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Show I Cr.AV t-V r McClupje. V.N.U.ServKe7 .. INSTALLMENT SIX The Story So Far er than he. Her fattier, Mike, happy-go-lucky editor and mayor of Covington, brings Ritchie Graham to the party. He' the stranger who kissed Kathleen after he fbced a flat tire for her. He il l newspaper man too. The Magulres are giving a dinner for the Newsums. Shirley Maguire and Jalrd Newsum are engaged. But Kathleen Maguire la peeved. Mrs. Newsum Is too patronizing. In fact she wants Jalrd ! to marry Connie Mays, the banker's i m m daughter. Tom Maguire, her brother. Is hit by the depression and his wife. Mary Etta, a secretary. Is practically his support. There Is talk of Reno. Another brother. Alec, with no work. Is taking up with a blonde some years old- anyone's reputation was worth to leave the floor during intermissions. "But tempus certainly fugits," she reflected. The best young folks in Covington avoided formality whenever possible. possi-ble. They much preferred to collect a small gang of their own for an evening at one of the pay-as-you-dance places to what they called "a solemn-as-God" function at the Country Club. They rebelled it their elders threw too many cut-and-dried parties in their honor. They hooted at the mention of chaperones and they piled into each other's cars between be-tween dances and went off in search of hot dogs , or a spot of moonlight whenever they felt so disposed. A number of Laura's contemporaries prophesied that the younger generation genera-tion was headed straight for the devil. dev-il. But she held onto her sense of humor with both hands and remembered remem-bered that her father had said precisely pre-cisely the same thing when she was seventeen. And so on this occasion she swallowed swal-lowed hard as she often had to, and said only, "Have a jolly time, darling." dar-ling." Shirley stooped and kissed her mother's cheek. "Thanks for everything," every-thing," she whispered. Laura squeezed her hand. Shirley Shir-ley was so sweet. Kathleen would have gone into a nose dive trying flfP CHAPTER VII Continued Everybody laughed. And Laura j flashed Mike a grateful glance which he accepted with the little crooked smile he saved for her. Once more he had pulled the party out of the fire. And from then on Laura kept a firm hand on the conversational strings. Nevertheless the dinner had been a strain. She had had the j sensation of sitting on top of a vol-, vol-, cano. But at least nobody came to ! verbal fisticuffs. And Hulda did not forget to serve from the left except once. Neither did anything fall to piecci. "Allah be praised, this is behind I me," thought Laura, giving the signal sig-nal to rise from the table. Mary Etta was in a fidget to get away. She explained curtly that her boss had chartersd a night club and was entertaining on a lavish scale : in honor of a recently appointed member of the highway board. The I gentleman in question had a great deal to say about the awarding of I road contracts. Mary Etta felt her ! presence was required. ) Laura stood at the door and watched them drive rapidly away I Into the fragrant May night But I Laura knew with an ache that her first-born was not brushing his head I against the inspiring stars. His spirit was being cut to pieces on the I cruel jagged points of a sunken reef. Kathleen was at the telephone. And to tell the truth she did not feel too proud of herself. She had not followed the others from the dining table into the living room. The idea had struck her as she passed Ritchie Graham on her way out. His hand accidentally brushed her bare arm. At least she thought it was accidental, though she was by no means certain. She wasn't, in fact, certain of anything about him except that he had the unhappy faculty of churnmg up her emotions. A bit aghast at the perverse thrill which shot through her at his touch Kathleen, with her usual rash method meth-od of leaping and then looking, decided de-cided that the occasion justified extreme ex-treme measures. After all, she reflected re-flected with ominous glints in her brown eyes, one can't just stand and do nothing while one's, house burns. "Gene, this is Kathleen Maguire." "Kathleen!" the voice at the other end of the line ran the gamut of flattered flat-tered incredulity. "But, darling, what a surprise!" Kathleen made a grimace. Eugene Mays, Junior, known to his intimates inti-mates as Gene and Hot Shot, was the sort who called every girl Sugar or Beautiful or Honey Pie on sight. He was the only son