Newspapers / Zebulon Record (Zebulon, N.C.) / Nov. 5, 1937, edition 1 / Page 17
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cried out In her mind: "Cabot i Oh-h, Cabot* And then, without realizing « It. she waa running out of the garden, down the street, her sandals beating a wild hysterical tattoo on the sidewalks. Rod beside her. She kept saying: “Rod. you don’t suppose Cabot’s hurt, do you!” She didn’t know it, but there was agony in her voice. Everything was confusion at the mill. There were caved-ln walls, there were blackened ruins and somewhere deep in the bowels of the factory a fire was raging. The whole town was there, milling up and down the sidewalks. Patsy Keith, with her face white and her mouth drawn, was saying: "Cabot’s in there. With four men. On inspec tion. I was waiting in the car— and then— this happened!" Beth heard that and her heart welled up in her throat in a sick fear "Cabot!’’ she yelled at the top of tier lungs “Cabot!” And tears streamed down her • face and she wrung her hands and screamed again, “Cabot! Cabot!” Patsy wasn’t looking at the ruined building now. Nor was Rod. They were both staring at Beth. There was a puzzled look in Patsy’s eyes —and one of misery Id Rod’s. When she started into the building. Rod grabbed her by one arm. He said: “Beth, the rest of that place may give in any minute. It’s taking your life in your hands to go in there. The Fire De partment’s here. We can’t do any thing!” And then Cabot came out, the four men and the rescue squad with him. He went straight to Beth and took her in his arms and held her very close. But now Beth changed completely Terror went out of her face and some thing else came into it. With a swirl of her pink skirts she was out of his embrace, turning. . . But she didn’t run away. For Cabot drew her back. He .said, in a whisper: “Don’t go on being a stubborn little Rebel all your life. Jim Reed, in the rescue squad, told me you were out here screaming your lungs out for me! You love me and you know it! I’ve known it all along. I’ve been wondering what would bring about the surrender. It has cost me about $500.- 000” —he grnned a little —"and damned if I don’t think is was worth it!” BETH had to smile despite herself. “No Southern gentleman would be caught dead making love to a girl like that.” <he said, haughtily. "Sugar,” said Cabot, laughing a little, will you-all marry me?” Then he laughed hard, whirled her ;p in his arms, carried her through ihe crowd to his car. As he bundled her m Patsy, her face . very white, touched Rod’s arm. Her eyes were stricken— ind so were Rod’s —but she said—almost gayly: “There goes a traitor. Over to the *nemy" Rod bit his lip. Then he smiled. .“A lovely traitor. A worthy enemy.” ceeds of your Yankee Income? Father, I can’t believe this of you! You — a traitor! My own father!" Father was puzzled. He said: “Why, Beth, what crazy talk is that! You sound like the Southerners during the Reconstruction period. Yankee money is Southern money. It put the roof on - .. j . up nobly gnosts prowl ing about at night, clankmg their (?hains. and what have you And, besides. Cabot might have bought* along a Yankee ghost jr two, jyst to keep in step with us. There are old families —and illus trious ones —north of the Mason Dixon Line. And I understand Cabot comes from one of them The Massachusetts Longs, darling.” BETH CARTER sat bolt upright on the porch glider at that. Her blue eyes bluzed and her dark curls seemed to rise on her scalp. “Really?" she snorted “Well, if that’s the wa„ you feel about it all. why don’t you .narry him? Why don’t you help him turn our precious little Southern town into a dirty com mercial Yankee dump' Why don't you have a dozen Yankee brats and go back to Boston with them some uay and learn to talk through your nose! I don't sup pose." snorted Beth, “that your ancestors turning over in their graves would mean a thing to you?" “No.” said Patsy, amusedly, “it wouldn’t The exercise might do them good!" "Patsy!' “The war between the States was fought years ago. ' said Patsy, suddenly serious. “My grandfather died at the Battle of Chancellorsville. Yours at Bull Run. And Cabot Long’s at Gettysburg! So what?” Fo“ one long momen. Beta sat look ing at her lifelong friend with cold, in credulous eyes. Then those eyes filled with tears that sparkled like diamonds on her incredibly long lashes. She got up from the porch swing with slow de liberation. She said, icily: “I nevei thought I’d hear words like those from ’ . Patsy Keith!” And without another word she crossed the porch, her small back rigid he. dark head high. Patsy said, softly, from the depths ol her corner: "Don’t be a goof. Beth Cabot Long wouldn’t give me a second look. He’s