Show BRIGHT I STAR I By Mary Schumann Copyright by Macrae Smith Co SYNOPSIS Kezia pretty selfish and nd twenty ar arrives are rives borne home in Corinth from school and Is met by her ber older brother Hugh He lie drives her Ilet to the Marsh Mush home where her widowed mother sacrificing self and nud Fluvanna a warm hearted understanding soul welcomes her Kezia's ezias sister sis als ter Margery MarJery plump and matronly with the care of three children is at lunch with them Hughs Hugh's wile wife Dorrie has pleaded a previous engagement On the way back Lack to his job jol at atthe atthe atthe the steel plant founded b by one of or his fore fore- bears Hugh passes Do Doc Hilter a boyhood friend whom he no longer sees frequently because be cause of Dorries Dorrie's antipathy Fluvanna Marsh wakens the next morning from a dream about her late husband Jim whose unstable character char acter she fears feaM Kezia has inherited teJ Soon Ellen Pendleton comes cornu over She is an artistically artistically artis inclined girl who is a distant niece o of Fluvanna's and a Ii favorite of or Hughs She happily hap hap- pill tells teUs Fluvanna she has become engaged to Jerry Purdue Ellen fears that her father and mother Gavin and Lizzie will not approve ap prove the match Hugh and Dorrie Dorric go o out to the Fr Freeland land Farms to dan dance with their friends frends Cun Curs and Joan Whitney Whitney who has been out of work announces that he be has landed a new position They see Ellen Pendleton Pendle- Pendle ton and Jerry Purdue Cun Curt and Dorrie dance together and then disappear for a while Dancing Dane ing with Joan Hugh is amazed to find her in tears Apparently she has some secret ecret worry over her ller husband Cun Hugh sees Kezia Kuia accompanied ac cc- companied by a young youn man When Ellen and 1011 Jerry speak about their engagement to Ellens Ellen's parents r Lizzie luie is disagreeable until Jerry sympathizes sym with her imagined ailments Gavin a banker is cold to Jerrys Jerry's proposal While Lizzie Lizzie Liz zie unbends slightly the matter i i. i left pending CHAPTER III Continued III-Continued Continued 7 7 woman is Its a shame when a woman at nt the age when she can enjoy life most continued Jerry and she is taken with something ghastly like that My 1 aunt was a wonderful wonder wonder- ful looking woman too He hitched his chair an inch or so nearer Lizzie Lizzie Lizzie Liz Liz- zie looked into her face with sympathy sympathy sympathy sym sym- pathy and interest Pale fires lit in her eyes a revival revival revival re re- re- re vival of vanity Wonderful Perhaps not now but you should see my pictures taken when I was Ellens Ellen's age I 1 remember when I Iwas Iwas Iwas was young and lived in Ridley Mr Parkinson Parkinson later later he became the lumber capitalist out west som somewhere Oregon I think used think used to call me the Rose of Ridley Y You u remember that dont don't you Gavin Uh Ellen HEllen has something of my look at at times A HA girl is usually indebted to her mother for her charm Lizzie laughed and tapped him with her eyeglasses I see why my girl was so taken with you The ice in her voice which had broken up with mention of her illness illness illness ill ill- ness now became a fluid running quantity light even playful But seriously speaking we feel our child is too young to think of getting getting getting get get- ting married Working asked Gavin in the first pause I have a job as storekeeper at atthe atthe atthe the Arrow Steel Works Yorks Jerry an an- Thirty five a week His fist at his lip Gavin shook his head No but I have hopes of getting getting getting get get- ting something better A fellow has to start at the bottom in the steel business I intend to go to the school for salesmen if I can get I. I i in m. I Gavin looked at him through his I thick glasses Keep a acar acar acar car A sort of one Jerry grinned Gavin glanced at Jerrys Jerry's suit He had computed its cost and suspected Jerry of extravagant extravagant ex ex- taste in clothes Lizzie shook her head at him rum Settle it again again no no hurry he muttered He left the room precipitously and did not return Lizzie changed to a more comfortable comfortable comfortable com com- chair and dr drawn wn by Jetry's Jet Jet- rys ry's deferential attention recounted recount recount- ed in a tangential flow stories of her activities before she had been stricken of her two sons Caleb and Gavin Junior the trouble she had keeping competent help the oriental rugs she had bought and the hotels she had found most agreeable in Atlantic City It was almost twelve when she rose to go upstairs She even shook hands with Jerry cordially Be patient she admonished them Ill see what I can do with her fa fa- fa- fa ther Ellen went to the front steps with Jerry You ruinous man she whispered captivating Mother like that I 1 took your cue You said Be Benice Benice Benice nice to her and I followed She kissed him We Ye might sit here on the steps while you smoke a cigarette I A cigarette How about two Make it two she