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Show 'I GIRL ALONE TSay into bed that night that If Jim Guthrie didn't want to b friends again, sweetheart friends, Joy and lif would ceaa for her that minute. min-ute. "You might as well admit It," she told herself. "You love Jim Guthrie. Guth-rie. You're going to love him to, tbe very end of the chapter. If you hadn't loved him. Then you woald have fallen In love with Ned Benton. Ben-ton. girl would be proud to love him. But you can't love him. You can't .love him because yu tow Jim Guth-rie Guth-rie more than you love anybody else in the whol work). It seemed, to Beth that the 36 hours ahe spent on the train from New York to Centertown were the 36 longest hours in her whole life. The last half hour, especially, was torture to the girl She hd dressed in her loveliest suit, her most piquent hat and a thousand candles of Joy biased in her lovely eye th train pulled into the station. It seemed almost prophetic, then, that th first fee ah caught sight of among all th upturned face at th station should be th face of Jim. (Continued Thursday J (Copyright. Iv37, for Th TelegramJ They were standing now at the rail- ing of the balcony. They looked down at an ocean of light below them. "H's like that last night on deck," he said. "All lighted with stars Only these ar man made stars. You told me then that you didn't love me that you weren't certain you ever could. Yot nd No -' "But the closer we come to eay-ing eay-ing goodbye, Beth, don't you come just that much closer tolling aure that we can't say goodbye forever?" "Yea and no, Ned." Beth admitted ad-mitted while the very stars seemed to hang breathless. "There's some other man?" -Yes." "You love him?" "With all my heart." "And he loves you?" Befh considered that statement. "I I think so. Ned. I'm not sure." "H couldn't help but love you, Beth. No man could help loving a girl like you." Beth thought of those very words as th wheel of th great rushing train beat a rhythmic chant in her ears. She waa on her way home. There had been the last minute goodbyes. Aunt Jant and Rrnlnn had both CHAPTKK 71 -j It was Belh's last night In New York. Six weeks of happiness were behind be-hind her, six weeks that had changed her into a starry eyed girl, tolerantly amused over her past, in love with her present and radiantly confident of her future. "I ought not to let you go out tonight. to-night. Beth darling." Jane said. "You need, the test since you're starting home so early in th morning" morn-ing" "I'll telephone Ned," Beth sug gested. mischievously. "No, you don't. Nothing like that." Aunt Jane laughed. "Your young gentleman is going to have this last chance at proposing to you even if I do hsve to give you up for the evening." Beth wss suddenly sober. "Aunt Jsnc. I do like Ned. I think he's one of the grandest men I've ever known, but I don't love him.". "Hsve you told him about Jim?" A Grand Man Beth shook her head. "I haven't told anyon but you and dad about Jim. Maybe that's all In th paat Maybe it can't ever b reopened." "Something tells me, Beth," Aunt IsVM 4MsV 4-WwViiWIll'wH neen to tne station to see her on. Ned had brought magasines, a corsage cor-sage of flowers, big box of candy. "If I were going acroaa the continent conti-nent in covered wagon I might hope to eat all of this candy," Beth laughed, "but in M houra I won't get even a start at it" "Every time you taste how sweet it Is," Ned whispered, "Just remember remem-ber that I think you're sweeter than sweet. And I haven't given up. I'm coming out to see you." To So Bth "Maybe we won't let her live In Centertown." Aunt Jane aaid, turning turn-ing toward him. "She belongs to us more than ah belong to Centertown, Cen-tertown, doean't ahe?" And now Beth waa In the train speeding swiftly back to Center-town Center-town and ahe waa remembering a thouaand thrilling scents she had seen. Sometimea ah wondered if ahe could really be tbe mousey girl who left Centertown. She wrote a long telegram to her father. Aaked him to meet her and then . sat pondering her telegram. She added a swift sentence. "Please tell all my friends I'm coming home." The porter In th club csr who in the psst. Something tells me thst you're going home to Jim nd to love. "If he loved you when you came away. Beth, he can't tail to love you now. You aren't any prettier, Beth, than you were then. You Just know more what life ia all about and youre surer. That'a the change in you, dear. You're sur of yourself." your-self." "You've msd me sure of myself, my-self, Jane darling. I never needed to be just a grub. I could have opened up my eyes and looked around me. "I could have made the very beat of the good points l had. Mary didn't want me to be wallflower. Certainly dad didn't want me to be, and Charmion didn't want me to be." "I wouldn't be so sure about Charmion Char-mion if I were you, Beth," Aunt Jane aaid wisely. "And I wouldn't trust her aa far as I could throw n elephant. Listen, honey, put on that little blue and silver dress tonight, to-night, the one we bought In Paria." -Ned will be tired of that." Beth laughed. "I wore it almost every evening on the wsy back." ' Nad Lovt B.th had handed the telegram blank to Beth smiled aa he watched her write the telegram. He didn't know what the pretty girl was aaylng, but it must have been aomething that pleased her very greatly, because the color ebbed and flowed in her lovely cheeks. She reread that last brief. Impulsive Im-pulsive sentence. "Tell all my frienda I'm coming home." Even laughed a ah crumpled th telegram and threw It in the wast paper basket. Th laat aentenc wasn't necessary. neces-sary. In fact, It was childishly Impulsive. Im-pulsive. In less than M hours ah would be in Centertown and in less than one hour after that all of her frienda would know that ahe had arrived. "That sentence," ah chided herself, her-self, "waa written for only one purpose pur-pose and that was because. Beth Warden, that you hoped your dad would read between th line and go over and tell Jim Guthrie that you're coming home. Joy in Lif. "You wanted Jim Guthrie to meet you, didn't you? 'Fees right up and tell the truth. Well, If he wants to meet you he wilL If he wsnts to b friend again, he will. If he doean't " But Beth couldn't finish th but sentence. 8he knew when she crept "Not too often. Ned loves It. He calls It his dress because he wss with us when you picked it out I tell you, Bethie, you ought to preen yourself Just little. "There aren't many girls that a distinguished man like Ned would follow clear across an ocean and continent" "And propose to every day," Beth laughed. "Well, Aunt Jane. I will put on the silver blue dress In compliment com-pliment to Ned and then I'll go out and hear his last proposal "I don't need to try and convince you that I don't like to hear it because be-cause I do and you know that I do. Oh. Aunt Jane, I think you're the most wonderful aunt a girl aver had. "I feel like Cinderella who left her chimney corner to go to the ball. Only I hop the clock never strikes 12. I hope the ball doesn't ever come to an end." "It won't, darling." Jane aaid earnestly, "it won't I'm going to see that It doesn't After school gets In session I'm coming out to Centertown. "It won't hurt dear old aim mater to struggle along without me for a few weeks, I want to come to Centertown and see that you're doing the things, I've stared you out to do. "I tell you, Beth, the clock never does need to strike 12 for a girl as pretty as you are." Th Sam Talk Ned Benton .said substantially tha same thing to Beth that very night They had dined in a famoua night club and they had danced to world renowned orchestra. "And so you ar going back home. Beth?" he asked as they strolled on a wide, luxuriously furnished fur-nished roof promenade, high above the streets. "Back to Centertown. I want to go and yet I dread to go." Beth told him. "The last few weeks have been the most gorgeous I've ever lived. Ned. I'll never forget them." "Will you listen to what I tried to tell you in Paris and all of the way back?" "Not now, Ned Maybe some time. I think you're one of the grandest, best friends I've ever known, but I don't love you. Ned." Ned Benton lighted a cigaret. He considered that statement quietly. |