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Show TMcoden ijS KATHLEEN v COPYRIGHT, KATHLEEN NORRI5 W.N-U. SERVICE SYNOPSIS Antoinette Taft, twenty-three, attractive at-tractive and ambitious but unable to hold a Job, lives in a drab San Francisco Fran-cisco flat with her sister Brenda and brother Cliff, who are older, her seventeen-year-old brother Bruce, and their Aunt Meg. In her job hunting rounds she interviews Lawrence Bellamy, Bel-lamy, editor of the Journal of Commerce, Com-merce, but finds he has no place for a woman writer. She likes him very much, as she tells Brenda later. Diffident Dif-fident Barney Kerr drops (n. Tony gets a telephone call from Mr. Greenwood, Green-wood, city editor of the call, offering her a job as society reporter. Cliff, returning just then, accompanies Tony to the newspaper office. Tony finds the men in the office friendly and helpful. The first night she goes with Cliff and Joe Burke of the sports department to a restaurant and sees Bellamy. She thrills when he nods to her. She is thoroughly happy In the hustle and bustle of the newspaper office. She solves the problem of getting photos. The only other woman on the staff Is Bess Cutter, who Is very friendly with Fitch, general manager. Bess comes to depend on Tony. Bess invites Tony to dine with her at her apartment apart-ment with Fitch and then go to the theater. Barney proposes to Tony and is rejected. Tony attends the Cutter affair and is displeased. She covers the mid-winter carnival at Piedmont. She meets elderly Mrs. Patterson and her daughter Ruth, wife of Larry Bellamy. Ruth is in poor health. Bellamy appears in carnival costume and recognizes Tony. Mrs. Bellamy becomes very fond of Tony and has her with her frequently. Tony is In love with Larry. She tells Greenwood that Larry is In a deal with the Examiner Exam-iner to take over the Journal. Greenwood Green-wood prints the story and Ruth calls Tony and tells her that it will queer Larry's deal with the Examiner. She confesses to Larry, who absolves her of blame. Brenda announces that she is to marry Dr. Alvin Atwater. CHAPTER XIII Continued 10 "Breatfast here or further down? It's not quite eight," Larry presently pres-ently said. "Oh, breakfast here!" the women exclaimed together. They got out, a little stiff after the more than a hundred chilly miles, followed their man Into the clean little bright breakfast room, fell upon sliced figs, smoking hot coffee, brown toast, and fried eggs with the appetites of wolves. Tony and Ruth took off their coats and stowed them In shipshape fashion before getting back Into the car. The sunshine had strengthened Into a threat of real heat, now, and the fields and hill ridges between be-tween which the road wound were scented with dried tarweed and the rich smell of apples and prunes. Wheat dazzled gold In the light, and the mountains off to the southeast south-east gave off little dazzling spirals of oily hot air. The cattle had climbed to the hill summits to catch whatever little rifts of air might be moving; In one of the arroyos horses had churned a water hole Into drying mud. Presently they turned west and were out on the cliffs above the ocean; for a hundred magic miles the road followed the lip of the sea. Kuth, on the front seat, went to sleep; Larry yawned, smoking one cigarette after another. But Tony watched alertly in Insatiable Interest and fascination, and was still wide-awake and cheerful when they reached their journey's end, a comfortable hotel cottage in a garden, at four o'clock on a burning burn-ing afternoon. Ituth preferred a tub bath and a nap but at five Tony and Larry were in the cool salt breakers, the girl almost mad with delight "I tell you that the ocean does something to me !" "I see It docs," Larry shouted back, as a great wave caught them. Tony found her room small and warm In the last heat of the day, . but she herself was made anew. and could unpack and find a book and stretch herself for an hour's Idling before dinner with a sense of complete luxury and comfort. Ruth was evidently asleep, for there was no sound from the room next door, from the street came the purr of passing motors, and of the voices of other swimmers coming up cool and rested from the sea. There was a strip of garden just