Show ohl mr 0 H HARRY ARRY PU H SA MG ac va arvice installment NT ONE the book and the author haarry arry P push u gh smiths smith stories lories of rainbows rainbow she he tells tell of 0 a can family amaly have endeared her tors tor family lambly during the depression newspaper edi for fo heart ills HI crown WL so many worlds handmade oth clearts Ile arts walking 6 deau beau 11 pe t er in books book jad ds of 0 re reader a ders er by the lame ame authora athor jewel pan pans daughter I 1 CHAPTER I 1 ng bumph kath K aire ire smothered an eloquent i A rear tir tire e had gone flat smacking the pavement ie rubber it was no more expected the family meon e ton its last legs nothing 9 gitany it any good except to jack 3 run a new one under it n at chance there Is of uttered ered kathleen attempt kady ady her babbling wab bling vehicle had been hitting a smart the pike was badly worn holes as the sedans dilapi 0 of o with a little wheeze can an the car slid oft off into the lie he right and coasted gently the other bank whore where it poised on two n the thick tangled under if blackberry vines and dog id d been to the country tor for because they were cheaper ouse louse products on the front detully balanced beside her rom from damaging their tender s a bucket full of purple she he had thought it a bril tea a at the time now the proceeded roce eded to upset buld uld she muttered with a e thought for the perversity 1 in general thing ing lately had come un at the least excuse due chons perilous slant she ditled down in tho the farthest binder ader the steering wheel and with the contents of the there were purple irises in t and a spray of tern fern in her even her white sports shoes unpleasantly when she i wriggle out from under the no time for or the young man pine in the meadow beyond ch to snigger kathleen bt t him her red brown eyes aith ith furious sparks sho she had een him before she was had no business to bo be where nevertheless he had the diening air of seeming pert home A limp leather voly near his hand but she he had been asleep ills ny ay eyes were both drowsy in his sunburned face ahleen had never seen a grin he ahe considered more exas pose you think its funny 1 and sat up he had ly broad shoulders must admit it is rather ex lary ary to have a maiden in dis rge in on ona a tellers fellers dreams cockeyed with water lilies ever those things are youre tor for a necklace he een en colored and made a rabi to retrieve a clump of waed foliage that was bent on down the neck of her red ite he sports dress re irises and cold and if you believe in being i s well as ornamental she h a curl of her red lips you nd ad me a hand iw w with triumph that he did being twitted twisted with the fact decidedly decorative he fact provokingly indolent orning to her rescue but i he did not seem to exert unduly ho he proved a burs effle efficient fent person in the kathleen gathered the imi that he did well anything d to do certainly with a of effort on his part he ed her from the undignified ol of being jammed under her ering wheel by the sim simple pie it t of opening the door and er out bodily asked was a hand athleen t worry he said grimly and iown own on her feet in the short cable space of time ive to clasp you to my mai manly ily if 0 you must know you feel oss between a dump damp garte gartered r d a very clammy frog thanks said kathleen an and d realized she had not after nil all succeeded in doing anything to his abominable self assurance being one of these southern dam sels he went on scowling nl at the sedan 1 11 I suppose you expect any male in sight to fix that tire kathleen surveyed him through long curling black lashes they were quite her best feature and she could do a number of interesting tricks with them but the tall rangy young man beside her did not notice you dont need to advertise that you arrive from north of the biscuit line sho she told him with what she hoad was a cutting little laugh wo we dont grow them that casual in these parts ile he shrugged his shoulders 1 I was warned about small town dixie flirts sorry lie grinned at her again poking under the sedans back seat scat in search of tools 1 I dt dont suppose you have any idea where id find a jack to remove that tire have you kathleen made a grimace the cars six years old if there was anything on it where it ought to be id drop dead 1 I see he sold said briefly you are touring arent you 1 she asked eyeing a small roadster 11 IN 1 I was warned about small email town dixie flirts drawn up under a tree some distance away 1 I thought at first you must be a hitchhiker hitch hiker im touring and thank the lord ive got wrenches and things in my old tin can lie he left her in search ot of these but returned at once with a case of instruments st whistling under his breath he set about the delicate task of jacking up the sedans rear wheel without precipitating it again into the ditch kathleen found a small spring of water down the road and refilled the bucket there were loads of gorgeous purple blooms still intact she produced her compact and endeavored to repair a little of the damage but tho the powder was wet through and I 1 was trying to save a three dollar florists bill she cried throwing the vanity case as far as she could reach while she morosely surveyed a rent in one of