CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR NOTHING Lois Lyndon could have done would have made Larry detest her more thoroughly. Posi tively slinking, Anette pulled her momentary escort from his chair and led him to the dance stage and into a hilarious conga chain. Above everything, she did not wish Larry to know she had witnessed that moment of utter debasement. When they arrived home, about 3 o'clock, and Larry reached for a mirror and began a penetrative scrutiny of his temples, she knew he did not suspect she had seen or heard anything. And, for once, she was thankful that the liquor had dimmed his perception. Site even asked with careless laughter. "What on earth arc you looking for, darling?” "Gray hairs,” he said immedi ately, still turning and twisting his head. The girl slipped out of her long silver cloth coat, then walked over and took the hand mirror away from him. “How ridiculous!” she scolded mildly, "Y’ou haven't had one for ages.” “Eut I have, Anette. I've been pulling them out. They seem to get there faster than I can yank them out." His worried gaze sought hers. “Tell me iiow I seem to you, An ette. You're only 19. Do I seem old to you?” “It's not your long white beard that I mind. It's the way your joints creak when you lower your self to your wheel chair." Flip pancy changed into impatient sharpness. "Larry, to me you arc the most wonderful and perfect person in the world. You're just right. In your work, you’re right for August's 40, or whatever she is. just as you’re right in real life for my 19. I don't think of you as any thing except perfect. That day ir your theater dressing room in Chi cago, when you kissed me, I swore never to admit how much I loved you, to keep it from you as a sort of self-preservation or inner pride or something. I don't know exactly what.” She shook her head. "But now, I don t want to keet quiet. It would be useless anyway, because you know how much I love you Y'ou know that I’m sick with it and that I’ll never be any other way." She put her hands on his black-clad shoulders, yet kept her distance. "Anette, the doormat.” Larry gazed at her, so beautiful in her bouffant gown of white and silver embroidery, her jewels shim mering like myriad lights. Then he snatched her into his arms. "Oh. my darling, I'm such a fool—such a fool!" He repeated the same remark to August Drake the morning after. They were having an 11 o'clock meal in a small, glass-wall break fast room. Tiie actress did not argue with him. "I don't know why I get myself involved in silly situations." He glowered into an empty cereal dish. "Like this Lois Lyndon episode." His eyes sought August’s. "Y’ou know, the crazy kid has marrying ideas. Imagine! Eut it's all over now, thank heaven!” The actress poured herself a cup of black coffee. "I never could fig ure out why you passed Lois tq | cold when you were single. Why did you haw to wait until you were married to discover her charms?” "So long as she was kissing me,” lie confessed, "I was bored with her Then, to jolt Anette into com ing with rue. I kissed Lois. That's when it started to be different. After all, August, it had been over a year since I'd kissed anyone ex cept Anette. “What a record!" August com mented dryly. "Well, it was! You know how many girls I usually averaged a season.” "Spare me!” The actress forbade, with an upraised hand. “Anyway, marriage is supposed to make a difference in one's romances.” Larry waited until the Filipino waiter had served bacon and poached eggs and retired to the seiving pantry. “These silly little affairs have nothing to do with my marriage," lie insisted. "That's '. remark men have been mak r since the first one made a foe jf himself. Silly affairs mean something to Anette.” A quick unhappiness swept across Laurence Peyton's face. “If she would just be the spunky little dickens she used to be, instead of such a meek angel, I’d feci better. I find myself wishing she'd hit me with a brick." “Why shouldn't she be meek ? You’ve taken her work away from her and you do pretty well at tak ing yourself from her.” Larry scoffed, “Anette doesn't care about her work.” "You are lying and you know it,” his partner pronounced. "If ever I saw a girl intended for the theater, she is it.” “All the same she isn't going to be. The only appearances I want her making are those as Laurence Peyton’s wife.” “Why, you detestably conceited, selfish pig!” gritted August. She hardly could remember when any personal matter had irritated her sufficiently to cause tears other than those commonly called croco dile. But tears of sincerity were in her eyes now. “Take it easy!” Larry said soft ly, but harshly. "You know I’ve tried to get her a break. But I'll be darned if I'll let her