Thursday, July 11, 1940
ofcfSrt* WAU«v c
X&* Mrs. Harry Putfh Smith JH3
CHAPTER xrv
Janet murmured something un
intelligible and fled. Her cheeks
were scarlet and it did not im
prove her state of mind when she
walked into the lounge and con
fronted Priscilla in the act of
caressing a small red rosebud in
the lapel of Tony Ryan's coat.
"So sorry," said Janet. "Didn't
mean to intrude."
She fled for the second time,
walked blindly out upon the
screened veranda which ran
across the side of the clubhouse.
The sim had set in a riot of vio
lent colors. Janet advanced un
steadily to the end of the porch.
Not until she bumped into him
did she realize that she had
cornered Gordon.
"Yes," she said sadly, it Would
be you. Life's like that."
"YOu aren't in love with Tony
Ryan, are you, Janet?"
Janet could feel her heart
flinch. "Certainly I'm not in love
with Tony Ryan!" she cried.
"Love's something we've never
discussed."
Gordon made a distracted lit
tle gesture, and Janet turned
abruptly. Tony stood at her el
bow, his lips parted in « lazy
grin.
"So sorry," he murmured, imi
tating the tone which Janet had
employed upon him a short while
before. "Don't mean to intrude,
but everybody's going in to dinner
and," he gave Gordon a glance
that made him squirm, "I've a
yen to be with my fiancee. I'm
funny that way." .
Priscilla had managed to seat
herself beside him. She com
pletely ignored Gordon who was
her escort and monopolized Tony.
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The orchestra had not arrived,
somebody turned on the radio.
Priscilla wriggled her shoulders
and snapped her fingers. "That
music's too smooth to waste," she
announced. "How's for dancing,
Tony?"
She held out her arms. Tony
did not appear to notice. "Want
to dance, Janet?" he asked.
He did dance beautifully. Jan
et had never denied him that
compliment. You felt safe in his
arms, she thought. She sighed
and glanced up into his face to
find him smiling down at her.
A thrill began at Janet's head
and went to her toes as if she
were a harp on which a hand was
playing an intoxicating refrain.
It was like being snatched back
from some strange delightful new
country, when the music ended.
Priscilla skated across the
floor. "Tony, show me how to do
the rhumba. You promised."
She stood it for two dances and
then she knew she could not
watch Priscilla's determined pur
suit of Tony Ryan another min
ute. Biting her lips Janet made
for the wide open spaces.
There was no moon. The swim
ming pool was edged with a con
crete walk, not very wide. Janet
set her teeth and marched
around and around it, trying to
bring some order out of the chaos
of her thoughts.
Her eyes were stormy with
tears. She neither then nor later
saw the wet bathing suit which
had been left on the edge of the
pool. Something wet and clam
my wrapped itself about her
ankle. She thought of snakes,
screamed wildly, missed her foot
ing and plunged straight toward
the water.
"Janet!"
A hand closed about her wrist
and jerked her back to the con
crete walk. Still off balance
Janet clutched frantically at her
rescuer. His arms went about
her and clung.
"Janet, darling!" cried Gordon.
He was trembling. "You can't
have got over loving me, Janet!
Please say you haven't." Gordon,
swept out of himself at last, was
kissing her with an abandon
which Janet found peculiarly re
volting.
"If you have no objections,
Key," murmured a cool, self
contained voice behind them, "I'll
do all the kissing my fiancee re
quires."
Gordon with a violent start
dropped his arms. "Janet was
mine before we ever heard of you,
you big stiff[" he stammered.
Tony Ryan turned and looked
at him. "Scat!" he remarked
pleasantly.
Gordon hesitated, eyed the set
of Tony's jaw and then suddenly
and ignominiously scatted. Tony
looked at Janet. There was a
gleam in his blue eyes which ter
rified her.
"As you reminded me, I haven't
made love to you," he said. "This
to correct the oversight."
He swept her into his arms.
He held her as if she were a small
THE ELKIN TRIBUNE, ELKIN, NORTH CAROLINA
helpless kitten. He kissed her
not once, but three times, as
thoroughly as he did everything
else, and Janet realized that she
knew nothing in the world about
being kissed.
"I trust that's satisfactory," he
murmured.
I hate him, thought Janet, and
I love him. She had just strength
enough to rim away. In the
dressing room she cried furiously
for ten minutes, then she washed
her face, repowdered her nose,
painted a fresh smile on her lips
and came down the stairs, the
light of battle to her eyes.
Then for a moment she could
not move or speak, she could only
go on staring at Tony Ryan's
back. Over his shoulder Priscil
la's eyes met Janet's. Priscilla's
arms were tightly wound about
Tony's neck.
Janet could no more have help
ed what she did next than she
could have stopped breathing.
Drawing the glittering diamond
off her finger she flung it in
Tony's general direction.
"Catch!" she said. "You bought
it for her anyway."
And then she turned and walk
ed out the front door. She was
past connected thinking, but she
had no intention of remaining
anywhere in the vicinity of Pris
cilla Leigh and Tony Ryan. It
was six blocks from the Country
Club entrance to the nearest trol
ley through a subdivision which
had never been developed.
Janet realized abruptly that
she was running, running with
tears streaming down her cheeks.