her two best pairs of hose ile he grinned at her over his shoulder dont mind me he said go on and cry if i you feel like it only I 1 cant lend you a shoulder to weep on im sort of hard boiled that way from new york arent you she hazarded after a silence which did not disturb him in the least she had identified the license plate on the roadster by way of more recent stops at cleveland and st louis be vouchsafed you d dont on t take life very seriously do you lie he eyed her with sardonic gray eyes ive been fired oft off three newspapers in the past six months for thinking a lot of things are jokes myself included Newspaper sl kathleen laughed cl a short mirthless sound III 1 I might have known that youre a tramp newspaper man you dont sound as it if you thought much of me and my kind she shrugged her shoulders 1 I can tell you why y you ou were fired you be bothered to do dull stories that pleased the th e editor or offend the b big ig advertising accounts you preferred to walkout walk out if th the e tt if things g got ot too tame or or if the city desk fish were bit biting ing pet yarn a and nd made cut down your you pad one about some I 1 pill of a leading citizen who wo was s ff a pal of the owner 1 for the first time she had his acute attention so you know sol ething about men he ob observed served n newspaper she flung at my fathers one ne he owns the bitterness him with covington clarion A dally daily in a town of eighteen thousand I 1 people lies hes and he aps owned it aften years year s 4 n never ever made more than just a living recently ho he and it have been one jump ahead of the bloodhounds you know theres been a depression or do you probably you think tunny funny too dad does Is he downhearted because collections have dropped fifty per cont cent Is ho he I 1 ask you the young man who was lating the jack lover lever grinned iles hes probably having the time of his life trying to pull through by an cy eyelash clash 11 ile he Is iles hes turned down dozens of brilliant offers in tho the past fifteen years offers that stood for big pay and n name for himself maybe neither of those things means a lot to him they dont dut but sho she broke ott off abruptly iles hes aces really ile he has everything only she looked away then back at him defiantly ile ho could have gone to the top if he had tried what of it ills his lips curled 1 I suspect you are two of a kind I 1 suppose rather be your own typesetter on your own news sheet than draw ten thousand a year and take orders absolutely 1 I dare say it if the biggest store in town underpaid its employees insist usi un writing it up no matter what it cost in advertising sure love to print the truth about a dirty political deal although it of fended bended subscribers right and left and cut your circulation in half positively kathleen nodded d yes you and mike are two of a kind have you finished yes ile he stood up brushed his dusty hands on his soiled trousers and grinned at her it if stand out of the way ill release the brake and see if I 1 can hoist her back to the road the old sedan rocked gently down into the ditch and then under its own momentum and some muscular persuasion from the young man at the rear climbed sedately back onto the highway gravely he deposited the irises on the front sent seat dont get your values mixed he said and his voice was a little griff as if he was a trifle embarrassed im not so hot when it comes to moralizing moral izing but a fat sal ary check compensate for everything not by a hell of a lot believe it or not there is such a thing us as selling your soul for thirty pieces of silver or thirty thousand and living to hate them and yourself he gazed at her silently and abruptly his bis gray eyes were lazy and mocking again your perspective Is distorted and I 1 cant say muan or your childish tantrums he hb remarked with his old exasperating grin but youre a cute youngster and I 1 guess you owe me this lie he stooped suddenly she could never get accustomed to the swiftness ness of his apparently languid movements ile he cupped her round dimpled chin in his hand and kissed her CHAPTER it II laura maguire carefully set the flaky tiffi bales which she had just taken from the oven on the window ledge to cool the kitchen was hot and it showed signs of a strenuous engagement but everything wai was done except of course those things which had to be left to the last minute laura fervently hoped that hulda would not put too much flour in the cream sauce for the asparagus hulda did her best As well as anyone could who came into someone alses kitchen at six to serve a four course dinner at seven everybody in covington who could not afford a dally daily maid had hulda for special occasions I 1 laura who had urgent reasons reason i sto to want this particular dinner pa party arty to 0 go off beautifully had been up since sit there had been literally a hundred bundred things to do she abe had gone to market herself to select the chicken and the strawberries I 1 the house had been cleaned from front to td back silver polish polished ed the best china and glass washed the lace and linen tablecloth ble cloth and napkins dug out and pressed the aspic salad had t to D be made early to leave time for cooling and laura had set it in small individual molds which she decora decorated