Show ap I 1 T erk A 1 jill mcfarlane 26 hl has fallen in love with beul spang gordon her mother julia Is upset as her own husband richard disappeared during the first war and she he had hoped to spare pare her daughter from being an army wile wife aills brother ric Is involved with a alvo divorcee acee and jill goes to camp to investigate the matter RIC tells her he be Is on duty and unable to see her but while she Is dancing with spang they see ric and the woman in question sandra calvert together JIU jill finds sandra in an older hardened woman later she Is accosted by captain ma machey C key known at camp as ai old oil cyanide 11 he tells her he knew her mother years ago he looks vaguely familiar CHAPTER VIII she might as well catch the afternoon bus but she would have lunch first and then try calling spang again to say goodby good by few people were in the dining room a few commercial travelers several lonely looking women whom jill ill catalogued cataloguer catalo gued as officers wives a child perched in a high chair and being coaxed to drink milk by a 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 coolly im jill mcfarlane we met last night mind if 11 I 1 sit here I 1 have a phobia about eating alone delighted im sure mrs calvert C al was cool too and definitely unenthusiastic im practically finished however my lunch she made a little gesture toward the halt half consumed salad before her is usually unimportant A few vitamins and no calories jill took a chair you youre re one ot of the courageous women I 1 im I 1 m a farm arm gal myself with an outrageous r appetite 1 youre very fortunate to be able to indulge it few women can and keep the respect ot of their mirrors ill have the jellied soup stuffed crab and some coffee please jill told the hovering waitress then leaned her chin on her palms you live here mrs calvert in the hotel mrs calvert was studying her eyebrows in a little mirror disciplining the curves with a long nailed forefinger im a camp follower she said 1 I followed my husband here my former husband then he was transferred back to the islands and I 1 decided that I 1 endure being married to him any more so I 1 im m staying because when youre entirely alone places dont matter and with all the boys at the field 0 so o near theres less chance to be lonely of course mrs calverta Ca lverts eyes sharpened a little but her voice kept its c cool oo 00 smoothness such nice boys all of them I 1 was an officers wife badly cramped by a lot of taboos and military procedure but now that im tree free I 1 enjoy being with these boys of my own age my husband was years older she added and definitely a home tyrant I 1 talk about him poor win he may be in some ghastly jungle now in horrible dan danger gerl nice sate safe danger after being married to you jill was thinking with the crude brutality of youth aloud she said nice of you to give so much time to richard ric has always been more or less ot of a family problem my mother was terribly worried about him until he enlisted Rick ys getting on well im sure though ot of course military we life Is difficult tor for men with his background men dhove been accustomed cus tomed to freedom and having the best of course but they adjust themselves beautifully we have to admire their spirit 1 I hope ric decides to stay on in the army jill salted the vapid soup poked at rubbery lumps in it he hates our farm arm and he shown any aptitude tor for anything else and of course he any money he told me about your farm it must be a lovely place quite a show chow place he said I 1 was so interested te in hearing about it spang span calls to say goodby good by its a pig farm jill was blunt ric must have let his lm imagination agi nation get the best ot of him once he got way away a from it when hes there he loathes everything about it we have to work awfully hard to keep it going my mother works all day in overalls and a mans shirt I 1 got this blister hoeing beans she exhibited her palm our farm help have gone off to the army and even my eighty year old grandfather has to work so it if ric has been embroider ing tales to jou you about green lawns and pedigreed horses and stuff just write them off as a homesick boys wishful thinking mrs calverta Ca lverts eyes were masked behind carefully trained eyelids she put away her lipstick and the little mirror sh she e reached tor for her check and picked up her purse with fingers that clutched a little nice to have seen you again goodby good by she remarked rising she walked away briskly without w looking back jill watching her receding shoulders felt a heavy tease sense ot of bajue ta Jue ue a feeling that she had done a naive and childish thing ashes quite sure that ric alc is a rich womans comans son and that im a meddling sister with my knife out lor for greedy throats like hers jill told herself she put ric out ot of her mind grimly and thought only of spang wondering it if she would sea him again everything lovely that she owned she had put on this morning She had turned a hundred times the mirror changed her lipstick twice worried at her nails and pinned and re pinned her hair into exactly the right sort ot of halo so that every curl should shimmer with allure when at last the telephone rang spang said hello jill I 1 was afraid you might have checked out oh no I 1 may not go tor for hours will I 1 see you again spang sorry he said slowly while jolls heart grew heavier cant make it today running in sunday classes on me ill be tied up all day but I 1 had a moment X 7 za 1110 im quite delirious about the army you yon heard and I 1 thought id spend it with you nice ot of mr alexander graham bell to have fixed that for us it well put up a plaque tor for him somewhere jill answered making her voice light not letting disappointment creep into it sorry I 1 have to go without seeing you spang som L though I 1 know whether