| Show Men at Her Feet By ROB EDEN CHAPTER 27 1 The morning had been impossible for the Mayfair air shop wasn't er very busy The the afternoon after alter noon hour very long noon longer still and the evening evening- Vicki hated to think about I the evening eve eve- ning although i it had already begun and she was on her way home from work She looked around the crowded street car into the faces of people who didn't know her and didn't know Ray and Janice People who for all al she knew had troubles of their own Certainly t the e girl standing next to her who was dabbing her ber 1 r e eyes cs now and then with a damp handkerchief must h have ve troubles ot at her own There were blackish smudges under her e eyes es from mas mascara ara and the rouge was a almost al al- most entirely wiped from her cheeks Lousy world she muttered bi bit bit- terly tery when she sa saw Vicki looking a aher at ather her but theres there's nothing you can d do about it it The words seem seemed cd to have hav helped her for her tears ceased t to fall and she took out a compact anc and powdered her nose Vicki was sorry when she g got t ol of off several blocks later and a man m move moved ved into her place She was inclined t to agree w with th th the girl she had never neve neverseen neverseen seen before and never would se see again A horrible world and the girl gir didn't care who saw saw her weep no nor how she looked when she wept Sh She had been young too with a pretty prett little face and glassy blue eyes eyes' anc and blond hair tucked carelessly under unde undera a dark brown beret FALLING IN LOVE The car ground on noisily and th the trip home seemed longer to Vicki tha than it ever had before Twenty minutes minute of jerking and hanging onto a strap and swaying with the movement o othe of the sudden stops and starts That Tha morning the journey to the Mayfair shop was endless too Ray was going out with Janice to to- night Perhaps he would be going goin out with her two more times this week She could never forget that tha Constantly through the day she had hac been thinking of it Had she The ever been out with Scott three times in one w week k Yes sh she had Usually though it was only twice For the hundredth time since morning morn morn- ing lag she told herself that Ray might not be any more interested in Janice Janic Keable than she had been in Scott Scot Jameson Might not It was the uncertainty uncertainty of not really knowing that tha worried her so much Ray had insisted he wasn't falling talling in love with Janice She had his wore word for it but it-but but when they thy were going ou out together three times a week an and Janice was so attractive and Ra Ray wouldn't enter into a bargain to give her up entirely NO JEALOUSY Something else too He didn't seem to care whether she went out with wit Scott any more or not Before h he had met Janice he had cared enough to be bc jealous of Scott Had Janice Janic changed him or was she building mountains out of ot mole hills hill Last night for the first time Ray flay hadn't mentioned the lot at Estes Este park and the plans for their house Usually he was so full of tho the house Vicki deliberately had waited fo for tor him to bring up the subject ct but he There wa was nothing said about abou park And on top too of ever everything thing else else else-as as if f there thero wasn't enough already there already there had lad been her dream last night when she finally fell into a troubled sleep at dawn Vicki very seldom bored ered her dreams but she did this one It was so vivid so real that she s reawakened awakened and snapped on her nIghtlight nIght nigh nightlight light Ight to se sec sed if really in her own bed in Johns John's apartment and not not not- Dreams weren't indications of truth were vero they Even when you ou he heard rd people Cople talking to you doing things that hat were real Their own voices their own selves FORGET THE TilE DREAM She had b been n trying to forget the dream all day but she could not Instead of getting dimmer as time passed it grew v brighter and she remembered details she hadn't hadn thought when she had switched on the night light In a panic The dream was about Estes park and the house Their house Hers and andRay's Rays Ray's First she was vas walking up the road coming up the curve and there were the two hou houses s before beCore her First Rays Ray's with its thatched roo roof and quaint windows and the smooth lawn m in front with its ils rows of rose trees up the flagged lagged path She could see the white clover dotting the grass and curtains at the windows while and yellow ellow Smoke was coming out o othe of the chimney