start out as one of the slarlets on a penny bank salary.” "She would be willing.” Peyton said in determined repeti tion. “Well, I’m not! So since they won’t offer her what she is worthy of, she is better off just as my wife.” August Drake’s glass - h e e 1 e d boudoir slipper came down on the floor bell. “Bring me some brown sugar and heavy cream,” she di rected tiie Filipino boy. Later, burying the unsweetened stewed apples of her diet beneath that double richness, she accused Larry, "It's your fault. You make me so mad I have to do something vio lent and this is the most violent thing I can do.” In a tone of dictatorship the man said, "You shouldn't touch it. You know what it will do to your hips.” "Yes. And I know what the woofle water is doing to you.” The fiery-haired actress turned angry . i yes toward her partner. “Either that or the robe you're wearing la darned unbecoming. And I'm sure." she continued viciously, "it is not the robe.” Larry flushed. "Well, what is a guy going to do in a town whcra champagne flows like Goose Creek in March?" "Wlty don’t you try shaking your head crosswise for a change in stead of up and down?” Rebelliously Larry said, "1 lika to drink." "But you've got to have soma sense about it. I like to eat, too,” she flared. "I'd like to sit down right now to a New England meal of baked beans, country sausage, corn pudding, creamed oysters, cider jelly, apple Betty—when I marry Ted," she asserted, “I’m go ing to eat everything and as often as I wish.” Laurence Peyton put down hia fork and leaned back in his chair. "Do you mean to say you are going to get married again?” When she nodded, without losing a chance at a bite of cream and sugar soaked apples, he said, "I should think you’d realize what marriage will do to your picture career.” "In this town where couples you don’t even know are married get divorces?” August hooted. “Don’t be idiotic! Besides, when I made that remonstrance concerning your marriage you told me it was an old chestnut." "You kept on finding fault just the same,” Larry reminded. "Yes, and I still don't think much of your marriage,” she declared meaningly. "Don’t bother yourself with it.” "Oh, I won’t.” She gave a high shouldered shrug. “I’ll just think about my own. I'm going to get wrinkles and chins and hips and stomachs—” The man cut in churlishly, "Then you won't work with me.” "I’ll bet you're right.” During that lull, Anette walked into the breakfast room, lovely in a bright-striped gypsy dress, and completely rested after the first good sleep in many weeks. “How lovely to find you two smoking a peace pipe." She had the morning theatrical pages under her arm. "I thought you'd be fighting over the scissors to cut out these marvelous reviews.” * * * The indoor shots for the second Drake-Peyton vehicle, "The Kash mir Song,” were made first, after an idyllic, but very short rest for the starring pair. Shooting lasted through June, at which time they went on location outside Yuma for the outdoor scenes. Loudly vociferous, Larry object ed to Ralph Hay, “Snow scenes in the winter. Desert sands in the summer. What a business!" He was his usual unsympathetic self. “Some people," he observed wearily, "just sweat. Others get paid $3,500 a week for it.” It was while Larry was in Yuma that Anette saw Lois Lyndon in the Beverly Hills shop of Drachman Fifth Avenue. Lois pretended not to see Anette. For that reason it pleased her to step beside the blonde girl and force her unwilling recognition. (To lie Continued) Phi Beta Kappa Initiates GOHDES LANDER HARRISS ALLEN j X _ 5 r' w:w ~ • | STEDMAN READ RICK TOWS GUT BALDWIN jUfe Just prior to the annual dinner the Duke University chapter of Beta Kappa honorary scholar society, to be held April 6, the ve persons will be initiated. _t the top are the four who will receive honorary membersip: Dr. Clarence Gohres, Duke professor of English, author, and managing edi tor of the quarterly journal Ameri can Literature; William Hal! Land er, '23. United Press correspondent Of Washington, D. C., formerly of , S. C.. who has seen Journa|i9Ue service i.n Spain, Cuba. Mexico, and South American coun tries; Robert Preston Harriss, '26, as "clate editor of the Baltimore Even Surf,.novelist, and former mern r of; {he Paris edition of the New kcarld Tribune, and a former sideiit oi Fayetteville; and Dr. Gay ilson Allen. '26, of Bowlirg Green ate tfniversity, Ohio, productive holar and writer, formerly of Can Mn, it. C. ;< In the lower ,panel are the six " jfcniors to be initiated: William David Iflpdmaii, Asheboro; Patricia Wick ‘o'-Bffe Read, Miami Beach, Fla.; Flor •nce Isabel Rick, Pittsburgh. Pa.; Bara Crawford Towe, Roanoke Rap m I ids; Janet Ele: nor Gift, Altoona, Pa.; land Ar.na Kate