of Banker Mays and overwhelmingly conscious that that made him the local Crown Prince. He was twenty-one, looked twenty-five, and acted about nine if he ran into something he couldn't lick. He was big and blond and sensational, sen-sational, and a lot of girls had found him irresistible to their later disrepute. dis-repute. "I called you up," said Kathleen, wishing the words would not stick in Her throat, "to say if it isn't too late I'd like to change my mind about tonight." "What do you mean too late?" "I thought you'd probably have another date by now." "I have. But what of it. Sweetness? Sweet-ness? Haven't I been telling you for a month you ought to have a stab at me?" Kathleen bit her lip. He had been hovering on her trail like a thunderstorm, thunder-storm, for weeks. Only she hadn't wanted to let herself in for Hot Shot Mays. For one thing he seemed to think he was conferring a favor in rushing a girl for a week or two and then dropping her prostrate, while she got over him the best she could, if she could. For another, he ran with an older crowd than Kathleen Kath-leen had ever tackled. And he ran a long way ahead of the rest "I don't want to interrupt your 'plans for the evening," she faltered nervously. "Precious, I'd break a flock of dates to take you places and show you things. Say when, Cuteness, and Mrs. May's little boy will be there with his small flivver and a huge smile." Kathleen drew a long breath. She was in for it. And with characteristic characteris-tic perversity she wished she wasn't CHAPTER VIII Kathleen's face felt hot, but her hands were cold when she joined the others. The Newsums were leaving. leav-ing. Mr. Newsum protested volubly volu-bly at having to go. He insisted he would rather stay. But his wife informed in-formed Laura that of course one didn't disappoint Mrs. Eugene Mays. Laura agreed, her smile slightly wry. Jaird and Shirley were going on to a dance which their j special crowd was throwing at Marigold Mari-gold Gardens, the newest outdoor ; pavilion. I It still gave Laura a turn to think iof her girls in connection with public pub-lic dance halls. When she was a bud, the daughters of first families went to balls which were striciiy in-i in-i tfitation affairs with programs and chaperones. find it was as much as a great deal of money some day and his wife should eventually become be-come the undisputed arbiter of Covington Cov-ington society. But he was the last man on earth Laura would have chosen for Kathleen. Then Laura recollected that, as mothers will, she was borrowing trouble. One date does not make a wedding especially where Eugene Mays was concerned. He might not ever notice no-tice Kathleen again. But if he did Laura's heart lurched. "He's arsenic to the fair insects," was Alec's verdict "I suppose because be-cause he's dangerous. And mean. Or maybe the little darlings just crave punishment. And how he ladles la-dles it out!" Kathleen was thinking of that as she came down the front walk toward to-ward the long sleek purring roadster road-ster which Gene Mays had left with the engine running. "Where to, Beautiful?" he wanted to know, tucking Kathleen into the roadster's wide seat and managing to touch her caressingly. , Kathleen shivered. He was fascinating. fasci-nating. And dangerous. He had hard blue eyes and an undershot jaw and high cheek bones and a bent nose that gave him a gangsterish look which he carefully cultivated. He was reckless and selfish and daring, dar-ing, and Kathleen admitted he appealed ap-pealed to the outlaw in her. She both liked and dreaded the little thrill it gave her to be walking Hot Shot Mays' tight wire. A misstep might be fatal. But he was exhilarating. exhil-arating. "Marigold Gardens," she said promptly. She had thought that out in advance. ad-vance. Shirley and her crowd would be there. Probably Alec too. He was a dancing fool and Myra Boone and her friends were only too glad to foot the bills. Marigold Gardens was just far enough out of town to be convenient for many purposes. It was a triumph tri-umph of red and blue lighting. The floor was superb, the Negro orchestra orches-tra potent. There was a small black hunchback cornetist who could outcaterwaul Cab Calloway. The narrow railing was lined with growing grow-ing rose bushes, the large parking lot in front packed with cars. You were apt to find anybody in town there, but the various crowds kept fairly well to themselves. "You know, noney, I'm plenty steamed up about cornering you at last," murmured Gene Mays as Kathleen slipped