Show IKE NA NAg uit 11 g TT U u t Peo Jolla Julia McFarlane's husband Richard p disappeared In World War I leaving I her ber with two children She and her father ln In law John I. I 1 have es I tried In vain rain to find some trace of IOn in Richard Twenty five years later Ric lising a Is 27 and serving In the army of World all all' War II while Jill 26 professes an Inin Interest In In- 1 terest In Spang Gordon a 1 young joung oun lieu lien elan cl tenant ten Julia Is worried about Ric who has bas washed out In the air corps and about Jill who she Is afraid might become an army wife subject to ro the Ich l same crier she has hu endured She confides con con- fides these worries to ro Dave Patterson a family friend who loves Julia but has goft never Dever told laid her due to her loyalty to Richard S Spans Spang n and Jill go to ro a I. I dance o-cl o CHAPTER III Ili up Julias Julia's lips quivered the color colori i t hip came Into her face and then receded receded re re- ceded leaving it aged a little and andIN filled Oiled with patience IN He was the childrens children's father lief Dave Jill's father Hes He's more hers on olds than ever now that its it's war again She wears his memory like a deco deco- ration I cant can't destroy him for Jill She admires me now I want her hera herto herto to keep on admiring me That's a selfish I suppose But for people q with forthright minds like Jill's thea the a tio r world Is pretty well filled with people people peo peo- pie who have to be despised And iter of course theres there's Ric He worries Ct me John I I. I says Ive I've spoiled him but right now Im I'm afraid to take anything away from Ric anything that strengthens him even a little I But they know that their father is dead That's why hes he's heroic ota oua to them because hes he's a splendid Idea that never had any substance g Lc ra If 11 he had come back well back well I wont won't talk about that Dooley But you know that we all grew up together I I know the kind of life lie you had with Richardt Richard Richard- I Yes I know There are things t ig I r cant can't forget too Dave nt things John I. I has been at me metor COiS for tor years to have Richard declared legally dead But somehow the idea 1 r Is is' s' s horrible to me like opening a grave ro d I I cant can't talk to you about It of sad course Dooley Not or that that or anything anything any any- ald thing else that's In my mind mind so so long as you are Richard McFarlane's McFarlane's tto lanes lane's w wife e Dave said quietly leaning forward his long slender hands dangling between his knees er But I cant can't agree with you Your attitude doesn't make sense I know But most of the really important things in life dont don't make makei i sense Dave walked the length of the room his bis hands thrust into his bis pockets The dead are dead Doo Doo- ley The decent thing is to bury t them and keep your memories Tell me one thing Is there any love Jove left in your heart for Richard McFarlane McFarlane McFarlane Mc Mc- Farlane She put her hands bands to her throat with a young wistful gesture sells unfair of you Dave That's a question I haven't dared to ask myself all these years I did love him terribly once and then after aftertime aftertime aftertime time went on on when there was no noord word ord no record nothing at all something bitter that Ive I've fought with all my soul and all my I strength began to grow in me I battle it at night and its it's like fighting fighting fighting fight fight- ing a 3 shadow but a shadow with willi witha a u steely strangling grip something you cant can't touch or see or feel but buti i cant can't defeat 7 I- I Dooley you were a child and you fell in love with ith a boy All this morbid stuff stuff stuff-a a psychiatrist could explain it I cant can't If you were to meet Rich Richard rd now suddenly suddenly suddenly-im- im impossible r possible of at course just a figure figurel l I of speech speech but but If H he were to come comeback comeback back into unto your life Jile you might be besick besick sick with disillusion You'd discover er that you had grown you'd know B on b that young love of yours was merely merely merely mere mere- ly one of those wild and pretty fires that flame up before the age of reason reason rea rea- reason son and then die The Girls They j Leave Behind R To UTo ashes That's what you were going to say isn't It And sometimes sometimes sometimes some some- times the ashes are very dark and very bitter Actually Im I'm not cherishing cherishing cherishing cher cher- ashes though Dave I dont don't donti i know just what it is Im I'm keeping exactly exactly exactly-an an ember maybe that refuses refuses refuses re re- re- re fuses to burn out Of course if Richard were to come back now Id I'd probably realize that Ive I've been I harboring something unworthy It would change everything Dont Don't despise despise despise de de- de- de me for being a fool please pleas And dont don't desert me He