Show co L R t i f I. I c IV v ER l O t F iI ii r f 9 Jill JUl McFarlane 26 6 has fallen In love lov With Spang Gordon Her er mother Julia Is upset as her own husband Richard disappeared during the first war and she had hoped to spare be her daughter from Irom beIng belne an army wife Jill's brother RIc Is Involved with a divorcee and Jill goes coes to camp t to investigate the matter RIc tells tens he hehe her he Is on doty duty and unable td to see he her herbut herbut but while she Is dancing with Spang Span i they see Isle RIc and the woman In question ques ques- tion Sandra Calvert together JIU Jin finds Sandra an older hardened worn wom- an Later she Is accosted by Captain Mackey known at camp as Old Cyan Cyan- Ide He Ito o tells her he be knew her mother years ago He Re looks vaguely familiar CHAPTER Vin VIII She might as well catch the afternoon after alter noon bus but she would have lunch first and then try calling Spang again ogaIn to say good goodby Few people were in the dining dining- room a few commercial travelers several lonely looking women whom Jill catalogued as officers' officers wives a achild achild achild child perched in a high chair and being coaxed to drink milk by a wan wan looking mother and at a table secluded near a window was the blonde Mrs Calvert Jill went straight to her table How do you do she said cool ly Im Jill McFarlane we met last night Mind if I sit here I have a phobia about eating alone Cal- Cal Delighted Im I'm sure Mrs vt was cool too and definitely unenthusiastic Im practically finished fin fin- fished however My lunch lunch- she made a little gesture toward the half haU consumed salad before her is usually unimportant A few vitamins and no calories calories calo calo- ries rles Jill took a chair Youre one of the courageous women Im I'm Ima a farm gal myself with an outrageous outrageous outrageous out out- appetite Youre very fortunate to be able to indulge it Few women can and keep the respect of their mirrors Ill have the Jellied soup stuffed crab and some coffee please Jill told the thee hovering waitress then leaned her chin on her palms You live here Mrs Calvert In the hotel hotel hotel ho- ho ho ho- tel Mrs Calvert was studying her eyebrows in a little mirror disciplining disciplining the curves with a long long- nailed forefinger Im a camp follower she saidI saidI saidI said I followed my husband here here my my former husband Then he was transferred back to the Islands and andI I decided that I couldn't endure being being be be- ing married to him any more So Im I'm staying because when youre you're entirely alone places dont don't matter And with all the boys at the field so co near theres there's less chance to be lonely of course Mrs Calvert's eyes sharpened a little but her voice kept its cool smoothness such nice boys all of them I was an officers officer's wife badly badly bad bad- ly cramped by a lot of taboos and military procedure but now that Im I'm free I enjoy being with these boys of my own age My husband was years older she added and definitely a home tyrant I shouldn't talk about him poor Win he may maybe maybe maybe be in some ghastly jungle now in horrible danger Nice safe danger after being married to you youl Jill was thinking with the crude brutality of youth Aloud she said Nice of you to give so much time to Richard Ric Richa ha hag haf always been more or less of a family problem My mother was terribly worried about him until he enlisted getting on well Im I'm sure Though of course military life is difficult for men with his background Men who've been accustomed accustomed ac ac- ac to freedom and having the best of course But they adjust themselves beautifully We have to admire their spirit I I hope Ric decides to stay on inthe in inthe Inthe the army Jill Jill salted the vapid soup coup poked at rubbery lumps in itHe itHe itHe it He hates our farm and he hasn't shown any aptitude for anything else And of course he hasn't any money He told me about your farm It must be a lovely place quite place quite a ashoW ashow ashow show place he said I was so interested in interested in in- in hearing bearing about it it Spang Calls to Say Good-By Good Its a pig farm Jill was blunt Ric must have let his imagination get the best of him once he got away from it When hes he's there he loathes everything about it We have to work awfully hard to keep it going My mother works all day in overalls overalls overalls over over- alls and a mans man's shirt I 1 got this blister hoeing beans She exhibited exhibit exhibit- ed her palm Our farm help have gone off oft to the army and even my year old grandfather has to work work so if Ric has been embroidering embroider embroider- ing tales to you about green lawns and pedigreed horses and stuff just I write them off as a homesick boys boy's wishful thinking Mrs Calvert's eyes were masked behind carefully trained eyelids She put away her lipstick and the Little tittle mirror She reached for her hercheck hercheck hercheck check and picked up her purse with fingers that clutched a little Nice to have seen you again Good Good-by she remarked rising She walked away briskly without looking back Jill watching her receding shoulders felt a heavy tense lense of a feeling that she had done a naive and childish thing She's quite sure that Ric Rie is a n rich womans woman's son and that Im I'm a mcd med dung sister with my knife out for greedy throats like hers Jill told herself She put RIc Rie out of her mind grimly grim ly by and thought only of Spang wondering wondering won won- dering If she would see him again Everything lovely that she owned she had put on this morning She had turned a hundred times before the mirror changed her lipstick twice worried at her nails and pinned and ic nd her hair into exactly the he right sort of halo so that every curl should shimmer with allure when at last the telephone rang Spang said Hello Jill I was afraid you might have checked ou out out t. t Oh no no-I no I may not go for hours Will I see you again Spang Sorry he said slowly while Jill's heart grew heavier cant make it today They're running in Sunday classes on me Ill I'll be tied up all da day But I had a moment r kais w wS S N. N fi S 1 a l J f t ii a V Vv VI p v I it Im quite delirious about the tho army army hadn't hadn't you heard beard and I thought Id I'd spend It with you Nice lice of Mr Alexander Graham Bell Bello to o have fixed that for us isn't it Well put up a plaque for him somewhere Jill answered making her voice light not letting disappointment ointment creep Into it Sorry I Ilave have lave