Baldwin, Sussex, N. ! j Dr. Marjorie Hope Nicholson, [ Columbia University professor of English and president of the United | Chapters of Phi Beta Kappa, will be the dinner speaker, ANNUAL CONFERENCE WILL OPEN TUESDAY I Chapel Hill, April 3—A variety ! of topics such as "Marriage in a World at War,” "New Foundations | of Marriage and Family Life,” "Men I tal Hygiene in the South" and many others, will be discussed Ly del - gates from all'sections of the eoun - I try at the eighth annual conference 1 on conservation of marriage and the 1 family to be held at tire University of North Carolina and Duke Uni versity Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, April 7, 8, 9. I Again under the direction of Dr. i Ernest R. Groves; eminent univer sity sociologist and authority on ] family counseling, the conference : will be highlighted by a number of I well known authorities in the field | of marriage and the family who ap i pear on the program. Philippine Staff Members Shocked At l. S. Attitude San Francisco, April 3.—(AP) — Staff members of the U. S. high commissioner to the Philippines, re t 'tiling from the southwest Pacific war zone, reported today tjiey were "shocked at the complacency in tne states.” Ranking members of jCommis sioner Francis B. Sayre's ktaff, his wife and son, arrived on • a trans port alter a circuitous journey from the Philippines, accomplished with out incident. Staff members who underwent fre quent bombing and shelling in tlje islands reported “the absence of a consciousness of war here is shock I ing "The shock of discovering that | people here have little conception i that a vast war is being fought on j an intense scale far overshadowf our I tremendous relief and exhilaration of [►^turning safely.” 4-H Clubs Mobilize For Vi ctory Rural boys and girls of North gotod by tin piCu . ~ above. Tim Carolina, and the rest of the nation, farm youths arc d-imt : > raise bct: ; JOINS NAVY are preparing to "Mobilize for Vie- and d‘ iry cattle. p .dry. and sw:nr: W;]rrenton> April 3_Thel B. Over- . tory and to produce and conserve ; to g, garden-: • can surplus „ of Ooldsooro. a graduate of, the food that will Win the War fruit- ;md ■. : to promote Guillol.d ,ullege, who for the past • and Write the Peace. National -4 citizenship and >■ . end local 4-11 jour ve;iI-s has been coach and tench- i Mobilization Week will be observed meetings to learn aim it food cmv of social sciences in John Graham I April 5-77, but L. R. Han-ill, St..: servata . and -Cher argicultural and j high school, Warrenton. resigned last 4-H Club leader of the State College home mak.ng .. peels from their . Week and reported for duty April 1 ! Extension Service, has asked Tar comity la: a a m v agents, and j jn Norfolk. Va., as physical instructor j Heel clubs to continue the observ- ,ih a. ■. n the navy. His place as coach in ance through "4-H Church Sunday" — .. John Graham has been supplied by on April 12. Some of the war-time x Sr.ml'holder the name of an |W. B. Hoskins, of Warrenton, fur trie , activities for “4-H members are sag- Png, di periodical. rest of the season. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE CORNERED, Lois said, "How tire you anyway, Anette?" She feigned nonchalance as she turned back to the hand-made lingerie she had been examining. "I'm fine, since your little ro mance is over," Anette said with specific frankness. The fact that she was feeling particularly well dressed in her black • 1 white print linen redingof.-. . o her' candor. Clipped oi. : , ne coa. pockets was Lai. : '.aiest gift, given to her just . . • he had ieft for Yuma, a pin mat res- :.:bled lilies of the valley, or' t il pearl blossoms on flexible diamond stems. It pleased her to catcli the blonde girl’s gaze on its costly glit ter. "Why haven't you been over?” Anette asked. "I can remember the old days when you practically haunted me. Of course," she said cuttingly, "that was when you more or less had to depend on me to see my husband.” With unsteady white hands, Lois Lyndon pushed a mist blue and Valenciennes lace nightgown to ward the salesgirl. "I'll be in some other time and decide." As she turned away Anette fell into step with her. "Let's go over to The Derby and have a drink,” Lois suggested. The girl was not looking her best, Anette decided, as she eyed her across the table. As usual, she was exquisitely dressed, in a white tailored suit, tomboyishly simple in appearance, that doubtlessly had cost her a couple of hundred dol lars. She wore a hand-tucked blouse, white suede, blunt-toed ox fords and a gay turban of paisley Her only ornaments were a lapel watch and matching ring of gold and rubies. It was not her clothes. Nor her slenderness. She was in variably slim. No, it