Show 0 79 N 4 are ARRY PUGH MG cluria IN 1 ethleen pAs maguyre guire goes to a dance ft gene cene may w wealthy scamp whom t dom doe not na lute like because she Is I 1 irrl reasons mrs mr kd for or alny many t annu her 1 son to marry y connie nouh though he li is in love and en vol pied td tS to WIcy Kath kathleen leens s sister is ter tom CHAPTER X continued bad a healthy fear of ridicule idec ec lecause jause J ause he was awfully good at it kimsell kim self he made plenty of sport fa eother other people and ancl he imagined they K were always looking for a chance to return urn the compliment if he caught pal talin in a comic position he rode the le out gut of him he knew that by aing everybody in town would ire heard about about his new girl friend cd he had a good idea of the kind 5 hurrah he e was in ln for or but ut ne he ted laii no comeback that was what tart lirt he would would just have to take it nd lid like it the girl beside him pid aid nothing at all all she sat as far aay as possible huddled in her kat at her eyes fastened on the geen but the small hands dencher in her lap were white at te it knuckles and alee alec had an idea ge de see any more of the pie pic tre tee than he did butch henderson and henny bax kr ht a couple of poolroom pool room cowboys who itom alee alec have introduced t his sisters but with whom he sometimes times shot a few craps when h k had bad nothing else to do came in pj sat down directly behind him occasionally nally one of them sniggered ered ci 11 the back of alecs neck felt Ical raided ded they hung around outside ta fee theater when the show was over 0 o hand alee alec a discreet raspberry fasy even very discreet gout it had lou noticed alee alec danced at her sidewise her little muted face was very white but lie Ite stared straight ahead it is an unwritten law in small ans that a fellow asks a girl to lire re a drink after hes taken her to movie but alee alec just did not believe he could walk into hender ot s drug store and sit at a table rth lou knight while the village medians lined up on stools at the ada a fountain and exercised their lit at his expense so he marched a home straight as he could go alrin ailing desperately to make conver ton to which she answered only kebo i choked ked frightened monosyllables it was just midnight of a warm ij ay night on main street a good al was still stirring but down the shops the streets were illy cited ted and almost deserted it was t longest ten blocks alee alec ever tra fused d he could have shouted when it e ordeal ended at the foot of the ftp ep staircase that went up to lous mry home only all at once his faton ton collapsed what on earth tu tahe he going to say to the poor kid it was nice of you to go out nth me he stammered she was boing ing at him with big miserable B and her under lip quivered he ht I 1 want to lie but it seemed kind than to let her down flat maybe ill do it again some day his heart sank as he realized that 1 was crying very softly As diffly as she did everything else you dont have to pretend so as W to hurt my feelings she said a little smothered voice ihnow 1 I know IN ww wont ask me again because tie ive just bored you ever since you toed this afternoon ive tried to of things to say interesting tags as so want to come back itt I 1 say anything I 1 ban tec kee stared at her dumbly djou you see whispered lou knight 10 thing as lovely ai as this has ever opened ipp ened to me before and I 1 guess etever ever will again to alex maguire swallowed hard but could not speak and after a ule she went on so low he could sly MY distinguish the words ive ve always thought you were awful at school I 1 used to watch ra ft although you never noticed me duvere always taking prizes and ta 7 time you did I 1 felt as proud d it had bad happened happened to me and re the only person who ever did hing 9 about pop w when hen kids treat te him m mean I 1 co could uld have kissed tegould 14 gOund you walked on for that H 1 I never thought ask me t date aate not really I 1 used to eara sometimes some times that you would bains a help when n you any 9 else only i always knew any y as marvelous as you could nev 4 ather r about me 11 alec afelt felt i as it if so someone M eone was pour alt all on a fresh wound in his side w kiy marvelous lou he said YOU on are to asi me she whispered led up the stairs CHAPTER XI 8 raey maguire dancing with bob d h did 0 riot not look look at jaird never 1114 d ig her eyes turn in his diorec aut she was really conscious thing except jaird with connie d ill i his arms i connies face han bly t to 0 his while her m her eyes sald said shameless things pouting scar scarlet let mouth prom veil j more e I 1 girl was perfectly P brazen I 1 rot no she ae was the daughter of 00 eale mays ays and au all her life she done A 14 her exactly as she he pleased H S subtle brother other 1 connie co onnie ie was about 46 6 as a butr outrageous battering g ram she laed d things sa and the town sto indulgently people like e bella said id connie was just a wei child fun full of innocent EIGHT the story so her brother and hl his wife mary etta ett are re talking ol of reno since the depres ion con has made him dependent on her earnings oarn ings as ai secretary her brother alee alec who ha cant find a job is if taking up with a bashy flashy divorcee years older than he be and ritchie graham 0 se a stranger in pranks but shirley knew that connie was neither a child nor innocent but did jaird know or care it was enough to turn any roans mans head the way connie had been pursuing jaird for months it did not seem possible that she could have gone on and on without a fraction of encouragement on his part and yet shirley suspected that where connie mays was concerned anything was possible it was certain however that others by no means gave jaird the benefit of the doubt for weeks shirleys shirleye Shir leys friends had been going out of their way to be sweet to her and she knew what that meant they believed jaird intended to jilt her for connie mays after all thought shirley with a bitterness that dismayed her jaird could not be blamed it if he yielded to the inevitable eugene mays son inlaw in law would not long remain in the ranks ot of the unemployed once married to connie jairis economic problems would dissolve like mist in the blaze of his cifes powerful family connections of course if jaird chose connie as a way out he lost shirley Shi but did that any longer mean a loss to him become of janeas friend who had such a crush on you earlier in the evening shirley Shi asked bob when the music ended what always happens when a new man looks at shirleye Shir leyl ex claimed neu nell cotter with in digna tion