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Show unci bQ s Nffccx PGGV rrflX W.N.U. RELEA6E ZMk THK STORY THIS FAR: Mel touted to-uted the buuie quIcUy, when (be returned re-turned from aldlnt Martha. Tim Mae-Tavist: Mae-Tavist: awaited her, declaring the had bees out with Turn Fallun. "You are In love with him." Jim again attempted to get her to icll the farm, but she refused re-fused ancrlly. The next day Larry came for lunch and afterward they walked lv tether to the ridge. Larry told her that be knew she loved the old farm, lor he loved It too. He told her be did not want ber to tell the place, and declared be wanted to marry her whether they lived In Pleasant Grove or In the county seat. He kissed ber lightly and laughed, "1 can't say I blame you lor not wanting to live all this up." CHAPTER VIII They went hand In hand up the path and to the flat rock that crowned the very top of the hill. Megan sat down and Laurence followed fol-lowed her to the rock. They gat close together for a moment, looking out over the scene gpread below them. Megan knew the thought that was In his mind, and she tried hard to marshal all her arguments so that he could understand; but when he turned his head and looked at her, and smiled, he said quietly, "I can't say I blame you for not being willing will-ing to give all this up) We are going go-ing to be very happy here." Megan felt as though she had taken tak-en a step In the dark and plunged headlong Into space. She could only stare at him, wide-eyed, her mouth open a little. Laurence laughed and leaned forward and kissed her. "Did you think, darling, that I've known you almost your whole life and been In love with you since I was fifteen, and didn't know what your own land meant to you?" he asked her quietly. "I admit that I was fool enough to hope, for Just a little while, that you loved me enough to be happy In Meaders-ville. Meaders-ville. But when you telephoned me in alarm because you had been offered of-fered what we both know is a very generous price for the land, and you didn't want to take it-well, I faced facts then and got busy to see about Just what could be done. Because Be-cause make no mistake about it, my love you're going to marry me, whether we live in Meadersvllle or Pleasant Grovel" There were quick tears in her eyes, but she smiled tremulously. Thank you for understanding, Larry," she told him huskily. "It's a tremendous relief." Laurence frowned as though not quite sure that he liked that. "You mean you didn't think I would understand?" he protested. "Well, for Pete's sake, why not? After Aft-er all, we've grown up together. These last years since your mother died, I've watched you fighting drouth and flood and hail, boll weevil wee-vil and corn borer and blue mold and chinch bug when it would have been so much easier to give up and sell out. Don't you suppose during those years, I've come to understand un-derstand what the place means to you? And to be frank with you I'm kind of fond of the old place my-sclfl my-sclfl Never having owned a square foot of real estate in my life, having hav-ing grown up on a sharecropper's place the thought of becoming a landowner in partnership, anyway seema pretty swell!" He grinned at her and said hastily, "Not of course that I want you to get the Idea that I'm merely marrying mar-rying you for your farm perish the thought! I'd marry you if you didn't have a foot of land!" She laughed and let him kiss her. And at first, that seemed quite satisfactory sat-isfactory to Laurence; but after a little he let her go, and sat looking down at the rich dark earth, where his heel was absently digging a hole. "Then you're not in love with me, after all," he said quietly, and there was a note in his voice that caught at her heart She stared at him, blinking in amazement. "What in the world why do you" she stammered. "I'm not exactly a blind luill. M'eg-gle." M'eg-gle." he said evenly. "I admit I don't know a hcrk of a lot about women; but I do know that when a girl Is in love, she is not only kissed but kisses, In return." The color burned In Megan's face, but hrr eyes met his stralglitly, "I kissed you, Larry," she told him unsteadily. He shook his head. "You let me kiss you, Moggie, ' he returned. "There'i a big differ-enre." differ-enre." There was a silence, and then she tsld unevenly, "I'm sorry, dear. ' "There'i nothing for you to be sorry about. Moggie. If you don't lovt me, you don't, and It's plain that you don't." His voict sounded tired. "I'm very fond of you, Larry," Megan said quietly. "Thanks, Meggle," he answered quietly. "But I'm afraid that's not quite enough." And then, taking her breath away by the unexpectedness of It, be sked, "Is there someone else, MeRHle?" Wide-eyed, she met his glance. "But how could there be someone some-one else?" aha protested. "I'm asking you," be reminded ber. "It's it's a crazy question, Larry I 1 don't know anyone else," she 1 pointed out. "That's not quite flattering," he assured her. and now he seemed amused at her confusion and her bewilderment. "Never mind, dar-ling. dar-ling. We'll let it go, for how. But I wouldn't want you to marry me, Meggie. unless you felt a little about me as I feel about you. I guess I don't quite expect you to be well, as much In love with me as I am with you; the wise people who claim to know about such things claim that one person In every marriage cares more deeply than the other. I don't mind a bit If I love you more than you love me. Maybe that's the way it should be. I'm afraid I'm not wise enough to decide that. I only know that unless you're more than Just fond of me it wouldn't work out." Megan said faintly, "You mean you want to break oft the engagement, engage-ment, Larry?" "Do you, Meggle?" he asked quietly. -- "Why why no, Larry of course not," she stammered, and put out a hand in a helpless gesture. "I I P J She shot Megan an oblique look and then came out frankly with what was on her mind. think I've always expected that we'd be married some day. It's well, I've sort of grown up with that thought. Maybe could it be that that's the reason you don't think I love you enough?" "It isn't that I think you don't love me, Meggle I know you don't," he told her. "I've tried to kid myself that you did, and tried to hope that once we were actually engaged, you'd well, warm up to me a little. But when you thought of setting a date for our marriage and realized that you couldn't give up the farm or the dogs and cats and cows and chickens, to make a new life with me somewhere or