Show alm S r N KATHLEEN NORRIS by It atilla norris WHAT A MESS MESS MESSI MESS wo ko she fhe whispered to io herself almost audibly no at it cant be that it cant be cherry and peter oh my god oh my god it has teen been that all the time that all the time and I 1 never knew it I 1 never dreamed itt it I 1 its peter and cherryl cherry they have hare come to care for each other they have come to care for each other she said to herself her thoughts rushing and tumbling in mad confusion as she tested and tried fried the new fear it must he be so but it cant be sol alix interrupted herself in terror for what shall lie fie do what shall we do cherry in love with peter but peter is my husband he is my husband peter who has always been so good to me so generous to me and it was vas cherry all the time poor cherry the older sister said aloud poor little old cherry life been very kind to herl her she and peter must be so sorry and ashamed about his and dad would be so sorry of all things he wanted most that cherry should be happy I 1 perhaps thought though alix he realized that she was that sort ofa of a nature she in must love and be loved or she cannot in el but why did he let her marry martin wasn gasn t he here to keep ne me from marrying peter what a ness mess mess mess we ue ve made of it all cherry would be disgraced and martin martin would till kill her if he found her out oh my little sister she would be town talk she is so reek red less she would do anything she would s be a public scandal and the th e papers would have her pictures dads little yellow headed charity oh dad she said looking up into the dark tell me what to dol do I 1 wed need you sol wont you somehow tell fell me what to do indeed it is a mesa for alix it is Cher cherry rys older titter sister and peter it is alix husband hut band and cherry it is married to martin and alix lovet both peter and cherry arl ara martin and cherry are drifting apart and dad it is dead and cant help any of them so aliz alix tries trie the only way the she can tee see out of the wess raer it works for her but for the others other the results are unexpected but who shall say y not for the best bed kathleen norris at as everyone knows know it is a california authoress auth who has ha proved her ability to handle big stories like this thi sitter sisters is i a good food example of the type of stories that hat has given her to large and friendly a public CHAPTER 1 I 1 cherry strickland came in the door of the strickland house and shut it behind her and stood so go with her hands behind her on the knob end and her slender blender body leaning forward and her bosom rising and falling on deep ecstatic breaths it was may in california site she was just eighteen and tor for twenty one minutes she had been engaged to be married she hardly knew why by after that last farewell to martin slie site had run so BO swiftly up the path and why she had flashed into the house and closed the door with such noiseless haste baste there was nothing to run for I 1 but it was as it if she feared that the joy within her might escape into the moonlight night that was so perfumed with lilacs and the scent of wet woods she was afraid that it was oil all to too wonderful to be true that she would awaken in the morning to find it only a dream that she would somehow fall short of martins ideal somehow fall him somehow turn nil kit this magic of moonshine and kisses into ashes and heartbreak she was a miser with her treasure already she wanted to fly with mith it and to hide it away and to test its reality in secret alone she bad come running in from the wonderland down by the gate just tor for this just to prove to herself that it would not vanish in the commonplaceness of the shabby hall ball would not disappear before the everyday contact of everyday things dad was in the sitting room with the girls the doctors house was full of girls anne anna his niece was twenty four alix alii cherrys chernys Cher rys sister three years younger how staid and unmarried and undesired they seemed tonight to panting and glowing and glorified eighteen I 1 anne with alias erratic help kept house for tier her uncle and was supposed to keep a sharp eye on cherry too but she been sharp harp enough to keep martin lloyd from asking her to marry him exulted cherry a as it she stood breathless and laughing in the dark hallway an older woman might have gone upstairs to dream alone of her new joy but cherry thought that it would be fun to join the family find and act ise if nothing had happened happen eoll 1 she was only a child alter after fill all consciously or unconsciously they had bad all tried to keep her a child these three who mho looked up to smile at tier her as s she came in one of them rosy geay headed magnificent at sixty was her father whose favorite slie she knew she bhe was he held out his hand to her without closing the book that was wag in the other hand and drew tier her to the wide arm of hla his chair where she settled herself with tier her toft soft young body resting against him her slim ankles crossed and her cheek dropped alast his thick silver hair allx waa reading and dreamily scratching her ankle as she read the she as a tall awkward girl younger tar far at t twenty one than cherry was at eighteen pretty in a WOY way un 1111 