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Show k and bo r j 1) ProGV Dfkm HFjJL mvrnimi eyes Poor man! and-poor woman' wom-an' She shivered a little and hur-ned hur-ned as sh went, as though to rue way from thought! that bit too deeply. On of Pleasant Grove'a favorite autumn diversions, when the har- in and the winter greens had been planted, and it was still too warm for "hawg-kilhn'," was quilting quilt-ing parties. Through the scant leisure time ol winter, most of Pleasant Grove's women pieced quilts, out of "scrap bags" and carefully hoarded bits ol material; and then when the quilt top had been pieced and finished, the owner notified her friends that she was "putting up" quilt and they were invited to come and help her quilt it. A few days after her talk with Tom on the Ridge. Megan went over to Mrs. Stuart's, where there was quilting. There were greetings, breezy exchange of pleasantries, while Megan settled herself, brought they would -well, feel that .he should be locked away! Put in an institution-" The pain of the thought silenced his words for a moment, and after he hrd got himself him-self somewhat under control he managed a smile at her that was little more than a grimace and said So now you know. What are you going to do?" Megan flinched from the look and from the words. She looked at him with wide, distressed eyes. "Whafa it got to do with me? I mean, why should I do anything'" she protested swiftly. 'Tin terribly aorry I didn't mean to pry into your affairs" "I know," Tom brushed the words away with a gesture of the hand that held his pipe. "But I think somehow, I wanted you to know! After all, you are my nearest neighbor. neigh-bor. We see each other often lt'a inevitable you should wonder. I I hope you won't feel it necessary Megan's face flamed with hurt ..vTHUS FAR: Megan Mac- totter, k Annie, the W Grove- Their Uvln. t. been a n.'.r-do- B rntoPle'ant Grove m mPTL karaeU Alicia stev- wmMiui theo", Br"; MTu " nelghbr ' V 7 ii a woman 01 bont K ft" dresied. and some-W some-W ,'.urt- A .tranger tumei K pie buy mnk n.d. mr,. ,nd announces himseli nieh ,ch00, prln' K, tae Weitbrook place. K L .1 " lDvalld' Tbaptek II lind Tom sat quietly on K rocks, saying little, their Kg the antics of the dogs Eloping around In circlea ML She thought ahe had K the pine look 80 Deau' Kfor permission to All hia Ktit it, nd tentatively of- i cigarette. her thimble out of her pocket, threaded her needle, and set to work. There were perhaps a dozen women wom-en about the big frame, which wai opened to its fullest width, the width and length of a double bed. Megan talked lightly and carelessly to her neighbor, the pretty little Whitaker girl whose sweetheart had Just been reported Injured In action In Italy, and who was grateful for the chanct to talk about him. Suddenly Megan heard the name, "'lessor Fallon" and looked up. j Alicia Stevenson was watching her1 shrewdly, a little knowing look ln her small, dark eyes that made Megan Me-gan oddly and absurdly uneaay. Mrs. Burns, who was president of the Parent-Teachers' association of the local school, was saying, "I think we're lucky to get a man like Professor Pro-fessor Fallon here. The achool board says his qualifications are excellent ex-cellent and his references are extremely ex-tremely goodl" Mrs. Stuart bit off a thread and patted her last stitches into place before threading the needle afresh. "Sort of makes me wonder how come we could get a man like 'feasor 'fea-sor Tom, in a little bitty place like this," she said, as she moistened the. tip of the thread and squinted at the eye of the needle, trying to insert in-sert one through the other. "I don't reckin it's anything ag'n the man, though, if he war., a to live in a little country town" "Mayb Megan could tell us more about that," said Alicia srilkily. "About what?" asked Megan, cravenly pretending not to under- t Mi" Megan anawered i 1 habit I've avoided jji I'd care much for It, expensive." fa Tom understood the m and for a moment they I jilent, until he got hia jtd. Hid after a moment when N threatened to become 'How la Mra. Fallon? climate seem to agree II you'd hoped?" brown hand tightened bowl of his pipe until the itood up in little white He tore his eyes from the and gave her a look that and cold and bitter, ao that the was startled by 0, inexplicable hostility, alien is doing aa well aa tpected, under the circum-hc circum-hc told her. Hia voice l ar.d the very sound of told her that he had rent re-nt words until they had have any meaning; yet iter ceased to resent the lot them. try L I seemed inquisi-mde," inquisi-mde," Megan told him er lace hot with color, her "I had no such intention. made no secret of the your wife ia an Invalid, in a small town like this, 1 interested and anxious lervice, if they may" t) service anyone can do myself is to leave my t," stated Tom, and Me-1 Me-1 blazed at hia tone. He looked down at her gravely, his hand still on her arm, restraining restrain-ing her as she would have walked away. atand. "Why a man like Tom Fallon would be satisfied in a little hick town like Pleasant Grove," aaid Alicia, smiling. "After all, you know him so much better than any of the rest of us" "I sell him milk and butter and eggs, yes," Megan told her curtly. "I'd hardly say that made ua old friends, though." "But I thought during some of those long hours you've spent to-1 gether on the Ridge, he might have told you something of himself," suggested Alicia, limpid-eyed, her voice soft as satin. "You may be quite sure that I ahail reveal your secret to no one why should I? What right or