outside her opened French window; roses were glowing there, and rue tall spikes of phlox; there were eucalyptus eu-calyptus trees; a sprinkler was sending a refreshing wet sound through the warm air. Dressed In the orange cross-barm! cross-barm! organdy, Tony relleeted that lie might be wearing the least expensive ex-pensive clothes In Santa Farhara tonight, but that that did not mean thai she was the least attractive girl. Evidence to the contrary gratified grat-ified her on all sides, as she walked at Ruth's side across a stretch of blazing garden to the hotel for dinner. din-ner. And presently I here was a young man at their table to make their quartette complete and add to to this enchanted night the further enchantment of a n.jw affair. For he liked her Instantly, did Mr. Duncan Dun-can O'Connor, demanding of her pathetically pa-thetically where she had been all his life, when the music began, rising automatically to dance with her. "Antoinette It's a name to dream on," said Duncan O'Connor, dancing. danc-ing. "It's my favorite name. Taft Is too long for me to remember; my brain isn't very good. This is my favorite music in the whole world ; I mean it You're what? Larry's niece?" "No, just a friend. He and I and Ruth have been friends for ever so long. No, I'm the society reporter on the Call." "I'm on a newspaper here. I half own it." "Why, how old are you?" Tony looked up at her companion curiously, curi-ously, as they walked back to the table. "Nine-and-twenty, poppet" "Have you reached ages al-ready?" al-ready?" Larry asked, pulling out Tony's chair. "I haven't reached Antoinette's," Duncan said modestly. "He's got a certain line," Larry warned her. "But don't believe one word he says." The music recommenced, and this time It was Larry who rose and held open his arms for Tony. Tony rose obediently, but for some reason rea-son she found It oddly exciting, thrilling, even frightening to move to the throb of the music over the wide floor with him, his arms about her. and her heart beating so close to his own heart. "Ruth wouldn't dance?" "I asked her. She never does." She was quite breathless when she went back to her salad ; afterward after-ward she danced with Duncan again, and with a boy that Duncan knew. Then Larry and Ruth said that they were going back to the cottage, and Tony said she would go too; they were all tired. On the way back she said that she meant to get up and swim before breakfast. break-fast. "It's a date," said Larry. "I'm playing golf at ten, but I'd love It at eight. And we can breakfast afterward." "I'm playing bridge," Rnth said. "Alice telephoned about It. I don't believe I'll get up early and swim. Tomorrow's going to be a scorcher." "You can amuse vonrself snmp. how tomorrow, Tony?" "Amuse myself! I could amuse myself here for a thousand years!" "You make this dull old" place seem fun !" Larry said. CHAPTER XIV THE week flew by; It was unlike un-like any other time Tony had ever known. The hours seemed dreamlike, unreal, shot with unearthly un-earthly sunshine, perfumed with flowers that were sweeter than other oth-er flowers, set to the deep organ-toned organ-toned voice of the tireless green ocean into which she flung herself shouting with Joy every morning and every afternoon. Cool and sweet In fresh linen, she went with Ruth to afternoon readings, to one or two teas; she became a familiar figure at the Beach club; her blue bathing suit drying on the line, her blue eyes dancing over the lunch room with their appetite for joy and adventure never quenched. Larry came down on Friday night; Saturday, Sunday flashed by, the holiday was over. Again the linens and organdies were packed, and again the alarm was set. Duncan O'Connor had come up to the cottage to say good-by a few hours earlier. In the twilight, and she had walked with him In the garden for a few minutes, and let him kiss her. Somehow It didn't seem Important, but It all fitted Into the dream of youth and Joy and beauty and autumn beside the sea. She was not In love with noisy handsome Duncan, but she liked having him think himself In love with her. Ruth was not awake when she and Larry crept from the house the following morning In the soft dawn; dew was heavy on the gar-don, gar-don, and a blanket of fog shut off the sea. Tony folt strangely sad: the dripping awnings and bended spears of grass seemed melancholy lo her. Almost In silence she established estab-lished herself In the front sent beside be-side Larry; he threw her a rug to wrap about her knees, and she was glad of Its wnrmth. "Next stop for brenkrnst!" T.nr-v announced, turning up his crrit c-1 Inr. pulling on his driving glove "And my p.