A Mother’s Spirit. Anne Bennett
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you. Are you difficult to please, Mr Sullivan?’
‘I wouldn’t say so,’ Joe said. ‘I mean, not more than most men, but I may be more on the cautious side.’
‘I wouldn’t have said that that was part of your personality at all.’
‘Ah, maybe not generally,’ Joe said, ‘but I think it pays to be a little hesitant when someone is making a lifelong commitment.’
‘And there you have it, my dear,’ Brian said. ‘The man rests his case. Anyway, a wife might bring further problems. It suits me to have Joe as free as a bird just now. Anyway,’ he went on, ‘Gloria will be home in a week and your time will probably not be your own then, for, going by past performances, you will be called on to be a taxi service to Gloria and her entourage of friends.’
‘I shan’t mind that, sir.’
‘That’s what I like, an adaptable man,’ Brian said. ‘And you know I can barely wait to see my little girl again.’
Nor can I, thought Joe, but kept that thought to himself. He had no intention of rocking the boat. Many men had to cope with the fact that they loved a woman who was unattainable and he was just one more. He was sure he would get over the fixation he had for Gloria Brannigan in time. He had to, and that was all there was to it.
When Gloria arrived home in the summer of 1925, she had finished school for good. To celebrate, Brian bought her a car.
‘A Model T Ford,’ he told Joe. ‘And a snip at three hundred and fifty dollars. I don’t know why you don’t buy a car of your own. You said to me one time that you had a heap of money stashed away and you have had a rake of rises since then. Why don’t you spend some of it?’
‘I suppose if I am honest, sir, it is because I have been encouraged to be frugal all my life,’ Joe said.
‘What are you saving for?’ Brian asked, adding sarcastically, ‘Your marriage?’
‘Hardly, sir, with no one on the horizon.’
‘Well, your funeral then?’ Brian said. ‘And after your death you can have a great mausoleum built and people will come and look at it. “Joe Sullivan,” one will say to another, “Who was he now?”
‘“Well, now, I am not too sure,” will be the reply, “but he must be someone important to have this huge monument built.”’
Joe was laughing as he said, ‘Not that either, sir.’
‘Then what, for God’s sake?’ Brian said. ‘What is the point of saving for saving’s sake? As you are not prepared to enter the marriage stakes, there won’t even be a son or daughter to leave it all to after your day.’
Joe said nothing, but he knew there would never be a child for him, because he had given his heart to Gloria Brannigan. That was a great cross for him to bear, especially as he knew that all he could ever be to her was a friend.
Everyone, even the servants, had looked forward to Gloria coming home for good. Joe felt the same, but with some trepidation because he knew what a strain it had been living in the same house as her in the holidays, and yet he couldn’t wait to see her. She had always been like a ray of sunshine in the house and brought the whole place alive, and Joe knew that Brian and Norah looked forward to having their little girl back home again, where they thought she belonged.
But it was soon apparent to Joe that Gloria had changed. She had finally grown up, he supposed, but there was no trace of the fairly compliant child about the girl that faced them across the table on her first night home.
They had almost finished the meal when she said, ‘I am tired of learning now. I want to live a little and have some fun with my friends.’ She turned to her parents. ‘You have to realise that I am an adult now and entitled to more freedom.’
Joe could see her point, though he didn’t say so. He found while he could chat easily to Brian and Norah when Gloria wasn’t around, he was much more reticent with her there because her nearness affected him alarmingly.
He doubted that Brian or Norah noticed this for they were used to their daughter holding the floor. He too loved to hear her talk, the words tripping over her pretty little lips; he liked to watch her face light up and her eyes sparkle as she told them all some amusing tale, and to hear her tinkling laugh. To him she was a perfect being, truly beautiful, and although he knew it was futile to love her as he did, he couldn’t seem to help himself.
‘Really, women today want to have the same freedom as men,’ Gloria was saying.
Joe heard Norah’s sharp intake of breath, but Gloria either didn’t notice or didn’t care because she continued, ‘Many of my friends have older brothers and they have all sorts going on at the colleges they attend – ball games, crew races and college hops. Oh, the list is endless. They want us to go along and enjoy it and, really, why shouldn’t we?’
‘Are you out of your mind?’ Brian exploded. ‘A little freedom is one thing, but this is nonsense, Gloria. You must see that.’
‘No, I don’t see that at all,’ Gloria stated flatly. ‘What’s wrong with what I said?’
‘This silly nonsense about being equal with men, for one thing. It isn’t how respectable women talk at all.’
‘And you can’t go to events at men’s colleges unchaperoned,’ Norah put in.
‘Will the pair of you stop being so old-fashioned and stuffy?’ Gloria cried in exasperation. ‘And if Joe will show me how to drive the car, how will you stop me going out when I want to?’
‘I could forbid it,’ Brian said.
‘Yes, Daddy,’ Gloria said. ‘And I could just as easily take no notice.’
Brian’s face went puce with temper, but Gloria ignored him. She leaped to her feet, saying as she did so, ‘Anyway, no time like the present. I’ll wait for you outside, Joe,’ and she disappeared out of the door.
She had put Joe into an intolerable position. He looked across the table to Brian and said, ‘What d’you want me to do, sir?’
Brian shook his head. He looked like a defeated man and Norah seemed horror-struck at the turn of events. Joe felt sorry for them both, though. In a way, he thought, they had brought it upon themselves because the two of them had indulged Gloria for far too long to start denying her things now and expect her to just accept it.
This was proved when Brian said, ‘I don’t know, Joe. I am not sure that I know anything any more. But you best start teaching Gloria to drive the car if she is so set on it. Better that than she takes it onto the roads without the least idea of how to drive it and ends up having an accident.’
Joe went, but he was cross with Gloria and within a few minutes of him getting in the car, she was aware of it.
‘You’re annoyed with me, aren’t you?’ she said.
Joe was too angry to be his usual cautious self when dealing with Gloria and he burst out, ‘Yes I am, Miss Gloria. You were totally inconsiderate of your parents’ feelings tonight and put me in a devil of a fix, and really the only crime they have ever committed is that of loving you too much.’
‘I know, Joe,’ Gloria said. ‘And I am sorry for them really. I am not completely heartless, but I know them, and if I’d shown any sign of weakness, they would have ground me down like they have in the past. Do you know, Joe, I had more freedom at the convent than I have ever been allowed here. What madness is that?’
Joe sighed. ‘And I have seen how frustrated you have got at times, but really it’s because your parents love you and don’t want anything to happen to you.’
‘I know, but,