necessitywould ne-cessitywould I have?" ahe told him sharply. Tom smiled at her, a white, faint smile that was somehow very tragic. "I know you wouldn't Forgive me. I'm clumsy and stupid, but not intentionally or wilfully so. Forgive For-give me for everything?" Megan melted beneath the look In his eyes, and put her hand In his and let him draw her back to the flat stone, where she sat down once And as though the revela- I on her feet now, and ahe ij. her voice shaking with You may be quite aure ! future, I, at least, shall to do sol" N blindly to walk back " Pines, but before ahe aalf a dozen steps, Tom a feet, laying a hand on h swift, abject apology, wait please, forgive ipologized humbly. "That livable of me I lt'a just ' to subject is an ex-lioful ex-lioful one" wwly sorry that I men-ihe men-ihe told him stiffly, her hot. There was a startled gasp about the quilting frame, perhaps not ao much a gasp, as a sense of movement move-ment that made Megan know they were all staring at her, startled, wondering waiting. Megan drew a long breath. "Just what do you mean by that?" ahe asked Alicia sharply. Alicia's eyes were wide with surprise, sur-prise, but there was a trace of malice in their depths also. "But, darling," she protested, her voice artificially gay and aweet, "what could I possibly mean except that I've seen you and the gallant professor on the Ridge" "Once, quite by accident, when I was out for a walk" Megan began, be-gan, but Alicia interrupted her with pretty concern and an apology that was worse than the most open accusation. accu-sation. "Of course, I'm terribly aorry, "Alicia Interrupted. "Please don't' say any more. I neirer dreamed j I mean I wouldn't have mentioned It for the world" She was pret-! tlly confused, and Megan could feel th hint of tension, of curiosity, that crept about the room. The women who had been her friends and neighbors all her life looked at her and then quickly tion of his tragic secret had cleared the air between them, as though they were friends now, they spoke of other things. His mind was keen and alert; Megan read a great deal and used her mind to think with, and it was for both of them a pleasant experience experi-ence to be able to talk of things that had nothing to do with Pleasant Grove. Megan liked her friends and her neighbors, but there were many times when she hungered for impersonal im-personal talk of matters far afield from Pleasant Grove, and she enjoyed en-joyed this contact with a stimulating stimulat-ing mind. He walked with her to the barbed wire fence, when she saw that she must go because the evening was ending; he laughed a little, and obligingly held up the lower strand of barbed wire so she could crawl under it without snagging her skirt. "There really should be a gate here," she told him, getting to her feet on the other side of the fence, laughing across the four strands of barbed wire at him. "But I'm like the man who was going to fix the leak in his roof, only he couldn't work while It was raining; and when it wasn't raining the roof didn't need mending. I somehow ;ed down at her gravely, Wl on her arm, restrain-1 restrain-1 W would have walked I Miss MacTavish," ne j Ins voice raw with pain, 1 illness is-chiefly men- j j teeth hard when he had 'last two words, and Me-1 Me-1 UP at him, puzzled. You mean she merely ie's nt? That she ia a n,c " she asked, in all "as white and rigid es were alive with "id huskily, "j mean . Z mentally lU-that of a young child--not normal!" 1? that he had tried "8e "d had not been rd Past hi. .tiff conscious of a mo 5 shocked horror JJjtaW to an Insane I nfl whm everybody 0 fine mind and hia responsibility, and a J the mind of . Ii n away, very carefully not meeting her eyes, trying not to meet each other's eyes, elaborately pretending to be very casual. .-This g ridiculous!" said Megan hotly "You're trying to make people peo-ple believe that I've been sneak- f . " meet Mr. Fallon " never get around to it! She whistled. The two dogs came bounding to her. and the four cat. stepped daintily out of a great thicket thick-et of honeysuckle vine, that sprawled at the corner of the fence. And a. she walked back down the meadow path to the brook she looked over her shoulder, and lifted her hand to him in a W ture. as she saw him standing there m lifted his hat to her and bowed S . gay burlesque of a sweeping old-world gesture, and she went on. her heart a little lighter for him She was terribly sorry she admired the gallantry wiUi which he carried bis burdens. And. tooling across the fields toward ft. drab little five-room frame bouse that was the Westbrook place and Sat now held this hi. wife, she felt the tear. In her and rich with .ympa-with .ympa-with keen embar- ust witness hi. "M u, burnin revel-lerr revel-lerr sorry" ..""de the choked. rds said with a BLr "So y" e Onecessary ,or u We" 'Mentioned call- bJ' told him un-,th un-,th !.vfor him. Whi,re,ly ha-mles," he im !ue Wa wrenched CI shameof hav- K Uf(Ught word for moment her. iL avea her bed. Uoal about her-eU, her-eU, undoubtedly "Why darling!" protested Alicia, wide-eyed, hurt, though secretly enjoying, en-joying, .s she always diet thi. by no means unusual result of her malicious mali-cious dropping of bits of information informa-tion here and there. "I didn't say anything of the kind. All I said was that it wa. obvious that you knew the man better than any of the rest f u. and that you ahould therefore know better than we why he wa. willing to hlde-I mean to bury hlm-Telf hlm-Telf in a little hick town like Plea.- " MrSVttiart eyed Alicia belUgar- (T0 BE CONTTN UD |