Wanderlust Read Free Page B

could, unaware of the barbs she was casting at her sister, who remained steadfastly amused, and unaffected by Harcourt's views of what was vulgar.
    Don't forget you have a fitting for your wedding dress today, she reminded Annabelle as they drifted from the room, just as the library door slammed firmly closed. Audrey knew that he had gone in there to smoke a cigar, and sit by himself for a while, before being driven to the Pacific Union Club. He would sit staring into the distance, dreaming of old times, reading letters from friends, composing responses in his head before writing them out that afternoon. There was little left for him to do, unlike Audrey who had a wedding for five hundred guests to plan, and a sister who relied on her completely.
    I don't want to go downtown today, Aud. It was too hot yesterday afternoon, and I still have a headache.
    Too bad. Take an aspirin before you go. You only have three weeks until the wedding. And did you check the gifts that came in yesterday? She took her firmly by the arm and shoved her gently into the front parlor. The long table was hourly more laden with offerings from their friends and Harcourt's.
    Oh, God ' She started to whine, which always made Audrey want to shake her. ' look at all the thank-you notes I'll have to write! '
    Look at all the pretty gifts you got! Be grateful, don't complain. Audrey was more like Annabelle's mother than her older sister. She had had Audrey's undivided attention for fourteen years, to a far greater extent than she would ever have had their mother's. Audrey had even gone to college nearby at Mills, so she could be close to her sister, who had never gone on to college after Miss Hamlin's. But no one had expected her to, since everyone said that Audrey had the brains and Annabelle the beauty.
    Do I really have to go downtown today? She looked imploringly up at Audrey, who marched her upstairs, made her get dressed, and sat her down to write half a dozen thank-you notes while she got dressed herself, and at ten thirty they were both ready when the chauffeur drove up in the dark blue Packard their grandfather kept for their use. It was a beautiful summer day, the first week of July, and the sky was as blue as it had been in Hawaii.
    Do you still remember it, Annie? Audrey asked her as they drove downtown, but the pretty blonde in the white linen dress and big picture hat only shook her head. The memories had all faded when she was a little girl, unlike the photographs in their father's treasured albums. They were the only thing that Audrey still clung to from the past, and Annabelle didn't really care about them. She had always thought them uninteresting and strange and terribly foreign, and more than a little scary, which was precisely what Audrey loved about them. You could almost smell the faraway places in them as you looked at the pictures of mountains in China and rivers in Japan ' people wearing kimonos pushing funny little carts, fishing by the side of streams and staring out at you, as though they were about to speak to you in their own tongue ' . Sometimes, as a little girl, Audrey had fallen asleep with the albums in her lap, dreaming that she was in one of those exotic places ' and now her own photographs captured something unusual and exotic, even in ordinary surroundings.
    Aud? Annabelle was staring at her, as the car drove up to J. Magrien's. Audrey gave a start and smiled at her, she had been letting her mind drift, which was unusual for her. She was always so busy and she had so much to do now, for Annie's wedding. What were you thinking just then?
    I don't know. Audrey averted her eyes. She had been thinking of a photograph of their father in China twenty years before. It was a photograph Audrey had always especially loved, of her father laughing as he rode a little donkey.
    You looked so happy. Annabelle was all innocence and Audrey smiled and glanced out the window, and then at her sister.
    I must have been thinking of you, ' and