to go without seeing you Spang Som I. I Though I didn't know whether you could stand another dose dose of the army Im quite delirious about the thenny army hadn't hadn't you heard Dont Don't you know that all aU women run dizzily after fter uniforms especially if they're all 11 decorated up with brass and stuff tuff I did hear a rumor but I thought It t might be propaganda Morale tuff stuff keep the boys happy keep em cm singing while they're marching off offo to o war with blisters on their heels and shoulders A Warning Against Mackey ackey I I She said Spang I ate lunch with I that Mrs Calvert today I simply crashed In in and I know now that I Iwas Iwas Iwas was awfully stupid about it I 1 told her that Ric Rie hadn't any money and she he looked at me with those cynical eyes of hers and didn't believe a word of it It worries me and yet yetI I hate to tell Mother If Ric gets himself into a mess let et him wiggle out of it counseled Spang Might be good for him Maybe hes he's depended on other people people peo pIe too much already But It might break my mothers mother's heart icart I have to think of that Spang pang And she has had enough heartbreak for one lifetime I hadn't thought of that Spang said You couldn't do anything about getting him moved to another post could you Spang No I 1 couldn't Jill Im I'm only a technical officer here and those things are handled by personnel personnel boards with a lot of tape red In in- Mackeys Mackey's on that board and he keeps the tape red tightened up plenty stiff I cant can't even talk to Ric he wouldn't listen Jill said By the way I saw that Captain Mackey last night after you left eft me Spang He came up and Introduced himself He thought that he once knew my mother Spang did not speak for a breath Then he said soberly an anold anold anold old line JilL All the old wolves he-wolves spring it when they get their eyes on a pretty young girl Fatherly approach Knock em off their guard But he didn't appear to be interested interested in in- in me at all He merely said that he knew a girl once in Tennessee named Julia lane part of the JilL But it could be true you know Mother was a belle before she was married and It was war then too Spang You couldn't by any chance be Jealous Sure Im I'm jealous I dont don't trust Cyanide for all his bars and medals med I als also Jill giggled delightedly Youre You're so funn funny Sp Spang mg The poor old man looked entirely harmless to me Just a lonely unhappy old man Hes not so old I 1 dont don't trust him any Jill Stay away from the fellow Oh Ill I'll be going home right away now on the afternoon bus You dont don't know when youre you're leaving Spang No I I 1 dont don't know and even If I did I couldn't tell you Jill Jill and and you know better than to ask be fighting wont won't you tired of Gosh I hope so Im I'm this academic stuff The Japs haven't read any books but look how they fight Will you write to me Spang If U I have a chance I will Will you answer if i. I write How silly Of course Ill I'll an an- Pages and pages all about the pigs You can tell me what youre you're doing What would she be doing Waiting Wait 1 ing Hung up by the heartstrings t tormented by the inching of the hours I Oh Spang please let me have love to keep a fire to warm myself by when the dark comes too early But though he said good good-by half haU halfa a dozen times he did not speak of love He hung up with the same little flick as the salute he always gave when he left her She breathed I love you Spang But the click of the telephone telephone tele tele- phone being disconnected left the whisper hanging in air unheard unanswered After that she cried Long and wretchedly all alone with the hot afternoon passing The yellow leaves began falling from the apple trees and the sumac burned red against the fences Jill crossed her booted leg over the he saddle The mare Daves Dave's new saddle mare was warm and moist and lazy said I hate September Jill abruptly Its a stupid month that doesn't mean anything It isn't summer and it isn't fall It just sulks through thirty days All the flowers are tired but they wont won't die and the whole world looks shabby People look shabby too In n fady summer clothes or fall things that show dust and are smothery If ever I do something completely mad and unforgivable it will be because its it's September and andI I cant can't bear it it Dave did not look at her Julia Julla was worried about Jill her growing irritation her restlessness her impatience Impatience Im patience with everything That isn't the answer Dave Julia Tulia had said Not trumped up jobs that she sees through Instantly and does with that air of awful patience pa pa- tience lence and thinly concealed con con- tempt empt She knew so well that there was no no answer to the problem of JilL JiL The bloom of love fruity and glowing glow glow- ing ng was upon Jill now she was ripe with It gilded with It it and every ev ery cry nerve and vein were vibrant with readiness and she had not been chosen Her loneliness was made brackish by the bitter distillation tion lon of disappointment and tears too fiercely contained canker into acid and weaken the strongest spur spur- it t. t Take her places Dave Julia had lad pleaded I cant can't do anything anything any any- thing for her To a woman in ln Jill's state of mind other women ar are utterly ut ut- terly erly obnoxious even women they love ove J Jill ill Tries Her Hand at Cupid So Dave and Jill rode the hills hillson on this first Sunday In September and when Jill had spoken her tirade against the sun-drunk sun weather she kicked her toe back into the stirrup stirrup stir stir- rup and jerked the mares mare's head up and said in a sharp harp and harsh voice Dave why dont don't you marry my mother Dave let his reins fall slack and the horse reached instantly proved for a sassafras bough Because he said slowly she believes that she's still married to your father Jill JUl clicked her teeth You know that hope is fantastic Dave Yes Jill I know I never saw my father she went on He was in France when I 1 was born Mother doesn't even know enow for sure that he ever knew that I 1 was born She wrote letters but aut never had any answers The letters etters didn't come back nothing came back Its It's grisly to think about Grandfather going over there and watching them open graves but butIn butIn butIn In war things like that happen happen- Yes they happen Then we went to Washington and Mother and Grandfather spent days investigating records but there wasn't anything And yet sh she sh goes on waiting TO BE CONTINUED |