The first impression Capt. Helene B. Dancy had of Miss Charity Hoche was not particularly favorable.
Miss Hoche descended the stairway from the door of the ATE C-54, "the Washington Courier," wearing the uniform of a War Department civilian, with the uniform cap perched perkily atop a mass of long golden hair. Neither Capt. Dancy nor Colonel Stevens had expected that Miss Charity Hoche would arrive in England in a civilian specialist's uniform.
She also managed to display a good deal of shapely thigh and lace-hemmed black petticoat as she came daintily down the stairs. She wore the gabardine uniform topcoat over her shoulders.
Two officers (one of them, in Capt. Dancy's opinion, old enough to know better) hovered solicitously around her. They were rewarded for their efforts with a radiant display of perfect white teeth between lips that Capt. Dancy thought had entirely too much lipstick of a too dazzling shade.
A double-decker London bus had been driven onto the field to transport the arriving passengers to SHAEF Billeting. There they would be given a two- hour orientation lecture, known as the "Be Kind to Our English Cousins speech. "The trouble with Americans, in the opinion of many Englishmen, was that they were "overpaid, oversexed, and over here."
The purpose of the orientation lecture was to remind the newly arrived Americans that England had been at war for more than three years; that there was a'ration scheme' for practically everything the English needed to live; and that the British quite naturally resented the relative luxury in which the American taxpayer was supporting its citizens in the United Kingdom.
The lecture, Capt. Dancy decided, seemed to have been prepared with Miss Charity Hoche in mind. But she would not hear it.
Capt. Dancy showed her identification card to the guard and walked out of the terminal building and intercepted Charity Hoche as she was being escorted to the bus.
"Miss Hoche?" she said.
"I'm Capt. Dancy. Will you come with me, please?"
The pudgy lieutenant colonel who was carrying Charity's makeup kit looked crushed.
Capt. Dancy happened to meet Charity Hoche's eyes and found herself being examined very carefully by very intelligent eyes.
"My luggage?" Charity asked.
"It'll be taken care of," Capt. Dancy said.
Charity said good-bye to the two officers and followed Capt. Dancy into the terminal, then to the Ford staff car.
"Where are we going?" Charity asked when she was in the car, and then, without waiting for a reply, "Is it hard to drive one of our cars on the wrong side of the road?"
"The 'other' side of the road is the way I think of it," Capt. Dancy said.
"And the answer is 'no, you have to be careful, but you soon get used to it."" "How did I get off on the wrong foot with you so soon, Captain?" Charity challenged.
Because you're young and spectacularly beautiful and look and act as if a serious thought and a cold drink of water would kill you.
"If I gave that impression, Miss Hoche, I'm sorry," Capt. Dancy said.
"Where we're going is to my billet. There, we're going to put your hair up, take some of that makeup off, and do whatever else is necessary to make you credible as a WAC officer."
Charity Hoche seemed oblivious to the reproof.
"Captain Douglass thought you might want to put me in a WAC uniform, but he wasn't sure. I've got the insignia and AGO card of a first lieutenant in my purse."
Dancy looked at her in surprise.
"So, all we'll have to do, then," Charity said sweetly, "is pin on the insignia, put my hair up, and take some of the makeup off, right?"
She gave Capt. Dancy a dazzling smile.
"But before we do that," Charity went on, just as sweetly,"I think we should go by Berkeley Square. Not only do I have three "Eyes Only' for Mr. Bruce, but I have crossed the Atlantic with a Colt "Banker's Special' hanging from my bra strap. It hurts like hell, and I want to get rid of it."
"I'll be damned," Capt. Helene Dancy said.
"Won't we all be, sooner or later?" Charity asked.
"Apparently, I was wrong about you," Capt. Dancy said.