you could stand another dose ot of the army im quite delirious about the army you heard dont you know that all women run dizzily after uniforms especially if all decorated up with brass and stuff 1 I did hear a rumor but I 1 thought it might be propaganda morale stuff keep the boys happy keepen keep em singing while marching off to war with blisters on their heels and shoulders A warning against blackey she said spang I 1 ate lunch with that mrs calvert today I 1 simply crashed in and I 1 know now that I 1 was awfully stupid about it I 1 told her that rio ric any money and she looked at me with those cynical eyes of hers and believe a word of it it worries me and yet I 1 hate to tell mother it if ric gets himself into a mess let hun him wiggle out of it counseled spang might be good tor for him maybe hes depended on other people too much already but it might break my mothers heart I 1 have to think ot of that spang and she has had enough heartbreak for one lifetime 1 I thought of that spang said you do anything about getting him moved to another post could you spang no I 1 jill im only a 2 technical officer here and t those hose things are handled by personnel boards with a lot of red tape involved mackeys lackeys Mac keys on that board and he keeps the red tape tightened up plenty stiff I 1 cant even talk to ric he listen jill said by the way I 1 saw that captain mackey last night after you left me spang he came up and introduced himself he thought that tha he once knew my mother spang did not speak for a breath then he said soberly mats an old line jill all ali the old he wolves spring it when they get their eyes on a pretty young girl fatherly approach knock em off their guard but he appear to be interested te in me at all he merely said that ha be knew a girl once in tennessee named julia M mcfarlane afar part ol of the jiu 0 but it could be true you know mother was a belle before the she wa was married and it was war then too spang you by any chance be jealous sure im jealous I 1 dont trust cyanide for all his bars and medals jill giggled delightedly youre so tunny funny spang the poor old man looked entirely harmless to me just a lonely unhappy old man hes not so old I 1 dont trust him any jiu jill stay away from the fellow oh ill be going home right away now on the afternoon bus you dont know when youre leaving spang no I 1 dont know and even if I 1 did I 1 tell you JIU and you know better than to ask be fighting wont you gosh I 1 hope sot sol im tired of this academic stuff the japs read any books but look how they figh till will you write to me spang if I 1 have a chance I 1 will will you answer if I 1 write how siliyl of course ill answer pages and pages all about the pigs you can teu tell me what youre doing what would she be doing waiting hung up by the heartstrings heart strings tormented by the inching of the hounsl 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 goodby good by halt half 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 1 I love you spang but the click of the telephone being disconnected left the whisper hanging in air unheard unanswered after that she cried long and wretchedly au all alone with the hot afternoon passing 1 the yellow leav leaves es began falling failing from the apple trees and the sumac burned red against the fences jill crossed her booted leg over the saddle the mare daves new saddle mare was warm and moist and lazy 1 I hate Sept september emberl jiu jill said abruptly its a stupid month that mean anything it summer and it fau fall it lust just sulks through thirty days all the flowers are tired but they wont die and the whole world looks look shabby people look shabby too in fady summer clothes or tall fall things that show dust and are smothery if ever I 1 do something completely mad and unforgivable it will be because its september and I 1 cant bear it dave did not look at her julia was worried about jill her growing irritation her restlessness her impatience with everything that the answer dave julia had said not trumped up jobs that she sees through instantly and does with that air of awful patience and thinly concealed contempt she knew so well that there was no answer to the problem of JIU jill the bloom of love fruity and glowing was upon jiu jill now she was ripe with it gilded with it and every nerve and vein were vibrant with readiness and she had bad not been chosen her loneliness was wa made brackish by the bitter distillation of disappointment and tears too fiercely contained canker into abeld and weaken the strongest spirit take rake her places dave julia had bad pleaded 1 I cant do anything for her to a woman in jua aills s tate state of mind other women are utterly obnoxious even women they love jiu jill tries her hand at cupid so dave and jiu jill rode the bills on this first sunday in september and when jill had spoken her tirade against the sun drunk weather she sh kicked her toe back into the stirrup and jerked the mares mare head up and said in a sharp and harsh voice dave why dont you marry my mal mother dave let his reins tau fall slack and the horse reached instantly tor for a sassafras bough because he said slowly she believes that ashes still married to your father JW jul clicked her teeth you know that hope is fantastic dave yes jiu jill I 1 know 1 I never saw rry my father she went on he was in france when I 1 was born mother even know tor for sure that he ever knew that I 1 was born she wrote letters but never had any answers the letters come back nothing came back its grisly to think about grandfather going over there and watching them open graves but in w war ar things like that happen yes they happen then men we w went ent to washington slid and mother and grandfather spent days investigating records but anything and yet sh th there ere goes on waiting 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