| Show SE SERIAL R IA L Forever and Forever By PHYLLIS M. M GALLAGHER CHAPTER TWENTY NINE Bill Rutherford returned to the house in Spring Valley at mid mid- night Outside of Faiths Faith's closed door he paused a moment listening listening listening listen listen- ing his heart pumping The lights were on in there he could see the thin slice of silver beneath beneath beneath be be- neath her door the bright eye of the keyhole but he could hear nothing He went on to his own room undressed wearily He lie was bathed and in pajamas before before before be be- fore he saw the money on his chest of drawers the telegram from the literary agent and Faiths Faith's short note below it He Heran Heran ran down the hall to Faiths Faith's room pushed open the door The brilliance of the lights the emptiness emptiness emptiness emp emp- of the room mocked him He walked over to her dressing table in a daze daz touching things she had touched he sat on the side of her bed and looked around as if by concentrated staring he could bring Faith back into the room He saw the in indentation indentation indentation in- in on the peach satin salin cover of the chaise longue It looked he thought bitterly like an imprint left by a suitcase Perhaps Faith had rested her suitcase there He got up and looked into her closets The cases were gone a good many of her clothes were gone He looked for the blue hat with the silver slIver fox bow It was gone He began to realize Faith was actually gone too Sends Money To Bill The check for tor Faiths Faith's short story came on the seventh of December and with the five hundred dollars Terry still had she sent one thousand dollars to Bill She explained nothing to Terry nor did he question her Well pay him the balance as fast as we can Terry was all she said and Terry answered all right with me Faith Faith wrote another story that week and sent it off to New York After it was in the mall mail she and her mother launched into the preparations for Christ Christ- mas Each evening when they returned from F street Terry and Penny and sometimes Mr Carter would Carter would rush out to the car and help them bring Inthe in inthe inthe the mountain of ot packages It was Faith thought like old times The hectic business of keeping one another from seeing seeing seeing see see- ing what the others had bought finding hiding places waving packages at one another and crying Dont you wish you knew what was inside All right just peek once once and and you'll get a swat you wont won't forget Eight days before Christmas Faith and Mrs Carter and Penny had sent off all the town out-of-town presents and began to wrap the ones that would be exchanged with friends and relatives in the city The guest room was always set aside for this purpose and each one had certain things to do All AIl fingers worked as if by magic In all these busy days Faith did not hear from Bill He did not write her He did not tele tele- phone He had sent over to her house all of her personal possessions possessions possessions posses posses- things she had not been able to take with her There had hadnot hadnot hadnot not been a line in them Bill was not Faith realized lifting a finger finger finger fin fin- ger to get her back He didn't care for her any more On the day before Christmas Mr Carter rescued a fine tall tree from in front of a grocery store on Connecticut avenue where it had been leaning in inthe inthe inthe the cold with its arms wrapped about itself and tied lied with rope My jobs job's done Mr Carter had said The Yule log is in the basement basement basement base base- ment and the wreaths are on the front porch and theres there's the tree And our jobs will soon be bedone bedone bedone done too Mrs Carter said gay- gay ly Come on girls Try tp Save I Work on Xmas Faith and Penny trooped out outto outto outto to the kitchen behind her and they began to fix as many things for tomorrows tomorrow's dinner as possible possible possible pos pos- sible so there wouldn't be much work on Christmas day itself Presently the cookie jars and candy boxes were full and there were six baskets of nuts and fruit on the shelf in the butlers butler's pantry Two cakes three layers each and looking as If it they had been dipped in snow were under under under un un- un- un der their hooded glass-hooded contain contain- ers An enormous turkey was in inthe inthe inthe the refrigerator and all the vegetables had been washed and cleaned B Bill i I I Doesn't Even Write to Faith Penny finished cracking the chestnuts then she wiped her hands and said shed she'd better get over to the church Penny was to be the Christmas fairy in the church pageant on Christmas afternoon If I rush 1 can get getto getto getto to the rehearsal on time Penny said and dashed up the back stairs When she was gone Mrs Carter Carter Carter Car Car- ter said Faith I do wish things were different between you and Bill Especially at Christmas Do you want to tell me about it now or is it still too raw a wound to be probed Its a pretty raw wound Faith said but I think Id I'd like to tell you about it mother They sat down at the kitchen table and Faith told her mother everything e She began with the day she had met Tony tried to tomake tomake tomake make her mother understand her infatuation for him I guess the world