tidy as to hair with round black eyes high thin cheekbones cheek bones marked with scarlet and a wide humorous mouth that gnp w nr somehow drull droll in its au express slon sion even when she was angry or serious anne smiling demurely over ovar her white sewing was a small email prettily made little woman with mith silky hair trimly braided and a rather pale small face with charming and regular features anne had admirers too cherry reflected looking at her tonight but neither she nor alix had ever been engaged engaged engaged 1 arent you home early said dr strickland rubbing his big cheek against his youngest daughters cheek in sleepy content he was never quite happy unless all three girls were in his sight but for this girl he had always felt an especial protecting fondness ile he had followed her exquisite childhood with more than a fathers usual devotion perhaps because she really had been an exceptionally endearing child perhaps because site she had been given him a tiny erring crying thing in a basket to fill the great gap her mothers going had bed left in his heart mr lloyd had bad to take the nine train cherry answered tier lier father dreamily and he and peter walked home with mel me she did not odd add that peter had left them at his OA own n turning turn lne a quarter of a mile away 1 I thought he going to be at mrs norths Kort hs tor for dinner anne observed quietly in the silence she had been informally formally asked to the 11 norths for dinner that evening herself and had bad declined for no other reason than that attractive martin lloyd was presumably not to be there he Nas nt cherry said ile he thought he had to go to town at six I 1 just stopped in to give them duds dads message and they tensed roe me to stay you knew where I 1 was you badr dad she murmured mrs north telephoned about six and said you were bere there but she st say ay that mr lloyd was anne said with ith a faint hint of discontent in III tier her tone allx alix fixed tier her bright mischievous eyes upon the two and suspended her reading for a moment alexs attitude toward the opposite sex was as one of calm contempt outwardly but she had bad made rather an exception of martin lloyd and had recently had bad a conversation with him on the subject of sensible platonic platon lc friendships between men and women at the mention of life his name she khe looked up remembering mem bering this talk with a little thrill ills name had thrilled anne too although she betrayed DO sign of it as she sot sat quietly watching matching silks lit in fact all three of the girls were quite ready to fall fail in love with young lloyd if two of them had not actually done so 0 o cherry had not been at home when irin first appeared in mau valley apol the older girls had written her visiting friends in napa that she must come and meet the new man inan martin was as a mining engineer lie had been employed in a nevada mine but was visiting his cousin in the valley now before going to a new poe portion post lon tion in june in its informal fash fashion lon mill valley had entertained him lie he hall had tramped to the I alg ig forest live five miles away with the Strickland ti and ther then I 1 had been a picnic to the mountaintop mountain top everybody making the hard climb except peter joyce who mho was vas a trifle lane lame and perhaps a little lazy as well and who usually rode an old horse with the lunch in saddle bogs at ench each side allx alix formulated her theories of platonic friendships on these walks anne dreamed a foolish happy dream girls eirls did marry men did take wives to themselves dreamed anne tt it would be unspeakably sweet but it would be no miracle I 1 it was just after that mountain picnic that cherry had come home on a sunday as it chanced that was her eighteenth birthday and on which martin and his aunt were coining to dinner alls alix had marked the occasion by wearing a loose velvet gown in which she fancied herself anne had conscientiously decorated the table had seen been to it that there was ice cream and chicken and all the accessories that make a sunday dinner in the country a national institution cherry had done nothing helpful on the contrary she had disgraced herself and infuriated hong by deciding to make fudge the last minute hong had finally relegated her to the laundry and it was from this limbo that martin laughing joyously extricated tier her when sticky and repentant she had called for help it was martin who untied the checked brown apron disentangling from the strings the silky gold tendrils that were ere blowing over cherrys chernys Cher rys white neck and martin who mho opened the door for tier her sugary fingers and martin who watched the flying little figure out of sight with a prolonged whew w wl of utter astonishment the child was a beauty her eighteenth birthday I 1 martin had been shown her birthday gifts books and a sliver silver belt buckle and a gold pen and stationery and handkerchiefs A day or two later she had had another gift had bad opened the tiny shreve box with a sudden barn hammering mering at her heart with a presage of delight she had bad found a sliver topped candy jar and the card of mr john martin lloyd and under the name in tiny letters the words oh fudge 1 the girls laughed over this nonsense appreciatively