Show rc COMES a MOMENT MO ME N T ELINOR MAXWELL 0 0 ARCADIA HOUSE publications SERVICE CHAPTER I 1 I 1 mary looked about the living room with mingled emotions of affection and despair had just corn com plated the first thorough cleaning it had undergone in two months and the place did not seem quite as as usual the woodwork and furniture had been polished with something aunt mamie had bought from a door to door salesman the windows shone from yesterday yesterdays s washing the nap of the axminster S nine by twelve positively stood up as a result of s vigorous sweeping with the ancient but still active vacuum cleaner holly wreaths tied with rather too narrow red ribbon hung at each window while aunt mamie now labored over the arrangement of a bunch of the same leaves for a vase on the mantel the house looks more festive than it has for years mary re marked happily I 1 christmas decorations certainly help aunt mamie compressed her thin lips not half as much as a good first class cleaning she replied I 1 why your mother puts up year after year with incompetent help is beyond my understanding of course this isn t my house and it s not up to me to interfere mary s young shoulders straight ened defiantly I 1 you know why mother puts up with incompetent help as you call it aunt mamie s the only maid we can get in Haw hawkinsville kinsville who 11 cook for this big family and clean and wash for five dollars a week aunt mamie her father s maiden sister was getting more and more on mary s nerves as the years went on she had been dependent on mother and daddy s hospitality for two decades now yet she eter nally found fault with mrs lor ing s housekeeping criticized the conduct of mary her eighteen year old sister ellen and their harum and adorable little brother peter complained constantly about her health health which as far as the lorings could determine was about on a par with that of a truck horse continually referred to the purely imaginary men she might have have married in fact as time had worn on mamie s illusory suitors had become more and more real in ma mie s mind increasingly ardent in their affection for her their words never actually spoken their deeds never actually committed more and more colorful and graphic in her frequent recitals of them mrs loring always eager to avert unpleasant feeling eternally seeking peace at the cost of any con cession she might make forced a smile to her lips how charming everything looks she exclaimed brightly I 1 know amnie and leha lelia will think the house is sweet its it s been years since they ve seen it you know mamie turned about and gazed dolefully at her sister in law too many years I 1 id d say she re marked seems to me a woman that was born and raised in Haw hawkinsville kinsville would see fit to return to her home town a little oftener but of course amnie always was a gadder mrs loring flushed to the roots of her dark hair well why t she be a gadder mamie she has no ties whatsoever she loves to travel and she has a very nice income mary hadn haan t seen her mother mothers s sister linnie corswell Cot swell for ten years but she was quite willing to fly to her defense I 1 think she s a darned good sport she said antly and if I 1 were in her shoes 1 I d live just the sort of life she s chosen to live europe in the sum mer new york in the autumn flor ida for the winter and dashing about spending oth e er people peoples s money like a drunken sailor I 1 mamie persisted the tip of her long thin nose twitching con sivel mrs loring seated herself in one of the armchairs by the round cen ter table and with apparent calm picked up the hawkinsville Haw kinsville journal fluttered it open and pretended to read the headlines the money lieme spends is her own she said her eyes fixed unseeingly on the print it was bequeathed to her by several different people intrigued by this revelation mary asked how come mother stop saying how come maryl mary I 1 I 1 ve told you again and again that I 1 hate that expression well when your grandfather corswell Cot swell died lm lin nie was the only one of us who had not married and he naturally felt that what money he had should go to her he thought that since all the rest of his daughters had husbands we would of course be provided for dirty trick I 1 d bayl say sniffed ma mie I 1 can t see why one daugh ter should have been singled out how did he know linnie wouldn t later marry some man that d out s shine hine the husbands of all the oth ers too bad he didn dian t set aside a tidy sum for you janet mrs loring s eyes clouded jim jun was a very promising young lawyer at the time mamie my father had no reason to believe that that we I 1 would later have to struggle as we have had to do to we re having a very nice din ner mrs loring went on trying valiantly to avert a clash I 1 bought a lovely roast beef at hauberts halberts Hau berts and s going to try mrs upham s recipe for french frying those little hearts of cauliflower mamie s eyes glittered with antic she was inordinately fond of food although she was constant ly telling how little she at ate e even hearing about a meal was a pleas ure and now being informed that beef and cauliflower were in store for her her attention was diverted from the topic of the inconvenience caused by linnie corswell Cot swell s and le ha ormsby s visit mother are you going to the station with dad or shall I 1 you go darling I 1 know you can hardly wait to see aunt lm lin me five minutes later mary was speeding through the wintry dusk and I 1 can manage the other six said christopher cragg up concert street to seventh down seventh to main and up the rather dirty brown steps that led to her father s dingy law offices in the cac building A light snow had be gun to drift earthwards and to cov er the little