is full of men like Tony mother Hes He's a satyr Faith said Women hear the faint shrilling of pipes and the tap of cloven feet they're bem bemused used and fascinated fascinated fas fas- and blind to everything else I dont don't really know how else to explain infatuation Then she told her mother about Marcia trying to commit suicide how afterwards she had felt nothing but hatred for Tony They both discussed that morning at the Carson when Tony had come into the bedroom and the scene R Roger ger Stockbridge had made on on the train At last Faith said So you see Mother its it's impossible to tomake tomake tomake make Bill believe I was really inlove inlove in inlove love with him when I married him That I wanted to marry him him wanted him more than anything in the world I I-I I I cant can't blame him I can even understand understand understand under under- stand him shouting and losing his self-control self around me It was a terrific strain being to together together together to- to gether under those conditions Well Vell its it's all over now And Ive I've got to forget forget somehow forget said Mrs Carter Carter Carter Car Car- ter leaning over and wiping away Faiths Faith's slow tears with her handkerchief holding Faith close for a moment forget she repeated slowly Time takes care of everything After dinner the family sat together in the living room Mr Carter behind his evening paper paper paper pa pa- per glanced over it at his wife his blue eyes evES amused She was standing b beside side the long table as excited exerted as a child Wit with h the pres- pres I ont Pd n t the FO Following I Page FOREVER and Forever Continued from Preceding Page that had come in from they their friends and relatives Faith watched her mother fingering fingering fingering fin fin- gering the packages and for a little while was absorbed in Terry's Terrys Terrys Terry's Terrys Terry's Ter Ter- rys ry's efforts to get the electric train to run around the Christmas Christmas Christmas Christ Christ- mas tree Beside the tree were boxes and boxes of ornaments and tinsel and paper cornucopias cornucopias cornucopias pias candy and candy canes stars and icicles garlands of gold and silver and chains of colored glass glass all all the bright paraphernalia paraphernalia paraphernalia nalia of Christmas When Terry finished with the train they would all join together and trim the tree leaving a few decorations decorations decora decora- for Penny to put on when she got back from church Pres- Pres Faith went out on the front porch and brought in the holly wreaths She tied the red ribbons on them which her mother moth moth- er had saved from last year and hung them in all the first floor loor windows When she had finished she she threw her coat around her shoulders went out into the blinding snow to see how they looked For a moment she thought about the gray stonehouse stonehouse stone stonehouse house with the twin evergreens at the door and her heart choked up in her throat It would have been so beautiful b If only things had been different between Bill and herself When she went back into the living room her father had stopped reading the paper and andas as usual had thrown it all over the floor loor Faith picked it up as assembled assembled assembled as- as it and settled herself in inthe inthe inthe the wing chair under the lamp She looked at all the ads wishing she could have bought some of the things that were so enticingly enticing enticing- ly displayed Penny would have loved that marabou bed jacket and her mother would have ve liked oJ that house coat She wasn't pleased with what she had bought the family this year There had been so little left of the money her father had given her It was all nearly gone now and unless that second story sold or she was able to get back her herold herold herold old position with Mrs Leeds but these she decided giving herself a mental jerk weren't Christmas thoughts thoughts- She began to read the society page Midshipman Sandy Furness Furness Furness Fur ness she read was as spending his Christmas leave with his pare parents ts Doctor and Mrs Rodney Caldwell Caldwell Caldwell Cald- Cald well of Boston were with Mrs Caldwell's mother Mrs Barrie Leeds Mrs Caldwell was the former former former for for- mer Miss Betsy Leeds It would Faith thought be perfectly swell to see Betsy again And then she realized all the explaining she would have to do about Bill and herself how distressed Betsy would be She almost wished Betsy hadn't come home for Christmas Faith went on reading the page and then her heart stopped One name sprang out at her Doctor William Rutherford Bill had been Faith saw one of the guests at Miss Christine Webbs Webb's dinner party She put the paper down got up and walked restlessly restlessly restlessly rest rest- lessly about the room Finally she went down in the basement Bills Bill's laboratory was exactly as ashe ashe ashe he had left it Only it was dusty now and looked deserted and forlorn from not being used Automatically she set to work cleaning it up She washed all the bottles p polished them dusted dusted dusted dust dust- ed the Bunsen burner lighted It once to see if it still worked At last tired she sat down on the bottom step her arms across her knees her head on them Continued Monday r. r r |
