Show il 1 qa amt ao DE PATE V s doben AMES WILLIA WILLIAMS tl 1 l WU u WILLIAMS CHAPTER I 1 th the e sun would tails rise in a minute now she and a boy named P potty ft welsh potty did not matter in m the least were walking home across the gardens to her studio ap apartment artar or on the hill they had den denal danced al tiu fill ma an hour ago then stopped at jent jane ca cabot cabat a for an apple and a a glass ass of so sauterne and robin felt light an and d ethereal th and immensely well wall and ad happy this was one no of the those jr june c 1 mornings I potty welsh noticed notice d I 1 it t he murmured something a about b out tries the earth rth if it be in tune and it bob roam kidded nodded happily and said it is I 1 isn t it I 1 me mean an tune timal I 1 feel like christmas morning when you y a u were little and before you came d downstairs own bairs I 1 feel as if something wonderful wonderful was about to happen maybe this is fill it potty sug g ested so and it made her stop to look and to smile mile the they Y were halfway acro across the gard gardens ens on the path beside the pond here was is a young man asleep on we one of the benches his h red head was P propped PW on an a folded newspaper his hill feet w were ere hanging over the arm of the bench and a cornucopia of news newspaper poper th that dij looked absurdly like a lily we was tucked melted into to the top of his vest under his aja damped the e d h hands he a we was I 1 in dinner c clothes flat on his back smiling I 1 in his hill R sleep d tell and ad potty said aid cheerfully this is a terrible thing R robin 0 but g giggled heavens to betsy Y but potty m edtha the P poor r aam lamb will take his death of cold we 11 have to t wake him better leave these manu inanimate mate objects acts lay potty urged if you nurse an adder in your bosom you ou re it li likely k sly to get added the fellow has been celebrating she made mad a fat face at iman potty c calling ailing the ke kettle atle black we really must she tugged at the young nan man lapel what we all need robin decided is toast and coffee we II 11 take him to my place potty potty demurred but potty was ju just at a lay figure fun fail enough but nothing imming serious robin insisted and they pal piloted led the young man to her small mail apartment lie he demanded scrambled cr ambled eggs on his toast and got them and went promptly to sleep again this time on an the couch in the stu studio dio and potty said it was a public scandal and offered to put him out like a cat and robin said oh he hes already a out t like a light then ashes she hir hurn edly apologized sorry to be t trite rite potty I 1 must be sleepy or t tired ired or li something mineth run along let him sleep G by so P potty 0 tty ran along robin looked at the sleeping young man whose name she had forgotten to enquire and thought maternally that it was lucky she and potty had bad come along in time to rescue him before he did catch cold then she went to bed and when she woke a little pas past noon the young man was gone but there was a note pinned panned to the much couch fear not queen he had written he n I 1 go but ut I 1 will return the is note at was in signed ad will sie sao liked that it had c character h fracter not bill not willie just will she wondered whether he really would return H he e did within the hour his name turned out to be win will mcphail and he had a capacity for absurd extravagance trava gance which at first amuse amused and then strangely excited he her lie he told her at once in matter lie of fact tones that he loved her not that the fac act can have any interest at treat for you yet h he e said frankly but I 1 in just warning you arz w what a I 1 to expect you behold a changed man bob robin without going into details I 1 need only tell you that when you reset rescued led me it fiat this his morning or 9 1 I we worth rth it if but from now 7 w on watch me I 1 if never take another drunk drink I 1 U never boak look at any other woman but bu t you yen he heavens arul she ii protested not so many promises sest A little performance would go so much further don dont you think C come te on an and watch me perform for h he challenged in T and nd they dined sit mm somewhere ere and ad la he refused cocktails wan wine beer he elaborately Y Ille scanned canned the labels on an the most meet la harmless raises soft it d drinks to be sure U r they had no alcoholic rt content and d why when n a party of robin a friends ome omed it them the he magnificently averted his eyes from the other h er g girls rl r even when he danced with the them ep explaining 1 a rowl R apologetically I 1 owl rally but firel firmly that it w was in a a vow he made robin laugh and love law him han you rel re a scampi she