was something in her eyes, those very blue eyes that seemed to have lost some of their brazen sauciness. She fished a cigaret from a white leather case and lit it. "You ask why I haven't been to see you. Be cause I feel like a special edition of a rat, that's why. I did while I jlvas seeing Larry, and I still do." fr?5Her disconsolate face affected finette despite her wish to treat ! the ^irl with flintlike inconsidera te. "Somehow, I can't blame you : .for becoming so attached to Larry. ■ I’d never dare try to count the 1 women who are in love with him I knew so long as he took you ' lightly, along with lh§ Mhers. that 1 I had nothing to jw^Jr“Shout." She ' took a small sip' of hrr frozen ( Daiquiri. “It was when he started 1 being attentive to you that I started worrying. That kiss on the ( balcony, your being together at 1 Sun Valley, your stolen dates here 1 in town, worse even, those nights ' when we were at the same parties ‘ and I had to watch you—I was so u n h a p p y,” she observed, as if ! speaking to herself. I "That I know," said Lois. •‘I've 1 been unhappy, too.” ‘But I have the right to be un- : happy over Larry.” Anette said ( You don't!" 1 For a few seconds that seemed ' endless to Anette, she braved the 1 Wonde girl's gaze of animosity ! Then Lois stared at the stem of her 1 cocktail glass whes* her fingers vvers pressed against it. "1 know," s •he granted. “You know, my daddv taught mo that anything a person wanted was a matter of taking.” She paused an instant to conquer tlie barely noticeable trembling of her rounded white chin. ‘‘Well, Daddy was wrong. I know that now. 1 know, too, in spite of all the tough veneer I've put on, that I’m an out and out romanticist. A few ‘darlings’ from Larry, a few kisses —not many,” she admitted to Lau rence Peyton's wife, without look ing up, “a few telephone calls and drinks sneaked here and there— and I had a crazy idea lie was go ing to marry me.” She did not look up then. There were tears of hu miliation in her blue eyes. ‘‘Really I did. It was so silly of me. And then, one night he said something that made me know how little I actually meant to him, that I was simply an amusing interlude—so 1 blew up and said things that made him lost to me forever in every way. But it's better. He never did love me and now he feels abso lutely nothing." Anette spoke to some friends of her husband's who passed by their table. To Lois, she said, “And you? Do you still love him?” “No—but I'm sort of beat clown to my own size from tlie bitter ex perience. I couldn't believe it at first. I had made such incredible, unwarrantable plans in my own mind. So i telephoned tlie studio and evi n managed to run into him — ihc accidentally - on- purpose meetings. It was awful—" Sud i"idy she broke off to inquire, 'Doesn’t it seem strange to you for no to be talking this way to you?” “No,” replied Peyton's wife with i half smile. ‘‘That’s funny,” Lois frowned gently, "because, it doesn’t seem 'unny to me either." She lit a sec ant! cigaret and ordered another locktail for herself. Anette refused. 'Yes, it was awful,” Lois resumed, 'because, with that little flirtatious ‘park gone, there was nothing left n Larry but a cold indifference. In lifference is worse than hatred. I vent a little wild. 1 drank too nuch. I always have, but I drank ■ till more. I couldn't sleep. 1 drove ioor Jimmy crazy, making him get ip and drive with me at all hours >f tlie night. Crazy notions at crazy lours. And all the time I thought ibout Larry. Those broad, broad moulders in that blue-gray mottled weed coat that I like so well, the vay his barber trims his hair in hat perfect line back of the ears, he wonderful color of his skin, the vay his eyelashes curl like a little I hoir boy s—without detracting one lit from complete masculinity." Laurence Peyton's wife leaned in her elbows and edged closer to be girl. Deliberately she wanted to deed her of every emotion. "But vhat," she persisted, “made you lecide you were no longer in love?" "The way he treated me. I won’t tand for that sort of treatment orever.” She drained her Manhat an and swallowed the cherry Then, too, I knew my chances as no. 2 girl were over when that San ra person began slinking around uni. Of course,” she told Anette ”‘h a smile, "her chances are over, oo, before sbe so much as starts -ccause no one can best vou " Lois nri ennrteons attention to all details AL. B. WESTER Phone l.;9 Met <>in Bid* NOTH F.. Hav.ng qualii.' d , administrator ot Die E tate "I AI; Mattie Stai’ ing New <•' ■: b. ( • il. late < f Vane.' County, N V. t urolimi. tin i; to tv tily : 11 p< . i mg claims lainst t ■ ■ 1 tid deceased to ( xliib.t i t.rl tile them with the under: Mill'd in Henderson. North Csirolina. on let •:« the 27th day oi Mai 1943 tl notice i11 be pleaded in liar ei their recovery. All per-on indebted to the estate v. il pit. . . •.diale pay ment i:.i the 27t . day March. 