answered I laughing She was proud hopeful unutterably bly happy I The first Hugh Pendleton had I come out from Connecticut in the year 1802 made his way with horses and an ox team over the hazardous mountain roads and taken taken taken tak tak- en up land along the Valley in Ohio Oruo He built a cabin I near the stream and traded with I the few settlers and the wandering bands of Indians He sent for his family his wife with three small children and his two brothers Hugh started a store which flourished flourished flourished flour flour- as the settlement grev grew into a village He made trips to Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Pitts Pitts- burgh by boat for supplies and bartered bartered bartered bar bar- or sold according to the need of the individual Presently the tha word traveled J about that two settlers Wyant and I Nash had erected a n blast furnace on the shore of the river a n few miles above the settlement They turned out stoves kettles and castings castings cast cast- ings jugs crude in appearance but serviceable had Hughs Hugh's trips trip to Pittsburgh awakened his interest in the need for iron in a new community and anda a nebulous idea took form as he weighed out coffee coerce and tea and flour He talked of it to his sons Hugh and Caleb and Silas and fired their youthful ul imaginations Wyant died and Nash moved on onto onto onto to Indiana abandoning the simple furnace while Hugh figured and planned and explained to his sons The Pendleton boys went into partnership when they grew up started another furnace By the middle forties Hugh Junior Caleb and Silas Pendleton were the Owners owners owners own own- ers of a successful iron works employed eighteen hundred in men en The intermarried with the Woods the the fats the newcomers from Virginia the east and England England England Eng Eng- land until in the nineteen thirties the relationships would have taken takena a genealogical e expert to unravel The society of the town was a spiderweb spiderweb spiderweb spi spi- spi- spi web der-web of distant turning turning turning turn turn- ing up at unexpected places Much of the leadership of old Hugh Pendleton Pendleton Pen Pen- dicton had descended to the men of the family the women had grace and fastidiousness Alien blood mingled with theirs warm blood cold blood but something racial persisted Fluvanna was the great-great- great granddaughter of the first Hugh descending through Hugh his son Her I father had been Ely Pendleton and she his only child child child-a a swaying anemone creature fine-boned fine as most of the Pendleton women were Light brown hair grew back from froma a curving hairline the tracery of the brows above full fulI eyelids might have been done by a pencil stroke the nose was sensitive the mouth curved and wistful Although James Marsh had been welcomed among them as a cousin of the Clements there was not a hI h I I I I ii She Was Proud Hopeful Unutterably Unutterably Happy great deal of approval of the marriage marriage marriage mar mar- of James and Fluvanna There were local grievances grievances families lies whose sons had yearned for Fluvanna and been passed over Although pride in clothes was a Pendleton credo J James ames was thought to lean toward too great an elegance in dress His handsome handsome handsome hand hand- some bearing was no novelty many of the men had that they suspected his grace his flattery as qualities which did not go with the solid virtues of monogamy As the years went by the older ones shook their heads as reports of his irregularities came in in gain gam bling drinking neglecting his business business business busi busi- ness Ely Pendleton looking grim grimand grimand grimand and Fluvanna gay in company but when off guard seeming frightened frightened frightened fright fright- ened and distrait Ely Pendleton died suddenly and Fluvanna and her family moved d into into in in- to the old house with her mother who was an invalid A year or two of comparative ease and prosperity followed James was thoughtful toward toward toward to to- ward the suffering mother debts were paid the feverish prosperity of the War was on James made money in the stock market and it erased the galling sense of obliga obliga- obligation tion he had left when old Ely stern- stern thin-lipped thin had met his pressing deficits Mrs Pendleton died just after Armistice day and James was very kind that winter Then business took a holiday holiday stocks slumped and Fluvanna began began began be be- gan a gradual parting with the in income income income in- in come her father had left in trust for her Her mothers mother's money had been left to her unconditionally and that went in appalling amounts to cover the very good securities sure to hit a hundred and ten which James had bought on margin The more James lost the more more he drank the oftener he was seen morose and truculent leaning over his cards late at night plaYing with men who were luckier than he Late one afternoon the town rang ranz with the news that he had killed himself TO BE CONTINUED |