put his hand on an her head and roughed her hair gently I wont won't desert you Dooley But it doesn't make me happy seeing you beat your head against a stone wall forever forever for for- ever Id I'd better go now I 1 rode I over and its it's five miles back She said Good by Dave John JohnI I I. I will be sorry to have missed you I- I He lie likes you a lot And she pressed C his hand Dave went out his head thrust I forward a little as men walk who love the land best though they may not serve it He closed the screen r door without a sound The horse nick red softly as Dave opened the i gate closed it behind him and slid into the saddle i I He trotted slowly up the lane i rousing all the little mUe pigs again and the horse horre snorted at their scurrying escape But Dave leaned forward in la th the th saddle and his heart felt feltI I heavy and dark and sour in his breast There was so much that he re re- i Julia McFarlane a dancing headed copper scrap of fire Julia Julia seventeen years old and andas as full of laughter as the little streams that tumbled down the hills recklessly into the river He had been in love with her then But Richard McFarlane had had a red red- wheeled buggy and the glamour of sophistication had Invested him He had had some kind of unimportant job in Washington then but Dave had known that he was a swashbuckler swashbuckler swash swash- buckler and a gambler and a liar even then Dave Patterson tensed his hands handson on the reins so that his horse raised his bis head and snorted Jill McFarlane christened Julia was dizzily ecstatically happy The wagon station was full of rattles rattles rat rat- ties and lumbered along at a discreet discreet discreet dis dis- creet thirty miles an hour Jill nursed a brief hope that her dress wouldn't be ruined by grease or something before she had a chance to dance in it but this small shadow shad shad- ow upon the beauty of the night she put out of her mind because she n a aShe ai ar r i She had seen him Wm only twice was with Spang and his eyes approved approved approved ap ap- ap- ap proved her and life was just now very wonderful She had met the reality of war with a sinking sense of panic All the girls of her own age that she knew had been caught up in a sort of whirlwind of despair We hav haven't nt a prayer they mourned I all go off olf to fight and then when they come comeback comeback comeback back well we'll be old maids and they'll marry girls years younger kids that are in high school now It was that way in the last Jast war my mother moth moth- er said so Some of them had already pulled out of the dreary eddy and gone off on mad tangents marrying men overnight marrying men they knew little about men who were changed by the glamour of uniforms anything anything anything any any- thing to be saved from being sucked down into the dismal doom of spin- spin I But something fastidious something that held aloof in Jill had made her scornful of these fevered red and uncertain escapes She told herself that she was a amature amature amature mature woman She was not a silly young thing to be swept away on a tide of adolescent emotion Her mother had not been eighteen years old An infant practically She thought of the year old girls that she knew and how frightfully frightfully frightfully fright fright- fully young and naive they were and was swiftly sorry for them and for that young and deluded creature creature crea rea- ture who had been her mother Jill Talks s About Verse Herself l I Liked your mother Spang said abruptly as though he had caught the trend her of thoughts a grand person And she looks young enough to be your sister forty four Jill was not quite sure that she enjoyed the Idea of ot being Dooley's sister She and my father were vere married when they were children practically practically just just before the last war Then he went to France before I was born She stopped abruptly knowing that sooner or later Spang might be going going going go go- ing overseas too loo She could not say He never came back Not with Spang so near not with the lovely present lying about them like an aura of moonlight So you were born to the military tradition The first time lime I saw you I thought you looked like a daughter daugh daugh- ter of the regiment Something I about you you the the way Wily you stood so straight with your eyes shining when the colors went by the way you stood on tiptoe when the band played I knew that you belonged to the the- army Jill's heart scudded It couldn't she be-she be be- be she e had seen him only twice It couldn't be but oh how wonderful wonderful won won- if it were true that Spang liked her tool too Dooley had tried to put caution Into her head Theres a lot Jot of emotion seething in the air In wartime Jill Some of it is wonderful and fine and some of it is sort of a 3 passing fever a I recklessness that leads men to say things they dont don't really mean and 1 women to believe them So keep i your head no matter how