-irty is over!" t1 e y--mourned. The burned brown n;: - the veiled ocean, slipped by; re-I luctantly the sun pierced the land I fog and drove It away, and Tony saw the flashing light of the new day reflected blazingly in the windows win-dows of the sleeping little houses along the road. Breakfast at Santa Maria, and more miles and miles and miles clicked off on the meter. She and Larry talked ; presently he told her that it seemed to him the shortest run he had ever made from Santa Barbara. Then, only a few miles out of the city, suddenly on the left there was the looming shadow of a truck thundering out of a crossroad, and the veering of the big car that was coming swiftly toward them. Their own car, reeling dizzily, was driven off Into the soft shoulder of the highway, slipping, slipping, wrenched desperately by Larry's hands back toward the line slipping in spite of it and the steep hill and the bay just below Tony gasped; heard him say sharply, "Keep quiet, we're all right!" before there was a secoud of sickening horror, and the alternation alterna-tion of flying white sky and brown grass past the window, and the rending and smashing of wood. Then an awful silence, and a gentle little tinkle of glass. She was struggling with a door above her head; she was out on the grass, her hand to help him. Larry was beside her. Tony looked up a steep hillside at a fringe of cars There Was a Second of Sickening Horror. and spectators against the sky above; looked down at the crawling gray level of water. She felt physically physi-cally sick ; tottered dizzily on her feet; was suddenly safe and tight against Larry's heart. "Tony, my darling, my darling you're all right?" She shut her eyes, rested her head weakly against Larry's shoulder. shoul-der. Immediately two or three officers of-ficers were beside them, were talking, talk-ing, were helping her up the hill. From somewhere a taxi appeared, and Tony was bundled into it and found herself alone with Larry again, speeding toward the city. He kept his arm tightly about her, and she rested her head against him; they did not speak for a long while. "Home, huh, Tony?" "I I think so." "You were a brick ; a perfect brick, I never saw him at all ! What did you do, open the door?" "I don't remember; I must have. I saw you all tumbled over the wheel." She shut her eyes. "I had the feeling of death death close, and and Inevitable!" "You were a brick," he said again. When they reached the dingy Fulton Ful-ton street doorway he went up with her to the shabby little apartment apart-ment on the top floor; It was the first time he had seen It. Aunt Meggy and Aunt Sally were there; Tony shakily introduced Larry and gave them an idea of what had occurred. oc-curred. It was one o'clock. Tony washed her pale dirty face and treated the little cut on her forehead. Before Be-fore they went away she showed Larry her father's photograph and her mother's, and the view that lay below the sitting-room windows. Then he took her downtown, and they had delicious soup and a thick steak and coffee. .She was still pale; too much excited to eat very much. But the hot drink brought back her color, and when Larry left her at the office of-fice door she looked more like herself. her-self. "I'm not going to say anything about this to Ruth, Tony." "The car will probably he In shnpe by the end of the week, and if It isn't, I'll just wire her that I'm coming down by train: J often do. Tony," snid Lnrr.r, looking down nt her from his grent height, in pnrting. and smiling his kindly smile. "It was kind of nice to see your home." "You're going to have a hlnck-and-blue mnrk on your cheek." "I supposp so. It feels sore. You may be more shnlren up yourself than yon realize," Larry vild. "I'll Telephone tonight find see how vom foel. What timp do you get home ; 'otygM?" "Monilav ('!. for dinr.er Arivrrl -V S"ino" Ilen.iy atiif :Uff are dining