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Show vfli fpsi- 1 " , CHAPTER V Continued aceLife, at this accelerated pace, tli'lrly burned her up. The new 'ton measures enchanted her, but never Ititisfied, leaving her always strain- for more; which Indeed was -- kie position of them all Lenore, alary, Van, Fred, to say nothing of - tielr elders. They went everywhere, 1 oywhere, they did anything and " 'erythlng that might promise fun. 'Veakfast on the Maccleishes' ' kcht, for example; life on the Mac-Rtjeishes' Mac-Rtjeishes' yacht had nothing to do WfUlth sailing or the water. The yacht lght as well have been moored Tjrpti-n feet underground In a coal (line, for all Its gay party ever VHliw of the sea. Yet there was some-(Sing some-(Sing distinguished about being Itked to spend a week-end on a -ftal yacht! " 'fjThe glory spread far ahead of and far behind It. Gall saw her ime In the Clippersville Challenge ore than once during this amaz-g amaz-g summer, listed among the guests 4000!) aa'rs wnose distinction a few . ' 'onths back was beyond her wlld- 2,61 dreams- She had a feverish feeling aome-tt,00Soies aome-tt,00Soies of having lost Edith, lost Phil :d Sam and Ariel, lost touch with -r work at the library and her 'UHities at home one could not live . 'n livrao oftot oil anA Van'o ttqi-tt 1 'actions were a delight, an an-Nn&er an-Nn&er to her wild young ardent pray-jjj's pray-jjj's of last spring. Nothing matured mat-ured but that she should please , i, should keep close to him. BotfOne night In late August she hty, Sid Van walked home from a movie S- Clippersville. The night was jufferably hot, and the audience i Kfts glad enough to straggle out DKo the black darkness of the Calle, N, lere the air was some degrees "libit oler. Sflt,p'whew! That was frightful," il breathed. rSSTThis Is a snorter !" Van com- mted. "Los Gatos tomorrow, hey? id Into the pool." The moon had not yet risen, but 0i ;re was an odd light in the world nine o'clock; whitewashed sur-J sur-J 3 ;es and the adobe walls of the jllest buildings wore an odd pale jl miner of white. 'y 'Maybe we'll go over to the beach nday," Van said. 'I wish we were there now 1" 'Take you In a minute !" he of- ed eagerly. The girl laughed. , yA hundred miles," she said drily. L nd we'd get so hot going over, AWL Might Easily Have Put His Arm y About Her. I be so tired coming hack, that wouldn't gain much." Ice cream at Dobbins'?" he sug- ,ted. .Kind of mussy." But she turned ard the drug store none the i; the opportunity to be seen nil the town, having soda at iblns' with Van Murchison, must be overlooked. .11 Clippersville came In and out Dobbins' on a hot summer eve-g, eve-g, and she kept wheeling about her high stool to greet library ualntanccs and neighbors and mis. hey all saw; that she was with i Murchison. rlel came in and put her slim Iis about Gail from behind and led the bright wave of tnwny r over Gall's ear. Take our places," Gall said, get-; get-; down. "We're done!" he walked along beside Van sl--x'ly In the street. The man kept . It' his regular stream of chatter " n minute; somehow It Jarred to-it. to-it. Gail broke across It sud- pgytnl'tlu reason I wanted to come away was my brother Phil was in Dobbins' there." "Your brother Phil was!" "Yes. 'Way over In the corner, in one of the twosomes." "Why didn't we yell at him?" Van asked simply. She had to have sympathy; she had to test him. With a sudden letting down of the bars she said, "Because his girl was with him." "And don't you like her?" Van demanded, with his delighted air of discovering something amusing. "I despise her!" Gall answered somberly. "Not really !" he exclaimed ecstatically. ec-statically. "What? Phil's girl?" "She's not a girl, really, and it's very serious," Gail said, determined to sober him. "She's a divorced woman, and she has three little boys about three and two and one " "Oh, I love it!" Van said with relish. "Phil! Old sober-sides! I adore It ! I'm crazy about it !" "Van, how can you say so!" Gail reproached him, hurt. "She's a terrible ter-rible girl; she comes from Thomas Street Hill ; she was one of the Wlbsers." "Oh, I think It's perfectly grand !" Van said, with his raw, Joyous laugh. "Think of the trouble and expense saved his family all ready-made!" But suddenly perceiving that she was not amused, and that a genuine genu-ine mood of anger and disappointment disappoint-ment was keeping her silent, he changed his tone and said rallying, lightly: "Why, what do you care who your brother marries! Yon don't have to marry her I It's his funeral." fu-neral." "I suppose so," Gail conceded after aft-er a moment wearily. "Want to Jump into the car and rush off somewhere and get cool?" "It would take too long, and I'm too tired, and I promised Edith to be home early. She gets nervous." The car was parked a hundred feet from the Lawrence gate. Gail went to the fence that had once been their meadow fence, and leaned on the bars and stared into the night that