probably head-over-heels in love with that blonde bombshell who comes down from New York every week end to see him. Why fall out over a man who doesn't even know we exist?" T)UT Beth didn’t answer. Not even when Patsy called after her, when she said: “Beth, please let's not quarrel Cabot can’t see any of us, really. He thinks we ll all lazy That we have en cephalitis. That we hire hookworms so we ll have a legitimate excuse to drowse in the sun. And why should you get stirred up about him. anyway? You’re marrying Rod True next Spring, and he has everything you love. Family, tra dition. illustrious ghosts prowling about his house . .” "And hookworm. I suppose!" snapped Beth finally. “Beth!” But Beth was gone She flopped inu. her car and stepped on the starter viciously. She swung out from under the low branches of a magnolia into the open road For one brief second she thought, “I’m this house this year. It planted those new rosebushes In the garden It paid for the car. And by the gods, but for the mill money—Yankee money, as you say— I’m not at all sure there’d be any hing on this dinner table today!” “Father!” “Now you listen to me. Beth. The iouth is awake, working, living again, i there had been more (pabot Longs iown here, we’d have come to sooner!’’ He paused. “Yankee money! What on a arth is wrong with Yankee money?” Beth rose from the table. She stood here in* dark, outraged dignity. “What is wrong with the South?" answered she with a question of her own. “Am I the only Southerner left in the South!” BETH listened no more to this defense of the North. She swept out of the room, out of the house. Rod! Rod would help her get through this miserable day! Rod would hold her in his lean, young arms, he would kiss her lips with the gay. careless love-words that only a Southern gentleman cah say convinc ingly. She would forget all about the episode of the river —and the pro-North- attitude of her own family. But Rod wasn’t home. His mother was and her blue eyes were dancing. Oh, Beth, isn’t it wonderful!” Mrs. True sang out. "Rod started to work today fn the legal department over to . ” Beth held her breath Her hands blenched at her sides It couldn’t be But it was “The Long Rayon Mills,” finished Mrs True “Aren’t you proud, dear? I knew rhat Rod wasn't really lazy for all the talk that’s been going about town. He just needed an opportunity, a chance It’s hard to be lazy in Cartersville now. Why, things are just bristling, aren’t they!” Beth didn't know about things But 'he knew about herself She was bris tling Rod —working for Cabot Long! Somehow or other Beth got through the rest of September and half of Octo ber With disgusted eyes she watched Patsy Keith and all of her friends trying to dazzle Cabot Long at the club dances at her friends’ dinner parties, on the links, the lacrosse field and fox hunting The town was certainly different It was a beehive of activity. “The corner of Forty-second and Broadway would look like a cow pasture compared to us.' Patsy laughed, and Beth turned up her nose. “How dare you.’’ cried Beth “How dare you!" “You do hate me. don’t you?’’ said Cabot, not grinning at all. “I hadn’t eally thought it was real— your hatred I couldn’t believe that any one still felt he old differences.” He paused for one econd. His tone became a little lighter He grinned again "Well, I might as veil make your hatred 100 per cent Yankees don't do things half way. That’s row we won the war.” And before she could cry back: "You dn’t win. We were never beaten —just utnumbered!” he had her in his arms He kissed her. tightening his sinews lbout her so that she might have been ;n a steel trap. “You —you—Yankee!” she cried ai ast. And then she did go. In her car, her lark head high, her cheeks stinging with color and her eyes full of tears. Dinner was being served when Beth rurst into her house. The Southern dinner is always in the middle of the day She flung herself down at the table, her eyes wretched with her ex perience, her heart still pounding and hei mouth warm with the Yankee’s kisses He father said, “You’re not feeling the heat, are you. Beth?” Her mother said, Beth, what on earth has happened?” Beth had no answer that was satisfying Only “Nothing Nothing at all!” Her parents dismissed her then. When Beth chose to tell them her troubles, it would be time enough. Father said: "As I was saying. Mother, I think we’ll be able to make that trip to Europe in the Spring Those mills coming here were the best thing that ever happened to Cartersville. I don’t know when my drug store has ever shown such a profit as it has this year We could make a sort of second honeymoon of the trip With Beth along, of course.” MOTHER said: "On. Theodore, how wonderful Beth, do you hear?” And then because Beth’s eyes looked so wild, because her face was so suddenly white she said quickly “We'll not go if it in terferes with your marriage to Rod, dar ling I had forgotten it was to be next Spring!" Beth ignored her mother She faced her father squarely “Did I hear you correctly. Father? Did I hear you say you had made Yankee money and that you were going to Europe on the pro- Cabot drew her back to him. “Don’t go on being a stubborn little Rebel all your life. You love me, and you know it. I’ve known it all along” \ n maroon oathing trunks and hi." ronzed skin glistened with wetness. Beth’s blue eyes blazed “You didn’t lave to tell me your name I know it!’ “I didn’t know,” said he. with a lop ided smile. “You see. we've been intro iuced exactly ten times. None of those took’ exactly. You never, spoke to me afterward or acknowledged my presence on the street or at the club or even the evening you were my partner at the Prennors’ dinner ” And then. “Going swimming?" “Not with you,” said Beth, gritting tier teeth “It might be a chance to take me out and drown me," he said lightly. And moved closer. He stood there then as if tatching the fragrance of her dark curls “That’s what you’d like to do. isn’t it?” “Who wouldn’t?” Cabot grinned. "Wel-1, the Mayor ol Boston. The Governor of Massachu setts. I think they rather like me.” “Yankees!" said Beth in a oh-them: tone. She stood there then studying his oared chest because, for some reason which she did not understand herself she could not meet his eyes. Color heated her cheeks as if she had been caught in some covert act. She said quickly • “There are other places to swim If you will excuse me ” And she started to climb back in her car. But Cabot had her bare arm in his strong fingers, detaining her He said. ’Why do you hate me?” “Because you came to Cartersville," said Beth, furiously. "You with your mills and your ugly horde of workers and your Yankee efficiency Because you built that eyesore of a modernistic house right in the heart of our town. Be cause you’ve spoiled something that was very beautiful and old and rich with tradition. Nobody wanted you down here. Nobody asked vou to come.” Cabot grinned again. “The Chamber of Commerce wrote me a very nice letter inviting me Indeed, seven Southern towns competed against each other for my mills and my modernistic house They thought it would be a good thing for Cartersville. Like a transfusion of new blood into a dying . a fool! Cabot Long Isn’t worth the slightest misunderstanding with Patsy!” But in the next moment her resent ment and anger flamed back through her veins Patsy, of all people, falling for the Yankee Patsy! her friend! Because Patsy had fallen for him Any dunce could tell that by the way her eye:- brlghtened at the mention of his name at the way she defended him and. with him. the whole abominable North! BETH rode on. threading her roadste through the small, shadowy town and heading for the river, where she was going to peel off her clothes, dive in and try to cool her burning anger She thought .a little of Rod as she drove She was in love with Rod. she sup posed Rod really wasn’t laz- . Just spoiled He was the only son of wealthy parents He had too much money, too much leisure But she knew that when Rod was once married, when he had an incertive— and possibly children— he'd find his path in life He'd probably be a brilliant states man. like his father and his grandfather and his great-grandfather before him Ye u could always bank on blood and an tecedents. A the river Beth parked her car be neath a weeping willow and hopped out. a little red bathing suit hanging from one arm At the sight of the water and the cool green banks on either side some of her anger d sappeared. She forgot Patsy and the abominable Northerner and even her unrecognizable concern for Rod’s lack of ambition. Sh loved to swim, and this was certainly a day for it. She began to whistle — “I Wish I Was in the Land of Cotton ” And promptly an echo came back. Only it was "Yan kee Doodle Went to Town ” Beth whirled on her ►due sandal, her whole small body going agid beneath ►he blue polka-dot linen of her dress Where. - ’ she said, t r ily, "and who —are vou?” “I'm here," said a young man coming out from under the weeping willow, “and I’m Cabot Long.’’ And then he stood there before her Beth took a long look at him. She had to look ’way up to do it. His shoulders and chest were in fine proportion, taper ing to narrow hips. A smile flickered at his mouth and there was a sort of 0 green light in his eyes —two details which made him something more than a sun-burned Yankee nobody. He had
Zebulon Record (Zebulon, N.C.)
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