nancy away?”
    â€œAnd lend the enticement of forbidding the fruit?” he asked wryly. “I don’t think that would be the answer.”
    â€œJohn, if she finds her only satisfactory answer in Keith …”
    â€œShe’s twenty-one years old, Dorcas.”
    â€œThen you won’t stand in their way?”
    â€œDid you expect me to?”
    â€œFrankly, yes.”
    â€œI could think of no better way to defeat my own purposes.”
    â€œYou’re not yielding so easily.” She moistened her lips. “Right now, you frighten me. You’ve always awed me a little. Many men born to wealth and an old name are plagued with uncertainty about their identities and personal worth. Not you. You’ve never needed ego-satisfactions; you’ve taken full advantage of your heritage. But if you were marooned naked in the world’s worst jungle, you’d walk out alive—and probably bring a valuable assessment of the area with you.”
    â€œI hope none of us has to yield, Dorcas.”
    â€œWhat can I do, John? What must Keith do?”
    â€œWhat all of us must do. Be patient. Take time to be sure about the answers, all the answers.”
    â€œThank you for coming, John.”
    â€œGoodbye.”
    He heard the faint sound of weeping from the living room as Mildred Morgan showed him out the front door.
    Vallancourt had lunch at an inexpensive place on the south side of town where he was not likely to run into anyone he knew.
    He needed some time to himself.
    Rape-murder …
    He ate without much notice of the food. The boy had defenders—Dorcas, Ralph Hibbs. Even Howard Conway had exhibited yesterday the tolerant friendliness of an older man unbending for a companion from the next generation. Howard’s grouchy remark about Keith’s driving habits had been on a plane of general prejudice, words Howard would have spoken about any male driver of Keith’s age.
    So far, Ivy was the boy’s only detractor. But Vallancourt didn’t believe she really sensed Keith’s potential. Ivy would feel the same way if there was illness in the house requiring her to put a halt to a gay party.
    Ivy, Vallancourt thought, resents the boy for personal reasons—for the care and attention Dorcas lavishes on him, care and attention of which Ivy had always been the beneficiary.
    A brief recollection came to Vallancourt of the desperate time when there had been guerrilla warfare in Greece. In all Athens, it had seemed, only he, an American diplomat, had suspected the treachery of Koutsourais—until the night Koutsourais had arranged, impeccably, the details of a regrettable accident. Everything had gone beautifully for