with her young man's father at the Palace, and Bruce's away; he's been on a ranch ail summer, you know." "I've got a business dinner, worse luck," Larry said, "or I'd invite myself my-self up." She smiled in sheer surprise anil pleasure. "Oh, wouldn't that be fun! I never I was going to say I never thought of asking you," Tony said artlessly. "But we'd love It, some night, if you'd come !" "I will come. And I'll never try to kill you again." "Good-by, Tony." "Good-by." Tony turned into the Call building; build-ing; went upstairs. She reported duly to Greenwood's desk ; he was not there. Telephone, typewriter, telephone again; Tony compiled her daily social column In the usual way. Mollie Mackay came In and observed, In a stream of odd gossip, gos-sip, that the Journal and the Examiner Ex-aminer deal might go through, after af-ter all ; she had heard that four big offices on the floor above the Examiner's regular rooms were to be turned over to Lawrence Bellamy. Bel-lamy. Tony had told some of the men of the office of the morning's close escape from death; she felt languidly lan-guidly unwilling to reopen the whole story with Mollie. Somehow It suffocated her to talk, today. Mae Ethyl Muzzy was being pathetic pa-thetic and feminine and helpless under the gallant tutelage of Arch Slosser. Mae was the most recent addition to the staff; Tony fancied that she would not last long. She had appeared a week or two earlier, the blondest blonde ever seen outside out-side of a doll shop. She was to do "feature" stories. Her only Interest Inter-est was In the men with whom she found herself surrounded. Some of them capitulated to her at once; the others Ignored her; there seemed to be no middle course with Mae. Spike Illyan came over to Tony's desk. "Say, did they tell you about Bess Cutter, while you were gone?" "No, what happened?" "Oh, she came In here and she took Frank Fitch for a free ride, let me tell you. She raged around the office, and she appealed to Greeny, and she just generally raised hell ! What she got from him she got In cash !" "Ugh!" Tony said violently. After Aft-er Spike went away she sat staring star-ing vaguely Into space for a while, not thinking, not reasoning, her senses swept vaguely back and forth on waves of strange new emotion. "Better go home and get to bed," Greeny said, at her desk. "It's nearly five; you've had quite a shake-up." "I think 1 will. My stuff's all done. I can round up that cannery story tomorrow. I've got to see the health bureau about it, anyway. You're sure you've not got anything any-thing you want me to cover tonight?" to-night?" "We had a swell story while you were gone: girl picked up by the police in boy's clothes snid her father fa-ther spanked her. See it?" "They were telling me about it Mae Muzzy wrote It" "She did not. I wish you could see what she turned In ! I had to send Van down to get the stufi after she'd been all day on It and the Bulletin came out with it before we did." He had glanced at the happily engaged Miss Muzzy, who was In gales of babyish laughter over the intricacies of the typewriter and was being tutored by Arch Slosser and Joe Burke, and elevated significant sig-nificant eyebrows. "What's the answer?" Tony asked guardedly. The city editor jerked his head In the direction of the manager's office. "Fitch !" Tony ejaculated, In honest hon-est indignation and Incredulity. Greenwood, winking, his tongue in his cheek, nodded. "I think that Is dangerous," Tony said slowly, preparing to rise. She found herself a little stiff, when she got to her feet, and her head felt slightly dizzy. Just as she was ready to go her telephone bell tinkled. The languid weary world came suddenly to life; colors, perfumes, music were singing suddenly together to-gether in her head. "Oh, yes, Larry " she said breathlessly. "How'd you feel?" The big voice seemed to penetrate pene-trate to the very depths of her being; be-ing; everything was all right again. "I'm fine. But I feel a little tired." "How soon are you going home?" "Now." "I'm tied up with your friend Mr. Arnoldson, or I'd come take you home. I'll call you some time tomorrow. You're really all right?" "Yes, but I've been sort of stupid, vague." "Me, too. Well, I'll call you tomorrow." to-morrow." (TO BE COTIM'ED) |