and a dog lying on the porch by the door A smallish dog with white spots on its brown bod body Above there was another house Carols Carol's and Johns John's larger than the first its ils lawn all all' in and Carol waving at her from one of the windows Houses that weren't built yet et lawns that weren't in yet yell RING AGAIN Vicki waved at Carol in her dream but she turned in at the first house walked up the path slowly very slowly very y-very very slowly she remembered remembered and and rang the bell It was some time before anyone came She was about to ring again when the door opened and Janice peered ou out and asked her in She went in and Janice told her Ray was in the living room She talked to Janice and Ray heard their voices But Janice belonged belonged be be- longed and she didn't for lor she left leU after a short call and walked through the rows of small rose rOoSe trees again Why should she dream such a thing Why should it be so real She clos closed d her eyes and saw on co more the dress Janice was wearing in the dream Ruffled gingham red with tiny squares of white while like those Carol Carl used for Cor house frocks Worrying about a dream But that was what she had been doing since la last latt t night Janice In the house that was to have been hers Everything so natural with Carol and John next door NO THRILLS There was a vacant se sent scat near her but she didn't see it until the mui mazi man next to her called her attention to It Then it was too late because she was getting off When she reached the Garden Court apartments the elevator elevator eleva eleva- tor tar wasn't In the lobby so she went vent up the stairs slowly beca because se there wasn't any thrill coming home to Mrs Blevins' Blevins ordinary dinners With Carols Carol's dinners it had been different The flowers on on the hall table had been rearranged and the copper bowl near Scotts Scott's roses shone I Ever Even EvenIn In the dim light it glowed like lile beaten I gold cold There were fresh candles burned a little to get the newness from their wick wicks In the sconces at zither either side of the tabe table tab Not a footprint on the living room rug Its pale ere green en pile was like clean I cut velvet Johns John's chair was moved back from the window to Its own particular corner and a hassock pulled up near near it More flowers here A dish of ot yellow pansies the their r pert faces lifted up from the water Inquisitively Zinnias s a riot of them in a a. a brass bowl on th the window scat seat More on the bookcase LET HER GO Mrs Blevins was learning things Vicki thought It Il might be possible that she had even dusted under the magazines on on the table The girl lifted them and laughed laughe Mrs Blevins Blein had dusted under the magazines Amazing She must tonight that Mrs Mr Blevins was her ways John was almost ready read to let her go A smell of freshly baked cake Inthe in inthe inthe the apartment Could it be that Mrs Blevins was baking a cake To show her good nature Mrs Blevins didn't didn like to bake She had told Vicki that tha when she she had had come No use baking and wasting flour and butter and eggs egg when there was a bakery around the corner with made home-made goods Cake and it smelled like chocolate cake Too good to ho hope hoe e for Jn ln her room the bed was made without a wrinkle in th the spread and the pillows fluffed up smartly Mrs Blevins usually made the pillows look limp and thin Carol Caro made them look fat and full of o feathers leathers There was no one who could make a bed like Carol not even he her mother It was a joy to get into a at night IM I'M BACK Behind her closet door on a little rack were three colored linen towels Mrs Blevins ins hardly ever remembered to change them much less to put up fresh ones These were fresh Her He Her shoes were in a neat row on the floor toe to toe and the she shelf above them completely rearranged There was ascent a ascent scent of lavender from her clothes and she noticed a little mauve net bag tied to one of the hooks Mrs Blevins was not riot only l learning arning t she was entirely reformed A Anew Anew Anew new housekeeper Vicki wondered whether it was really cake sh she smelled Fresh homemade cake A person couldn't change a as Mrs Blevins Blevin must have changed overnight Someone was singing in th the kitchen Caroll Carol The girl cried as sh she through the living room Into the dining room where the table was set and ready Carol Caroll S And Carol an apron over her dress her lips smiling met her at the door For a moment neither of ot them said an anything thing Carol was the first to speak Im back Im back she whispered To be continued |
