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Show X Mrs. Hrry Putfh Smith 'ijgsfe ras saaas CHAITIOK XIV Synopsis Sinco hor husbuiid's death, Anne l'liillips has worked to support her children. She ftHils confident In the happiness of two for her older old-er daughter, IJercnice, and her husband have been reunited. Jim, hor son, luus JiLst become engaged to Cathy, whom Anno loves. But Janet, the youugor daughter, Is unluippy and Anno woiTles alxmt her. Janet lias become enframed on trial to Tony Kyail, who luul been ovMX'U;d to marry the rich Pris-cillu Pris-cillu Leigh. Janet murmured something unintelligible un-intelligible and fled. Her cheeks were scarlet and it did not improve im-prove her state of mind when she walked into the lounge and confronted con-fronted Priscllla in the act of caressing ca-ressing 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 sun had set la a riot of violent colors. Janet advanced unsteadily to the end of the porch. Not until she bumped into him did she realize re-alize that she had cornered Gordon. Gor-don. "Yes,," she said sadly, "it would be you. Life's like that." "You aren't In love with Tony, 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 little gesture, and Janet turned abruptly. abrupt-ly. Tony stood at her elbow, his lips parted in a lazy grin. "So sorry," he murmured, imitating 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." Priscllla had managed to seat herself beside him. She completely ignored Gordon, who was her escort, es-cort, and monopolized Tony. 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. Janet had never denied him that compliment. com-pliment. You felt safe in his arms, she thought. She sighed and glanced up into his face to find him similing down at her. "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 surprised?" sur-prised?" murmured Anne, laughing laugh-ing softly. Janet stared at them in ludicrous ludi-crous amazement. "You suspected?" suspect-ed?" she stammered. Anne smiled. "Dearest, you probably can't imagine, but I was once in love myself. The symptoms are universal." Tony caught Janet's hand and hurried her out. "I'll pick you up when I come back, Steve," he called call-ed over his shoulder. Tony put his arm about Janet'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 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 let yourself, you could love me, too." "Not as I loved him." "We love no two people alike, Anne. The spring is not the autumn, 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 tremulous, tremu-lous, but very lovely. "Yes, Steve dear," whispered Anne, blushing blush-ing exquisitely as he stopped and kissed her. THE END A thrill began at Janet's head and went to her toes as if she were a harp on which a hand was playing play-ing an intoxicating refrain. It was like being snatched back from some strange delightful new country, coun-try, 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 pursuit of Tony another minute. Biting her lips Janet made for the wide open spaces. There was no moon. The swimming swim-ming pool was edged with a concrete 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 clammy wrapped itself about her ankle. She thought of snakes, screamed wildly, missed her footing, and plunged straight toward the water. "Janet!" A hand closed about her wrist and jerked her back to the concrete 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 revolting. re-volting. "If you have no objections, Key," murmured a cool, self-contained voice behind them, "I'll do all the kissing my fiancee requires." 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 turned and looked at him. "Scat!" he remarked pleasantly. Gordon hesitated, eyed the set of Tony's jay and then suddenly and ignominiously, scatted. Tony looked at Janet. There was a gleam in his blue eyes which terrified ter-rified her. "As you reminded me, I haven't made love to you," he said. "This is to correct the oversight.' He swept her into his arms. He held her as if she were a small, helpless kitten. He kissed her not once, but three times, as thoroughly thorough-ly as he did everything else, and Janet realized that she knew nothing no-thing 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 run away. In the dressing dress-ing room she cried furiously for ten minutes, then she washed her face, repowdered her nose, painted paint-ed a fresh smile on her lips, and same down the stairs, the light ol battle in 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 Priscilla's eyes met Janet's. Priscilla's arms were lightly wound about Tony's neck. Janet could no more have helped 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 walked out of the front door. She was past connected thinking, but she had no intention of remaining anywhere any-where in the vicinity of Priscilla Leigh and Tony Ryan. It was six blocks from the Country Club entrance en-trance to the nearest trolley 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 that she had been stumbling along for years, choking down her sobs, when she heard a car coming down the graveled road behind her. The glaring headlights of Tony Ryan's powerful black and silver roadster impaled her like a bedraggled butterfly but-terfly 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 lowered lower-ed 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 un-der surfaces you'd probably discover dis-cover that I am a realist with idealistic trimmings. In an case you're the only woman I ever asked ask-ed to be my wife." "How can you expect me to believe be-lieve that when you've been pursuing pur-suing Priscilla Leigh all summer?" sum-mer?" cried Janet, burning with indignation. "At the risk of sounding insufferably insuf-ferably egotistic 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, mo-ther, remember? You said you never had been able to be a flippant flip-pant about her. My mother worked work-ed too. Janet. She worked herself 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 doorway door-way and looked at you, something some-thing in my heart clicked. I knew then you were what I'd been looking look-ing for." "Don't you think I have any pride?" she blazed. It was then the owl screamed in a bush about a foot from Janet's Jan-et's ear. She did not know it was a screetch owl calling for 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 pounding 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. I "Sure!" said Tony in a husky voice, and kissed her again. Anne and Stephen Hill had returned re-turned from the movie. They were on her front porch. The light from within the living room faintly illuminated il-luminated Anne's sensitive face. "You worry about your babies," she said slowly, "from the day they are born, and 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 a broad daylight sometimes you can't forget 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 swort of their spirit. While the tempered blade may bend under un-der pressure, it springs back to form." |