was now lighted by the moon. "Phil's marrying would simply wreck our home," she said, reverting revert-ing to the topic deliberately, desperately. desper-ately. "Oh, forget it! He won't marry her," Van assured her easily. "I think," she began a little thickly "I think what worries me Is Ariel. she s proud, sne s so sensitive" sen-sitive" "Shucks I She Isn't any prouder or more sensitive than you are !" Van said unsympathetically. He hated to be serious. Gall knew. He was hating it now. "The thing about Ariel Is," Gail pursued resolutely, "that she Is running around with that Buddy Ralsch crowd of course they may be a perfectly decent crowd underneath un-derneath " "Why, she's nothing but a school child I" Van said in - distaste and displeasure. "Well, she's not such a school child but what she lets Buddy Kaisch take her out in his roadster road-ster " "Oh, I love it! 1 think It's priceless!" price-less!" Van exclaimed, laughing, as Gall's troubled voice fell stllL "I don't know what to do about It," Gail began again. "I was wondering," won-dering," she added timidly, "what you would think I ought to do, Van?" Ho who Interested now. but in an annoyed, reluctant sort of way. He said quickly: "I? For heaven's sake, what should I know about it? It seems to me If she's such a fool she likes to run 'round with a bounder like that, why, let her do It!" "But you don't understand, Van," Gail said patiently. "She's only seventeen sev-enteen she won't be eighteen until next Christmas." "That wasn't no hindrance to the late Miss Juliet Capulet!" Van reminded re-minded her Joyously. Gail laughed faintly, and was silent "I'll come for yon early tomorrow," tomor-row," Van presently said. "How's nine o'clock? That gets us to the ranch at noon, easy." The girl felt cold, unresponsive, heavy. They were standing close together togeth-er at the old fence rail; he m!ght easily have put his arm about her. But he never attempted that sort of thing; Gall wondered sometimes if It were some queer lack In her that prevented him, or some missing quality In him. Going into the house she determined deter-mined that she would not go down to Los Gatos at all tomorrow, and felt a great relief In the thought If they wanted her they could make a special overture next week. She wandered away to her own room, returned In pajamas, brushing brush-ing her thick mop of tawny-gold hair. "Phil was at Dobbins' tonight," she said suddenly, "with Lily." Edith opened her lips to speak, made no sound. They stared at each other. "He wasn't!" Edith whispered after awhile. "At Dobbins!" "In one of the twosomes the al coves. "He's crazy," the younger sister said darkly. They brooded upon it In silence. Gail felt tired and blue; discouraged discour-aged about Phil, about Ariel, about her own hopes and plans concerning concern-ing Van. "I may be engaged to be married this time tomorrow night," she thought, when she was in bed, reading. read-ing. "There's a moment when one isn't, and then suddenly one is. That's all there is to it. Girls do get engaged ; almost every girl gets engaged." She thought of the Fosters and the Delahantys. Three, busy, homely home-ly unmarried sisters In each family. fam-ily. Two in the post office, two teaching school, one In the library, one a stenographer. Gail's heart failed her. It was not fair that some girls should travel, go places, do fascinating fas-cinating things, and that other girls should drudge away at the library, year after year, while hope died and youth faded and enthusiasm was spent like the Fosters' and the Delahantys' enthusiasms upon church fairs and preserving fruit "It's not right," Gail said solemnly solemn-ly to the shabby old silent room, through whose windows the hot smell of pear trees and burned grass was penetrating from the dar night outside. "There's nothing noth-ing in character, if it only gets you what the Fosters and the Delahantys Delahan-tys have got ! "I'm not sure," she decided darkly, dark-ly, "but what Ariel's in the right! I'll bet she gets to London before I do!" CHAPTER VI THE next day she rose unre-freshed unre-freshed and dissatisfied, and dragged heavily through her preparations prep-arations to go to Los Gatos, as If the prospect were anything but inviting. in-viting. It would have filled her with ecstasy a year ago ; she felt dull and doubtful about It now. Ariel, all helpful sympathy, came out to the gate when Van parked there, honking wildly, at ten o'clock. "Here," he said, leaping out "I'll take that" He stowed Gail's suit case Id the rumble. The three stood smiling and gossiping in the soft foggy morning. "I wish I were going with you!" Ariel said frankly. "Well, why don't you come?" Van exclaimed, suddenly fired. "Oh, no, I couldn't I've got a date with the crowd tonight," Ariel protested, "and I couldn't anyway, I'm not dressed I And I couldn't anyway." For an instant the matter hang fire, and Gail did not know whether or not in that Instant Ariel sent her a glance