somebody told him she was engaged and that was that jaird had come up behind them he flushed darkly what mother means when she says long engagements are un JL etcor orl N n VC W 5 p 4 t L I 1 a somebody told him she was engaged fair he said when he and shirley were dancing a little later doubts stabbed her was jaird hinting that he agreed with his mother 1 I guess be a withered old maid before I 1 can afford to marry you shirley Shi he went on and his voice rasped god knows id think hate me for the fiasco ive made after I 1 promised you everything if I 1 were half a man id set you free for some other man who can afford a wife she wished that she could read his mind he might mean exactly what he said or he might be offering her a graceful exit hoping shed break their engagement and set them both free to find happiness elsewhere since together they had reached an impasse youre so beautiful shirley Shi groaned jaird and so sw sweet beet and youre wasting the best years of your life waiting for a guy who cant even buy you a sack of peanuts unless his father doles out the nickel she wanted dreadfully to tell him that she would wait forever if he wanted her to only she w sure he wanted anything of the kind so she say it not when possibly he hoped she would sa say V something quite different maybe things will change murmured shirley Shi which might mean anything or nothing 6 maybe so agree agreed d jaird and went off t to 0 dance with connie mays and the old dreary treadmill set up its merciless hammering in shir ley leys heart was jaird tired of going around in circles never getting anywhere the way he and shirley had bea been n doing tor for years both of them we were re silent on their way home in jairis coll coupe pe which his mother had given him on his last birthday it was not new for them to have nothing to say to each other nowadays they were never the were together A gay when they y W i y ff A Ry iii iff 0 yf afta ft A far town kissed her after fixing a flat I 1 tor or her he Is a newspaper man too at the dance the she sees alee alec who tells her that tor for a joke he made a phony date with poor lu lou knight the town drunks drunk daughter kathleen make lit him keep the date he takes her to a hov heaviness lay between them like a blight it had not been present those first radiant months of their engagement shirley had been able to talk to jaird then about anything more intimately than she had ever talked to another person against his breast her lips on his her reticence had vanished but somewhere in the past year they had receded from each other A curtain dropped between even their kisses were no longer sweet but bitter terribly bitter with denial the wide front porch of the maguire house was dark behind its tangle of wistaria and climbing roses it was not late but nothing stirred jaird caught shirley into his arms lately his caresses were always a little savage As if he resented them because they never came to anything even his lips had lost the shy tenderness with which they had once kissed her they were feverish almost cruel more desperate than anything shirleys shirleye Shir leys lovely slender body quivered her heart beat a devils tattoo in her ears shirley he cried in a thick unnatural voice its hell to have you like this and then let you go 1 I know she whispered we never do anything any more but drive each other mad wanting what we cant have he groaned she shivered it was true to be together only aroused everything in in them which they dared not release shirley we cant go on like this he was putting into words the thing she had shrunk from saying 1 I want you shirley all of youl you I 1 or nothing sirley shirley darling whispered jaird it was not the first time they had stood on the edge of an abyss she lose jaird she go on without him thought shirley with a sob unconsciously her defenses crumbled she felt herself being washed out on the turgid sea from which there is no returning only suddenly shirley thought of laura laura who would never condemn but whose heart would break have to go jaird said shirley and pushed his arms away he went without a word almost as if furies were at his heels poor jaird who had never dreamed he might live to see the day when his hig love was a threat and a disaster both to his own and shirleys shirleye Shir leys souls CHAPTER XII tom maguire glanced at his watch and groaned it was ten minutes to two his head ached the coal scuttle the cites newest tavern was crowded to its rococo doors the air heavy with stale cigar smoke the tables littered with cigarette ashes glasses and dead bottles there had been many speeches the same old hooey thought tom bombastic Bom bastie flowery eloquence praising the new highway commissioner to which he had replied with the usual inanities and running the whole show although he kept in the background was harvey cobb leigh with tired embittered eyes tom studied his cifes employer leigh was in his early fifties a short paunchy man with a smooth unlined face and small bullet eyes under sleepy eyelids but he was not sleepy he was a human dynamo as mary etta often boasted he never tired or took his hand off the throttle tom sighed mary etta sat at her employers left the wife of the guest of honor at his right a pudgy lady who looked as if she wl wished shed she were at home in bed but apparently mary etta was as fresh as she had been three hours h ours ea earlier raier tom knew that she had not missed a trick in the evenings progress that was what made her in valuable she had a stenographic memory which on such occasions as these did not require a notebook the next day when she filed her memoranda nothing would be missing that might later be required no WO wonder ader harvey cobb leigh depended d on her and paid her a comme commensurate a amount mo un tom stared at the cigarette which he had lit from the butt of another lie he hated all the loud talk it made him want to chew his fingernails it was just so much eyewash as he very well knew and at th the back of his brain a hammer pounded the rent was due tomorrow and he could not pay it until now thanks to the nest egg which he had accumulated in more prosperous times toward buying his own business tom had been able at least to pay for sheer necessities like rent and food but the past year when his ear earnings aings had dropped to an appalling low had wiped 0 out ut his savings at a rate that left him hanging on tho roper rope dizzy tor for breath thank godl he muttered when at last people began to push back from soiled a and nd disorderly tables miry mary etta gave him a stiletto glance you make it quite so obvious that youve been bored to death she said out the corner of her mouth TO B BE |