1942. W T NEWCOMB. Admit;.: t. liter - . the Estate of AE-- Mattie Stall.ng Newcomb. NOTICE. Ha'.mg quahiivd a~ Administi atr.x ot the Estati 1 A. 1!. Periy. d* ee; - id. late ot V..:.ec County. North Cai olina, thi i to notify all pfixoir haling claim- against the estate of said deeia.-ed to exhibit and liie them with the undersigned or with her attorney- in Henderson, Nortn Carolina, on or before the 20th day ol Mann. 1943. oi thi notice wil! be pleaded in bar of their recovery All persons indebted to ihe> estate v*ill plea e mike im: ediate pay ment. Thi the 20th day of March, 1942. ALTHEA PERRY. Administi .,tn>: ol the Estate of A R. Perry. Deceased. Gholson & Gin 1 ■ n. Attorney.- f r Ad".in. tratrix. 20-27-3-10-17-24 NOTICE Ol St M.MONS. In the Superior Court. State of North Carolina. County of Vance: B. J. Thomas, Admr. of the Estate of Cyrus Thomas, Deceased, vs. Elizabeth E. Thomas, Widow of Cyrus Thomas. B. .1. Thomas and Wife. Zell Thomas. Susie T. Brame and Husband. Herbert T. Brame, Willie Ann Hargrove, Widow, Car oline Jones and Husband. Primus Jones, Ida O. Davis. Widow. John H. Bullock. Sr., and Wife, Mary Bullock, and Roberta Dickerson and Husband. - Dickerson. The defendants Susie T. Brame and husband. Herbert Brame, Car oline Jones and husband, Primus Jones, Ida O. Davis, widow, and Roberta Dickerson and husband, - Dickerson, will take notice that an action entitled as above, in the nature of a Special Proceeding, has been commenced in the Superior Court of Vance County, North Car olina, for the sale of real estate to make assets and the said defendants will further take notice that they are required to appear at the office of the Clerk of the Superior Court of Vance County, in the Courthouse in Henderson, North Carolina, on the 20th day of April, 1942, and answer or demur to the complaint in said action, or the plaintiffs will apply to the Court for the relief demand ed in said complaint. This tile 20ih day of March, 1942. E. 6. FALKNER, Clerk Superior Court Vance County. Gholson & Gholson, Attorneys for Petitioners. 20-27-3-10 NOTICE. North Carolina: Vance County: Under and by virtue of power of sale contained in a certain deed of trust executed by Vanco Mills, Inc., dated the 1st day of May, 1926, and recorded in Book 146 page 26, in the office of Ure Regi-ter of Deeds of Vance County- North Carolina, de fault having been made in the pay ment of the indebtedness thereby re cured and said deed of trust being by the terms thereof subject to foreclosure, the undersigned trustee will oner for sale at public auction to the highest bidder for cash, at the Court House dour in Henderson, North Carolina, at noon, on the loth day of April 1942, the property con veyed in said deed of trust as here inafter described. The said property lying and being in Mender, on Township, County of Vanco, Stale of North Carolina, situated about 1 nule South of the City of Henderson and being that property known ; . the Vanco Mills and more partis Early described ,.s follows: Beginning at a post in . 17 1-2 ft. from the railroad. North 28 1-4 East 51 ft., to a pin 17 1-2 leer lTma the rail road; thence North 38 Mast 92.4 ft. to the pin at the end of the railroad: : es; thence X. rth 50 East 40 it . thence North 35 1-4 East 40 ft., thence North 60 1-4 East 40 ft. to the •nd of a 'railroad tie, thence North 66 3-4 Ere t 40 it. to the end of a tie, thence V rth 68 East 40 it to a pin in W. S. Green s line; thence South 5 1-2 East 105 1-2 ft. along W. £>. Green - line: thence to a pin in \V S. Green's line; thence South 87 1-2 East 75 it. to the Henderson-Kittreil Road; thence South 12 i-2 West 140 ft. to the line ol the Gulf Refining Co.; thence North 89 West 320 along the line of the Gull Refining Co. to a post 17 1-2 ft. from the rail road, the place of beginning. Provided, however, there is ex cepted from the land above describ ed that piece of land conveyed by the Seaboard Feed & Produce Co. by deed recorded in Vance County Book 93 page 283, and described as fol lows: Begin at a stake or stone corner Gulf Refining Co. lot the lot recent ly purchased by party of the first part from I. M. Green, and run thence in a Northerly direction along the Gulf Refining Co.’s lot or line 160 ft. and then at right angles with the first line in a Northerly direc tion 60 ft., thence parallel with the first line 160 ft. more or le-s to the Kittrell Road, then in a southerly di rection 60 ft. along the Kittrell road to the beginning. This 12th day of March, 1942. CITIZENS BANK & TRUST COMPANY, Trustee. 13-20-27-3-10