OCR Text |
Show Ann and Cynthia Carry on Alone While Corrie May Rejoices at Being Free Telegram Serial t The Handsome Road j CHAPTER is Though the fire was stirring again In her bosom Frances paid no attention to It She gathered Ann up Into her arms as if she were a child, and kissed her. She held Ann's head against her breast, stroking back the hair that had tumbled over her face. "Ann," she whispered, "are you ever going to forgive me?" Ann was silent "You did think I was a fool, didn't you?" she asked, at length. "Yes," said Frances, simply. "But why? Am I really?" "No, darling. I think" Frances spoke slowly, for even now she found confession difficult "I think you never had a chance to be anything else." Ann drew a long breath. "I think nearly everybody Is a fool. We don't tell each other anything. We go around so terribly alone. I'm glad I'll have my children. All I've thought of these past days Is that they'll have everything they ought to have no matter what It does to me to give It to them. That's why I've been hiding the sliver." "You've been doing that? When?" "In the middle of the night I'm terribly scared. If anything happens hap-pens to me, Cynthia knows where the places are. All those heirlooms heir-looms mean something I mean, don't you see, they stand for what Denis would have given his children." chil-dren." "You are a very brave woman, Ann. I'm sorry I haven't been good to you before." "That doesn't matter. It didn't bother me. I never needed you before." be-fore." Frances smiled a little. It seemed to her It had been a long time since anybody had needed her. There was a knock on the door. Frances said: "I'll answer It" She heard Cynthia's voice. "Mother, how Is Ann?" "She's all right Why?" "Well, I've got to tell her something. some-thing. ' Maybe you'd better tell her." A crumpled newspaper In her hand, Cynthia stood with Frances In the doorway. "Oh, dear, I reckon I should have waited. I don't know how to do these things. It's-" "Port Hudson!" cried Ann. She stood up and put her arm around the bedpost i "Yes," said Cynthia. "It had to surrender." Frances took a step forward. "And Colonel Sheramy?" she asked In a low voice. "He's dead." said Cynthia shortly. short-ly. She looked from Frances to Ann. and then at the paper she was twisting Into a rope In her threw open the doors of her armolre and then her clothes were all over the floor, being examined and kicked around as if they were dividing her dresses In such haste they had no time even to care whether or not they stepped on them. Suddenly cutting through the hubbub, she heard Cynthia's sharp voice at the door. "I tell you, go Into that room and make them stop! They'll kill her aren't you even human?" A man In a captain's uniform elbowed his way through the mob in the room. He took one look at the bed and turned around. "Get out" he ordered. "Can't you see that girl was tolling the truth? Get out." They began to file out of the room. Tha captain stood by Ann's bed. "When was that child born?" he asked her. She tried to stop the tears. "About an hour ago." For an instant he stood there uncertainly. "I'm very sorry, madam," ma-dam," he said. All Ann could do was keep on shedding those weak silly tears. The officer made his way to the door. He went out and cloaed It Ann put her hand over her eyes and tried to stop crying. At length Cynthia cams In. Taking one look around the tumbled room she dropped on her knees by the bed. "Ann, did they hurt you?" "No." Ann murmured. After a moment she managed to ask: "What were they doing here?" "I was playing with little Denis in the front so he wouldn't disturb dis-turb you," Cynthia said. "They Just poured down the avenue it was almost as If they'd sprung up out of the ground. They drove off most of the mules and they took lots of hams and chickens and got all over the house. I tried to tell them about you. I said the shock mightkill you. They would not believe me. Finally I dragged that captain up here. When he saw you he sent them out." Corrie May stood on the wharf, eating a banana she had filched from the back of an army wagon and feeling the heat of the sun on her head. After thia long time in Jail the sun was good, and the tumult of the river was good, and so were the sun-warmed boards of the wharf under her bare feet and the river wind brushing her hair. The war was over and everything was going to be different The time In Jail had been awful. The news of Budge's death had pierced her numbness with a shock that was at first grief, then anger, then bitter resolution. When she got out of this place she was going go-ing to start over. Tossing the banana skin Into the river Corrie May turned and started toward the square to see about getting a Job. Maybe she could get some work cleaning In the courthouse. The lawn In front of the courthouse court-house was packed with negroes, overflowing till they packed the street too. They were cheering a man in a black suit who stood on the courthouse steps, making a speech. "You quit dat shovin'," a black man said to Corrie May. "Don't you know we's free 'n equal? Free as you and good as you?" "Well, that ain't savin' much," Corrie May retorted. "Why don't you let me get by?" He glared down upon her. "Den you walk In de Big road.' Sidewalks Side-walks Is foh cullud gea'l'mea deae days." To Be Continued Friday. hands. "Oh, Lord, Ann, I knew I'd make a mess of telling you. I guess I'd better go." The door closed behind her. Frances sat down slowly on the sofa near the door. Ann stood still, her arm holding the bedpost. There wss silence. Ann walked across the room. A daguerreotype of the colonel was In her bureau drawer. She took it out and looked at it. "The colonel," she said incredulously, in-credulously, her eyes on the picture. pic-ture. "It's not right It's not even heroic. ' It's Just fantastic and stupid. Because oh, I don't suppose It matters If I tell you he didn't even die for something he believed in. The colonel never did believe In secession." Frances was standing . with her hands clenched In front of Iter, looking ahead as If she were not seeing anything. "No, Ann, It's not heroic," she said In a strange voice. "We try to pretend we believe be-lieve It Is. But we know all the time It's nothing but stupid butchery." butch-ery." Then suddenly Frances put both hands over her heart There was a sound In her throat half way between a scream and a sob. Ann rushed to her. "Please let me help you!" But Frances, still holding her hsnds tight on her bosom, managed man-aged to answer: "It's no use, dear. I can't go on." As Ann reached her she crumpled up on the rug. Ann cried out and It was more by instinct than with any hope of finding a heartbeat, that she pulled loose the fastenings fasten-ings of Frances' collar. Later, all she could say to Cynthia was: "I'm going to miss her so. We had Just ' begun to be friends. I feel so forsaken !" Ann's second child was a girl. Dr. Purcell and every other doctor in the neighborhood had long since gone to attend wounded soldiers, sol-diers, so when her child was born there was nobody to care for her but mammy and Bertha. When mammy at last brought her daughter daugh-ter to her, Ann was lying In such spent exhaustion that It required all the strength she could muster to open her eyes and look at the wee creature wrapped In the blanket blan-ket But when mammy would have laid the baby In the old carved cradle that stood ready by the bed Ann murmured: "No, no, give her to me." She folded her tired arms around the baby, and as she laid the baby's tiny hand against her, own cheek she felt a sweep of love such as she had never felt for any living creature before. She smiled as she heard mammy drawing the window curtains cur-tains to darken the room and dropped off to sleep. Down In the depths of sleep she began to hear noise. As she felt herself being forced awake the baby woke, too, and began to cry. Instinctively Ann reached for It and tried to soothe Its little walls. There was such a racket banging doors, heavy footsteps, the shouts of men's voices. Who were they, anyway ? She tried to raise herself and fell back, her forehead damp with the r "'ort. The door burst open. I She Z. a soldier in a blue uni-I uni-I form shove mammy aside, paying no attention to her protests, and then suddenly the room was full of them. Nobody seemed to notice her. One of the men picked up a candlestick, exclaiming: "Say, this looks like silver," and another one stumbled against the empty cradle and knocked It over. Two of them |