of wild hope. Immediately Immedi-ately the younger girl settled the matter, and was running back Into the house shouting, "Have a good time I" Despite her sister's protests, Gail felt like a murderer as Van's car shot away across the long bare road, away from dusty, dull Clippersville Clip-persville Into the beauty and shade and coolness of Far Niente. The thought of that quick, hopeful glance of Ariel's that glance that ml.rtif tint ckiroi anan haua Kaon cant or been thought of haunted her. Not that Ariel could have come, no. Obviously that would have been a mistake. But Gail kept wishing that she, Gail, had urged It had Impulsively, Impulsive-ly, ridiculously, pressed It. It would have made no difference in the outcome, out-come, for even little Ariel knew that she mustn't expect to go places Just because Gall did. She wouldn't have come. She would know that they might snub her. And yet the memory of. the little flying pink figure and the shouted "Have a good time!" in Ariel's odd- ly deep voice would not let her be at peace. She was gnawed by hunger hung-er for Ariel, incessant and deep. Van's mother proved to be a thin, dark, smart woman in a beautiful transparent gown of orange and black. She greeted her son with a fretful "Van, I suppose you know your father's furious at you, and making life simply wretched for me?" and gave to Gail only an abstracted ab-stracted frown. "I think yon were In school with my mother, Editha Petrie, in San Francisco?" Gall said, trying to seem at ease. "I was in school with Dobody's mother, and I won't be incriminated, and I am praying the Lord to grant me a long and prosperous thirty-one!" thirty-one!" Mrs. Murchison said, to the company at large rather than to Gail, "She'll never forgive you that as long as you live, Gail !" Vap exclaimed ex-claimed in the laughter that followed. fol-lowed. Gail laughed, too, but she felt hot and uncomfortable. In all it was an uncomfortable visit; the least happy she had ever had at Far Niente, even including the first with its nervousness and IS "I Was in School With Nobody's Mother!" shyness. Three men Gail had never seen before were absorbed in the topic of the golf tournament at Del Monte, and for a lititle while on Saturday afternoon Gail was excited excit-ed by the possibility of their all going down to Jonterey to try a day's preliminary playing. But in the end it was decided that the three men and Van should leave before breakfast and go there alone. "That is, I would," Van said, "If I didn't feel it would leave Gail in the lurch!" "We'll take care of Gail," Mrs. Chipp said. "We'll just leave her here to amuse herself, and the boys will be back for dinner, and we'll all go home Monday afternoon." Gail had to protest ; her library job would stand no more trifling. She must be back Sunday afternoon, after-noon, positively. It was arranged. The bridge players play-ers plunged back gladly into the mysteries of vulnerability and redoubling. re-doubling. The young men played tennis and Gail watched and laughed and applauded. Later, going to the cabin to dress, she heard Mrs. Chipp good-naturedly reproaching somebody for something. some-thing. The voices came from behind a screen of shrubs and tall flowers, flow-ers, where the hammocks were. ". . . . It was dreadful. ... I mean it was unmistakable. ... I mean it was enough to make him furious," said Mrs. Chipp's amused, indifferent voice. Another woman's voice spoke quickly in answer, laughingly and indifferently, too, but with more vigor. Mrs. Murchison's voice. Gail could not hear the first dozen doz-en words. But the last trailed through her consciousness as she escaped, scarlet-cheeked, out of hearing. ". . . with a Clippersville girl !" The tone, the emphasis of the voice, interpreted the whole to her perfectly. Van's father would be furious with him for going with a Clippersville girl. It served him perfectly right, wasting his time wiui a Clippersville gin. it aid not matter whose feelings were hurt or were not hurt; it was only a Clippersville girl ! Her face blazed, her throat was thick and dry. Her heart seethed like a boiling pot and her thoughts went round and round dizzily. Her hands felt cold, and she was shaking. shak-ing. What did it matter what that vulgar, vul-gar, smart, rouged, thin, dark woman wom-an said or thought! It did not affect af-fect Gall Lawrence; It did not affect af-fect Van Murchison. It did affect Van, of course. Wandering about the room In a thin cotton kimono, she addressed herself aloud. "You poor fool I You thought you might be engaged tonight 1 "Well you may be. "I'd like to be. Just to get even with her! I'd like to be so stunning, stun-ning, so smart, so popular that she was wiped out of sight . . . "I hate her. . . No, I don't oppose op-pose I hate her. . . Ye. I do. "I despise her! I'd like dor to break her leg. I would. I wouldn't want her to get a cancer exactly. But I'd like something to happen '.-her!" '.-her!" ITO BE CONTINUED. 1 |