your I heart goes I II I was raised in the military tradition tradition tradition tra tra- she told Spang My l brother broth broth- er and I were utterly different but even in those stodgy years when everybody was pacifist and soldiers soldiers' 1 were tramps in khaki who weren't admitted to theaters or good hotels Ric and I always marched to military military mili I tary music It was because our I father was a kind of special glory I that we had and we hated anything that detracted from his splendor 1 Its It's a wonderful thing for a child to have something like that to live I up to to I Was he decorated or something something something some some- thing Spang asked steering the slow vehicle around a halted bus The bus was full of soldiers hanging heads and shoulders out of the windows windows win win- I dows and some of them grinned and some of them saluted laughingly and Spang snapped a salute in return Some of our boys he told Jill On their way Destination Destination Destination Destina Destina- tion unknown No Jill took up the conversation conversation conversa conversa- tion again wishing they hadn't I glimpsed those traveling troops i wishing Spang would not look back bade I at them No I dont don't know that he I Iwas was decorated My grandfather investigated investigated investigated in in- when the war was over i when we didn't hear anything from my father father but but he couldn't find anything anything anything any any- thing at all But they were all heroes weren't they Yes they were all heroes A dead soldier was always a hero he was thinking to himself a trifle bitterly bit bit- terly And so are you you and and all those boys back there therel War is a heros hero's business Wars a job to do Spang demurred demurred demurred de de- de- de a dirty job that takes mento mento men mento to do it So we go and do it We dont don't like it and we growl and gripe and the enlisted men cuss the officers officers of of- and the officers cuss the politicians politicians politicians poli poli- but we wouldn't miss it not any of us But well we'll be glad when its it's ended and we can go home Lets Lots not talk about the war Though Though- Jill shivered a little there doesn't seem to be very much else to talk about Lets talk about you Spang suggested I know youre you're Ric McFarlane's Mc Farlane's sister but that's all I Ido Ido Ido do know about you except that youre you're red-headed red and like military bands and dancing all there is really I went off to school and I wasn't terribly bright though I finally did grab an AB And then I came home crazy to drive an ambulance or join the WAC or something anything any thing with brass buttons attached But my grandfather sat on that idea You met him old him old John I. I Hes He's a unique character He adores my mother though he and my father fa father father fa- fa ther didn't appreciate each other exactly I understand one of those family things He lectured me like a top sergeant and 2nd said that Mother had had a tough life and now she needed me around to keep things merry and bright because of ot course Ric would go into the service service service ice so there I am just am-just just a home girl U If they keep on taking our men of off the place Ill I'll end up hoeing corn cornand cornand and feeding pigs and things Love Catches U Up P I With Jill I Well the army eats a lot Jot of bacon And the navy navy all all those I tramps get too fat to waddle off oft their ships I I You turn here Jill I said and I that building on the hill with all the lights is the club Dont Don't laugh at atit atit atit it its it's a funny little place but the people are ore grand and we have fun in it Ill I'll bet Im I'm the only female dragging an officer Ill I'll bet I have i to fight of off mobs to get even one d dance nce I Dont try to tell me a lieutenant rates that high Think this bus will make the hill It always has But the big car has practically no rubber and I put mine up because I felt it was the patriotic thing to do though Grandfather Grandfather Grandfather Grand Grand- father says the deterioration goes right on Plenty of cars around here I I People walk for weeks to save enough gas for a party That's a keen band but probably way halt through the dance the leader will dash off oil and el enlist in the coast I guard cuard They parked at ot the end of a line and walked across the mown grass I and Jill held up her frock and hoped the dew wouldn't ruin her slippers Probably the dress was sagging again but that wasn't Important now It seemed a little odd that it had ever been important The Important Important important Im Im- thing now was this brief shining hour she held beld in her hands Over its glittering rim into the future future fu fu- tu- tu ture where ashes of empty days might lie she would not look She was going to be happy She was inlove In Inlove Inlove love and no doubt It 11 showed on her though she tried to keep her ber gay nonchalance t I TO BE CONTINUED |