It seemed to her she had been
stumbling along for years, chok
ing down her sobs, when she
heard a car caroming down the
graveled road behind her. The
glaring headlights of Tony Ryan's
powerful black and silver roadster
impaled her like a bedraggled
butterfly on a pin.
"Nice night for a walk," Tony
remarked, bringing the machine
to an abrupt halt six feet away.
He rummaged in his pocket,
found a cigarette, lit it and low
ered himself lazily to the ground.
"You know," he observed idly,
"I believed your explanation
about this afternoon and I didn't
hold you responsible for being
caught in the boy friend's arms
tonight."
"No?"
"It would take somebody more
naive than I to imagine a swell
girl like you in love with that
plush rabbit. All the evidence of
your friends to the contrary, you
never were in love with him, were
you?"
"N—no." |
"You called me a realist once.
I am in a way. I've had to be.
But I have my dreams." He
smiled wryly. "If you'd bother to
pry under surfaces you'd probably
discover that I am a realist with
idealistic trimmings. In any
case you're the only woman I ever
asked to be my wife."
"How can you expect me to be
lieve that when you've been pur
suing Priscilla Leigh all sum
mer?" cried Janet, burning with
indignation.
"At the risk of sounding insuf
ferably egoistic I shall have to
tell you that I've never pursued
Priscilla. I simply allowed her to
pursue me as long as it suited my
purpose. - ' He laughed. "Priscilla
made an effective smoke screen,
you'll admit. I made up my mind
to marry you the first time I saw
you."
"Oh!" gasped Janet.
"You were defending your
mother, remember? You said you
never had been able to be flip
pant about her. My mother work
ed too, Janet. She worked her
self into an early grave taking
care of me. I've never been able
to feel flippant about that either.
When I stood there in the door
way and looked at you, some
thing in my heart clicked. I
knew then you were what I'd
been looking for."
"Don't you think I have my
pride?" she blazed.
It was then the owl screamed
in a bush about a foot from
Janet's ear. She did not know it
was a screech owl calling to its
mate. she heard something
ghastly, shrieked and tumbled
into Tony's arms.
"Precious!" whispered Tony,
holding her very close, so close
she could hear the wild pound
ing of his heart against her
cheek.
"Oh, Tony!" whispered Janet.
He kissed her, so tenderly she
trembled, and then so fiercely
she could not get her breath.
"I adore you!" she cried.
"Sure," said Tony Ryan in a
husky voice and kissed her again.
* • •
Anne and Stephen Hill had re
turned from the movie. They
were on her front porch. The
light from within the living room
faintly illuminated Anna's sensi
tive face.
"You worry about your babies,"
she said slowly. "Prom the day
they are born you're never free
from responsibility for them. You
waken in the dead of night and
you can't go back to sleep. The
dark's peopled with all the dire
things which might happen to
your offspring. Even in broad
daylight sometimes you can't for
get the bugaboos. After all, other
women's children go wrong."
"Yours won't, Anne," said Steve
Hill. "You put your own steel
into the sword of their spirit.
While the tempered blade may
bend under pressure, It springs
back to form."
"And I feel," sighed Anne, "for
the first time in twenty-five years
almost totally • unnecessary. As
if —as if I'd completely outlived
my usefulness."
He put his hand over hers.
"Not to me." •
She colored. "I—I—"
At that moment Janet burst
into the hall, closely followed by
Tony. "Mother!" she cried, her
voice radiant. "Tony and I—we
—he and I—"
She blushed furiously. Her
tongue failed her. She could not
put her happiness into words, but
her eyes proclaimed it as Tony's
arm tightened about her.
"I take it," said Steve Hill with
a chuckle, "you have discovered
that you are madly in love with
TOny, Janet, and he with you."
"Are we supposed to be sur
prised?" murmured Anne, laugh
ing softly. \
Janet stared at them in ludi
crous amazement. "You suspect
ed?" she stammered.
Anne smiled. "Dearest, you
probably can't imagine | but I was
once in love myself. The symp
toms are universal."
Tony caught Janet's hand and
hurried her out. "IH pick you
up when I come back, Steve," he
called over his shoulder.
Tony put his arm about Jan
et's shoulders and raced her
down the stairs. "Give the guy
a break," he said, kissing her
startled mouth.
"Tony, you can't mean!" she
cried.
"Sure," said Tony Ryan with a
grin.
Back on Anne's dim front
porch Steve put out his hand and
took hers. "Of course you know
I've been biding my time," he
said softly.
Anne's heart gave a start.
"You are a very understanding
person."
"Life isn't over for you, Anne,"
he said, "or for me."
Her eyes fell before the blaze
in his. "Isn't it, Steve?"
"I love you."
She thought of another who
had spoken those words, the mate
of her youth.
"I think," said Steve, "if you'd
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let yourself, you could love me,
too."
"Not as I loved him."
"We love no two people alike,
Anne. The spring is not the au
tumn, though each Is a beautiful
season."
"Yes."
"You will let me teach you that
for you and me life can begin all
over again after forty, Anne?"
Her smile was a little tremu
lous, but very lovely. "Yes, Steve
—dear," whispered Anne, blush
ing exquisitely as he stooped and
kissed her.
THE END
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