into his arms. He held her too tightly. But not quite tightly enough for her to row about it And he danced superbly, looking down at her with a wicked little grin. Kathleen's pulses played her tricks. But quite suddenly she thought of the little pucker between be-tween her mother's eyes. And drawing draw-ing a deep breath, Kathleen came up for air. "Sorry, but that line of yours doesn't go over so hot with me," she said. Gene Mays looked startled, also peeved. Kathleen laughed. All at once he no longer seemed a big bad menace. He was just a spoiled small boy who had had his wrists slapped and didn't like it The current of his magnetism had been neatly switched off when he least expected it. His big underjaw protruded. He could if necessary exert himself. Only he rarely had to. "There's little brother," he said unpleasantly. "Taking Grandma out as usual." Kathleen winced. Alec was dancing danc-ing with Myra Boone. And his face was flushed, his black eyes bloodshot. blood-shot. Myra also had been drinking and liquor always made her boisterous. boister-ous. She kept laughing a lot and calling out things to her best friend, Natalie Hunt Buddy Pryor was Natalie's boy friend of the moment Boy friend expressed it He was just nineteen to her fair, fat and forty-tsh. "They've been hitting it up since four this afternoon," explained Gene. "When I left the club they were having their 'steenth round of cocktails." Kathleen gave him a stony look. She might hand Alec the very dickens dick-ens herself but she required no outside out-side assistance. "You should start worrying about other people's drinking drink-ing habits," she said, elevating her pretty nose. He laughed. "Excuse if I stepped on your feelings, darling. And permit per-mit me to remind you liquor isn't my vice." His arms tightened about her as he spoke. But the spell was broken. Kathleen no longer felt thrilled. She was simply bored and showed it. Hot Shot Mays reddened. For the firsi time it occurred to him that there might be one girl in the world he couldn't have. No matter how bad ly he wanted her. "I could go for you in a big way,' he muttereH, and was surprised a himself because he hadn't meant li say anything of the kind. "We'll both be happier if yo' don't." was Kathleen's succinct rt joinder. (TO BE COTIL ED "Have a jolly time, darling." to express her gratitude for the trying try-ing day Laura had just put in. Shirley Shir-ley said three words. But she was just as grateful. Ritchie Graham and Mike were deep in a discussion concerning a recent editorial in one of the new iconoclastic weeklies. Ritchie wanted want-ed to do stuff like that. He had a lot of radical ideas which he itched to set off like bombs. Ideas more conventional periodicals conspicuously conspicu-ously avoided. Mike agreed with enthusiasm en-thusiasm that many of the things Ritchie burned to say needed to be said to the American people. He even became as wildly excited as the younger man at the prospect although they both admitted that Ritchie might starve for lack of a publisher who would dare print the unpalatable truth. Kathleen, watching the crusader's flame in Ritchie's gray eyes, felt suddenly cheap and trivial.' She wished she hadn't asked Hot Shot Mays to call for her. She had had some obscure notion that she was spiting Ritchie who apparently intended in-tended to spend the evening. But her announcement fell depressingly flat. If Ritchie was piqued he concealed con-cealed his chagrin admirably. Kathleen Kath-leen had a forlorn feeling that Mike really was more of an attraction to Ritchie's way of thinking. Laura was the only one who reacted noticeably. no-ticeably. And Kathleen was sorry about that. Her mother was the one person she hadn't wanted to jolt "You're going out with Gene Mays!" Kathleen gulped a little at Laura's tone. "I won't be late," she said. An ache settled in Laura's heart But she had never wrapped her children chil-dren in cotton wool. She had tried to instill in them the tenets of her own code. She hoped she had succeeded. suc-ceeded. But years ago she had determined de-termined to let them stand on their own feet if it killed her. So, "Happy landing." she told Kathleen with a grin that for pure heroism deserved a Carnegie medal. For Laura did not approve of Gene Mays. She did not approve of anything any-thing about him. Especially for Kathleen. Laura was ready to admit ad-mit that he might be the town's matrimonial prize for some other woman's daughter. He stood to have . This ts a A M AIC OF FINE FICTION |