town with a magic car pet of white james loring was seated at his desk when mary without knocking opened the door of his office he was alone his one office assistant being ellen who had left an hour before to do some last minute christmas shopping A green shad ed electric bulb shone down upon his thinning hair and the well thumbed law book over which he was poring I 1 poor daddy mary thought a quick hard lump filling her throat sitting here in this dreary old office the afternoon be fore christmas and reading up on a case that was probably tried some where fifty years ago I 1 well its it a a good thing the railroad keeps him on as their local attorney heaven knows his cases of any other sort are few and far between he glanced up as she entered his face lighting with a smile as he saw how smart she looked in the new fur coat she had bought from her own savings and the little hat that dipped rakishly over one eye how pretty you look my dearl he ex claimed rising from his chair with that old world courtliness which he extended even to his female chil dren it must be getting colder your cheeks are almost crimson and your eyes positively sparkle mary put her gloved hand on his arm I 1 if my eyes are sparkling daddy it its s because of aunt lm lin me s coming and not the weather conditions although it is getting snappier every minute outdoors hurry dad and close up shop the train tram s due now in ten minutes good heavens I 1 don t believe you re at all excited over the arrival of our prodigal relatives relative sl 1 mary linked one arm through her father fathers s as the tram train blustered in they were coming 1 they were corn com egl ing I 1 those creatures from another world suddenly she caught sight of them through the snow splattered windows of the pullman mary pressed forward reaching miss corswell Cot swell as she stepped to the ground aunt linniel she ex claimed aunt linniel linnie corswell Cot swell caught her in a swift fragrant embrace kissed her lightly then wheeled about to the porter are you sure all my bags are here and being assured that her six and leila lelia s three pieces of pigskin luggage were duly piled together she returned her attention to mary I 1 my dear dearl she exclaimed what a lovely young woman you ve grown to be I 1 this is mary isn t it darling you were terrible in glasses and dental braces the last time I 1 saw youl you and jim dear old jim how nice it is to see youl you and of course you know this is leila lelia I 1 leha lelia one lovely blue eye almost obscured from view by the dipping fur of the cossack hat extended a hand first to mary and then to james loring the tram began chug chugging its way from the station and amnie glancing at her brother in law sensed his dismay poor jim she laughed are you wondering why in the world we brought so many bags well six of them are mine when a woman woma n reaches my age you know she simply has to carry about a lot of clothes and astringents and cold creams in order to be constantly warding off the ravages of time isn t there a redcap in the place mary laughed not one in a carload aunt linnie but I 1 can man age at least three of those gorgeous bags im I 1 m young and strong and willing as they always say in advertisements and I 1 can manage the other six said christopher cragg appearing suddenly from behind a baggage truck I 1 why not let me take all of them in my car cara and why not retorted mary although her heart skipped a beat as it always so foolishly did when she came upon the young doctor un expectedly aunt linnie this is christopher cragg mrs ormsby doctor cragg five minutes later james loring s car carrying the three women was crawling discreetly up johnson street hill while christopher cragg s sedan filled to the root roof with luggage followed sedately where in the world did that young giant come from linnie corswell Cot swell demanded it only I 1 were thirty years younger I 1 d fall in love with him he s not a hawkinsville Haw kinsville man is he jim I 1 he s not from a hawkinsville Haw kinsville family mr loring returned his eyes ahead of him as he piloted his old car towards main street but he s chosen to live here old doctor ehinger died a year ago you know and this chap happened to finish his at the hospital in chicago just at that time well he had gone to harvard with one of the johnstone boys so johnstone knowing D doctor octor cragg was looking for an opening in a small town wrote him about the practice and the office and the little house doctor ehinger had left without a head cragg dashed right down to hawkinsville Haw kinsville and bought out the whole works from jessie but jim asked linnie doctor ehinger s equipment terribly antiquated I 1 can t see how a doctor lust just starting off in life could put up with it I 1 it was simply incredible interpolated mary chris has thrown most of it out and bought beautiful new stuff everything is white tile and glistening metal now it seems he went through the deal with miss jessie just as a matter of good will and really he s profiting by it all the younger people in town are taking their children to him even so linnie corswell Cot swell said meditatively he can t expect to make a fortune in a town of this size after all a city s the place for a modern young doctor I 1 most people think he s just a little too modern tor for their tastes returned jim loring after all the old ways are the best I 1 oh fiddlesticks linnie cots well chortled I 1 why isn t this your house mrs loring had lighted the place from top to bottom and the freshly washed windows cast shafts of brightness into the night it was evident she had been watching for the car to turn the corner for she stood waiting in the doorway what will leha lelia ormsby think ot of our home mary asked herself TO BE CONTINUED |