anywhere! any-where! that was all I needed to convince me that you're not ready to marry me yet. If you loved me as I love you, Meggle, nothing In the world would be as Important to you as being with me anywhere, anyhow." He broke off as though searching for words with which to make his thoughts clear to her. "It isn't that I'd want you to make even the smallest sacrifice to be with me, Meggie," he pointed out "It's Just that if you loved me the only way I could want you to you'd be willing to sacrifice anything and everything Just so that we could be together. Do you understand, Meggie?" She was still for a moment and then reluctantly fhe nodded and said faintly, "Yes, darling I understand." under-stand." "Then we'll leave it at that, for the present," said Laurence as he stood up and drew her to her feet. "And now Annie will be sending out a searching party for us if we don't hurry," he added, smiling, deliberately deliber-ately breaking the growing tension, struggling for a lighter tone. Suddenly, a mist of tears In her eyes, Megan turned to him Impulsively, Impul-sively, put her hands on either side of his lean, pleasant brown face and stood on tiptoe to set her mouth, cool and fresh and sweet, on his. Involuntarily hs arms went about her, holding her close and hard against him. His mouth on hers was urgent, demanding, seeking a response that, after a moment he knew with a sick certainty, was not there. And then he released her, smiled at her, his face pale and set and half under his breath he said huskily, "Thank you. darling." Annie was Just finishing the last preparations for the midday dinner when they reached the house, and Jim came In, well-groomed and debonair, deb-onair, quite as usual as they were ready to sit down. He greeted Laurence with an urbanity ur-banity that was almost patronizing, i but after a few moments he said briskly, "Well. Larry, my boy. I; hope you've been able to persuade j this girl of mine to be sensible." I Laurence answered lightly. "I'm! not sure I feel that she needs any persuasion along such lines. I've always considered Meggie a very, sensible young woman!" Jim tried to laugh, patting his j crisply barbered gray mustache lightly with his napkin. "Sensible' young woman? That hardly sounds as loverlike as I would have expect- j ed under the cirumstances!" "Oh, I'm a very sensible young man," Laurence assured him pleas-, antly. "And sensible young men j don't go in for a lot of romantic nonsense, nowadays." "Don't they, now?" Jim was elaborately elab-orately surprised. "Well, of course, things have changed a lot since my day! But seriously, I feel that we have a splendid offer for this place, and since you and Meggle won't be able to run it yourselves, and a tenant is very unsatisfactory" "Megan seems to feel that It would be best for us not to be mar-: rted for another year," Laurence said gently. "And therefore, she will want to run the place herself this year, at least." "Another year, eh?" he said at last. "Sorry thought you two were in love with each other and had been waiting several years for you to get a start so that you could get married!" "As I said before, we are sensible young people, Meggle and I. Slow and sure is our motto," Laurence told him. Jim's Jaw set and he made a pretense pre-tense of eating, but after a little he looked at his watch, thrust his chair back, and asked to be excused under un-der the plea of an engagement. They heard the outer door close behind him with a bang that threatened Its old-fashioned glass panel. "I'm afraid he's upset," Laurence's Lau-rence's words were wry with understatement. un-derstatement. "He won't try to make things difficult for you?" "Goodness, no and if he does, it won't matter. I'm not In the least afraid of him!" She laughed at the very idea. Laurence nodded. "But if there should ever be anything to well, to make you feel you need help you'll remember my telephone number?" he reminded her. "Of course didn't I yell for you the minute I thought Matthews was going to Insist on that commission?" In the next few weeks, life in Pleasant Grove, on the surface at least, was entirely normal. The draft called up more and more young men for the armed services; several girls registered for the Cadet Nurses' Training Corps; Bud Harrison's oldest girl, twenty-year-old Marlanna, Joined the WAC; Preacher Martin, beloved and feared for his "straight talking' talk-ing' " to evildoers and the like, fell on his front steps and broke his leg; the Jordans, over behind Turkey Bend, had another baby. But there were currents underneath under-neath that popped above the surface sur-face now and then, and to no one's very keen surprise, Alicia Stevenson Steven-son seemed to have a large part In them. Her malicious tongue, her sly little smile that hinted at so much she' did not say, the way she had of always being in the very middle of any untoward event, filled people with angry unease. "It's got so a body ain't safe in their own home nights, with that woman snoopln' around," Mrs. Stuart complained to Megan one afternoon as they sat sewing before the Are that the chill rain made very welcome. She shot Megan an oblique look and then came out frankly with what was in her mind. "I can't Imagine what your paw sees In her, anyhow." Megan dropped the tablecloth she was mending and stared at Mrs. Stuart "My father?" she gasped Incredulously. Mrs. Stuart snllTed and set an unusually sharp stitch In the diaper she was hemming for 'he newest "Jordan youngun." "Well. If you don't know that the way your paw's runnin' after that Stevenson woman Is the talk of the town. It's high time you was finding out I say." she snapped belligerently. belliger-ently. "They're always ridln' around In that car o' hers and where she gets the gas, nobody seems to know, but folks say It's block market' and she gits all she can pay fer or what your paw can pay fer." Megan said curtly, "My father does not patronize 'black markets' for gasoline or anything else. And I doubt very much whether he has seen Mrs. Stevenson more than half a dozen times" "Half a dozen times would be a plenty, with some folks," Mrs Stuirt cut in as curtly. Later, when Mrs. Stuart had gone, Megan got up and went out to the kitchen. She thought Annie looked at her covertly, but she couldn't be sure until suddenly, as though she could no longer keep her words to herself. Annie said, "Mis' Stuart's right. Miss Meggle-folks Is talkln about Mist' Jim an' dat Mis' Stevenson" Ste-venson" "That will do. Annie." said Megan Me-gan sharply. 'TO 81 CONTINUED! |