tid with tiny rings of red and green peppers it had been tedious work although she admitted the results were gratifying when she peeped into the big old ice box on the back porch the ma gu gulbes ir es had no electric refrigerator they a lot of things which lauras women friends had she was thinking of that as she ca carefully arranged olives in 0 slender hand painted dish so as to conceal the crack in the bottom which she had mended with sealing wax A party was trouble if one had trained servants and plenty of everything ery thing to do with dut but it assumed the proportions ot of a major operation in a house which had to be ransacked to find ten crystal goblets to match to say nothing of salad plates and ferks poor folks have poor ways laura grinned to herself quoting old aunt julia the black mammy who had presided tn in the big kitchen on lauras fathers plantation like all negroes aunt julia had loathed poor white trash laura thought probably the old colored woman turned over in her grave every time miss lolly patched a three yea ro old dress or dyed a sea son before last slip to wear with a model from blumers basement laura had been a beauty as a girl she was still at forty three almost as pretty as either of her daughters although she bho wo would uld have strenuously dented denied the fact there were a few sliver silver threads in the smooth black hair above her temples and laughing wrinkles under her clear topaz eyes nevertheless she had on several occasions been mistaken for her older sons sister but not today she thought with a glance into the wavy mirror above tho the sink which she was trying to clear of an accumulation of 0 soiled cooking vessels do I 1 look like a hag or dont I 1 you doltl you could laura dropped a stow pan she heard kathleen come in darling you startled me kathleen eyed her mother somberly laura did look tired sorry I 1 menn mean to score scare you I 1 came in the back way to leave the irises on the porch they spilled and ore are sort of messy im afraid laura surveyed her daughter and giggled you been wrestling with them or anything kathleen grinned ruefully the old bucket up and socked me in the eye am I 1 a holy sight you do look a little bedraggled better run right up and change nothing doing im helping you I 1 should have been here an hour ago only I 1 kathleen finished lamely she had no intention of confessing to the mishap which had delayed her in the first place laura would worry it really sate safe to risk tho the old sedan tar far from toan town in the WO state of its tires and there simply money for now new ones furthermore ther more her rescue by the young man in slacks had loft left kathleena Kath leens pride considerably impaired she had no desire desir e to expose the painful details but it seemed a laughing matter to kathleen it still she tackled the overflow of dirty dishes with a vehemence that made her mother glance at her dont bother with those things darling let them alone ill bo be all washed up in a jiffy kathleen doggedly wiped a sauce pan you dont like kitchen police a bit better than I 1 do she said in a fierce voice you just do it and dont gripe because youre the grandest sport on earth lauras firm rather wide mouth curved upward thanks for the flattery darling it flattery its the fright 1 ful truth only you to have to drudge like a slave it fair wheres shirley upstairs pressing my dress and melting into her shoes I 1 daresay lauras amber eyes suddenly looked jaded do try to get her to lie he down tor for an hour when you go up kathleen she really look as if shed done the family wash when her future in laws arrive kathleen sniffed you know very well that jairis mother will find something to be catty about no matter how shirley looks honestly that womans comans poison ivy to me how did as nice lifee a boy as jaird ever draw such a washout wash out for a mother 11 7 1 I expect said laura with a grin it if he had had his rathers lie he would have have chosen differently but unfortunately tuda tuna fel tely i mothers are sort of forced arent they and therea theres not a lot you can do about it none of us iver ever want to daany da anything about you P laura laughed 1 arc arb you sure YO you 6 1 I 1 profet prefer a sweet do de 1 m mure ure silver lady with all mhd virtues it a little tiel 1 trying to have a slightly giddy mother who can beat you swim madg apu cant 1 I did saturday you wont tomorrow well see kathleen realized suddenly that she feel depressed or apprehensive heti sive any more and the world he her world was no longer on edge S she he glanced at laura with narrowed eyes had her mother suspected that kathleen needed to be kidded out oui of the blues one could never tell about laura she miss anything though she aldom beldom referred to matters she was not supposed to see but kathleen had bad watched lier ber mother laugh mike mft out odthe of the doldrums without his ever dreaming arAng she knew he had them DO come and laok at the table said laura when they had en shipshape really it looks very hl de 6 ho if I 1 do say so as kathleen kathieen agreed but ut without a great reat deal of enthusiasm privately she he thought jaird New sums mother worth all the nerve nerv strain estrain it entailed estalle d to give a dinner party in her honor even if shirley was was engaged |