but there was more than laughter in cherrys chernys Cher rys heart from that moment the world was changed her father her sister her cousin had second place now cherry had put out heri her I ennocent little hand and had opened the gate and had passed through it into the world that hour mas w as tile the beginning and it had lerl led her surely steadily to the other hour tonight when she had been kissed and had kissed in return sove so ve we walk alk home with young men mused milked the lie doctor smiling look here girls girl tills this little miss muffet wui will be cutting you both out with that young man if youre not careful allx alix deep in her story did not hear bear him but anne smiled faintly and faintly frowned as aa site she shook her 4 k it h she found a sliver silver topped candy jar and nd the card of mr john martin lloyd head site considered cherry cli antly precocious without It hout uncle lees III tolerance he would lune bitsie hat them theia always children this tender simple innocent dr strickland lie he was mas in many ways anys a child himself lie ile had never made money in his profession he owl find ills his wife and the two tiny girls find had a hard enough struggle sometimes anne aline and tier her own on father had joined the family eight years ago in the year that the strickland patent tire extinguisher over which the do doctor had been puttering tor for years lind had lieen been sold fold it did not sell as dis bis neighbors believed for a million dollars but for perhaps one tenth of that ruin it was enough and more than enough whatever it was after annes annea father died it meant that the doctor could live on in the brown house under the redwoods with his lils irl reading fussing with a new invention ven veit tion walking consulting with anne at allx alix and spoiling his youngest born it was ins a perfect life for the old man it was only lately that he begun uneasily to suspect that they would some day want something more that they would some day tire of empty forest and blowing mountain ridge and go away from the shadow of ML Tamal pals and into the world anne now was she beginning to fancy this young lloyd dr strickland was surprised with the fervor with which he repudiated the thought this young engineer who had drifted already into a dozen different and distant places was not the man for staid little anne what did you want to see mr lloyd about tomorrow dad cherry interrupted his thoughts to ask the rose vine what did he be say ay about coming or cherry cherry remarked between two rending yawns that mr lloyd was coming over tomorrow at ten and peter too peter wont be much goidl alls alix commented cherry looked at her reproachfully fully youre awfully mean to peter lately lyl she bhe protested her father gave her a shrew abre d look with his goodnight good night kiss and immediately afterward both the younger girls drugged dragged their way up to bed allx and cherry shared a bare woody smelling room tucked away under brown eaves eares the walls were of raw pine the latticed windows in bungalow fashion opened into the fragrant darkness of the night the beds were really bunks and above her bunk each girl had bad an extra berth tor for occasional guests there was scant prettiness in the room and yet it was full of purity and charm the girls like all their neighbors were hardy bred to cold baths long walks simple hours and simple food in the soft western they left their bedroom windows open the year round they liked lifted to wake to winter damp and tog fog and go downstairs with blue fingertips finger tips ups and chattering teeth to warm themselves with breakfast and the fire allx rolled herself in a gray army blanket and was asleep in some sixty seconds ds but cherry felt that the was floating in seas of new joy and utter delight and that she would never be sleepy again downstairs anne and the doctor sat staidly on the man dreaming with a knotted forehead the girl sewing presently she ran a needle through tier her fine white work bork with ith seven tiny stitches folded it and put her thimble into a case that hung from ier ber orderly workbag with a long ribbon walt wait a minute anre anne sald said the doctor as she straightened herself to rise this young lloyd now what hat do you think of him she widened demure blue eyes should you be sorry it if I 1 liked him uncle lee she smiled the old man rumpled his big silver sliver hair bair restlessly the way the wind blows eh he asked kindly well you see how much hes here I 1 you see the flowers and books and notes im not the sort of girl to wear my heart on in my y sleeve anne who was fond of small conservational conserva lonal tags assured him merrily but there must be some fire where theres so much emoke fi noke she ended youre not sure my ay dear he be asked after some thought I oh nol no she answered its just a fancy that persists in coming and going slie site got to her feet saying brightly well we take this too gravely yet it was only that I 1 wanted to be open and above board with you uncle from the beginning the only honest way nuy wise and right her uncle answered in the kindly absent tone lie he hud had used to them as children a tone he was apt to use to anne ance when she was tras in her highest mood and ore one she rather resented cherry now dow |