told him when kah they e Y said good night he had just kissed ad her you re a rascal and I 1 disapprove of you a as completely P 1 ey esta as rt possible 12 but t you r re a sort of at li sweet just the same she lay swake awake that night OU calling herself betas lf idiot du lot RA an I 1 obviously she he on must bet bal she didn dian t yet know amyth anything about at him except that he was fun fa n it ce S 1 S and his name was R hla cp h and certainly ly she was not the first girl gir he hd ever ki kissed d anyone yore could tell that robin her self though adhe she was just past tw twenty e n years old awas was older the than her r ye years a since her me t er father di died sit two deais be before ore sh she had b been mat self a H S f supporting ap pp rh ag capita capitalizing izing a real tat tal mat ent with pencil and brush doing very verv well too heavens heave to betsy I 1 she told heus her self tonight robin dale youre you re old enough to ku know now etter better than to get all hot and bothered over a guldy giddy kid ho sleeps on an park benches you yen don t e een to know knew his b mainly family or r where he lives or anything but she went to sleep wonder wondering ing whether she would see him next day S she he did he telephoned at seven to make a luncheon date at time lunch h she manage managed d to pin n h him I 1 un down to the fact that his home w was a 1 in n montreal that he had another ye year or at tech th that t he had one more examination to alake take before posting off to a allmer summet summer job in quebec they dined ta together and ad he wa was so a sure stat of himself and of her that robin roba n felt like a tw straw caught balugh t up in in a strong tid t wind we 11 be married he told d her confidently fi dently 1 I in bout about two years after I 1 ve got my degree at tech and begun beit to earn enough to suppo support it you idiot I 1 haven ibaven t said ait I 1 d marry yh you oh you will we ve two years to argue about that going to be sort of fun two years of arguing not t it if but if I 1 ever did a she he told him on in a shy rhy pride you t haw have to be earning coming so very much I 1 do pictures ikemire and sell them you 1 know I 1 4 I 1 14 A abl I 1 I 1 e Z I 1 a I 1 well be married he told her confidently maybe I 1 II 11 support the family just at first better and bet better terl will told her cheerfully youre this the so sort air of f a wife even angus would go f for 0 who chos argue angus he a my big b brother rr he hes a thrifty seat scot not at is a w waster IS rh like k in me and he doesn doean t believe in women he proposed that they have just one bottle battle of 0 champagne to celebrate the fact that their futures were all decided robin reminded him smilingly of his vows why I 1 haven t tasted liquor since I 1 met you he pro protested teste d 1 atee and d I 1 feel as if I 1 d known you forever forever a a long time to go without a drink I 1 ile he left two days day later idler 11 for his summer me job and ad robin was pretty lonesome she decided rather suddenly on a month of sketching and painting along the gaspe coast since there the she would be that much nearer ead W will ili she drove up to peres perce and t there here was delay in forwarding his letters and she sao was homesick for him before the first one me reached her he was working at moose bay where a tremendous paper mill was being built I 1 on the north shore share of the st lawrence he wrote this is a great place here a b big ig job ob I 1 wish you could see it you it find plenty of pictures everywhere A year and a half ago go this aa a as all wil wilderness derne des but now they have three thousand ranal men at work and the storage li warehouse is a done and the mill braill half do done there followed more personal p passages he wrote about his brother angus agu Ishi ishigai I 1 shani cai tell him about us this summer darling I 1 don t want him to know about you yet he a grand really md and he s been father and mother mothe and brother to me ever since ame I 1 was a baby it his in fault he s the w way vay he I 1 is I feels the way he does bout about girls he was pat pretty t Y shamefully treated by one it a an ugly yarn and not worth repe repeating 1 9 the only good p part art of it ws was that h he we t actually Y married or to her they were to hake have bee been married the next day th at how close 11 a a thing it was and it i left it scars on a him in the that I 1 are still open that may never II 11 heal eat unless you can help heip aca heal 1 I them after he knows know you we j 11 I 1 be bable able to make him I 1 un der stand T she read robin real read the letter twice and it she decided she was as tired of perce trim and its rock and its busloads brall bus loads de of tour tourists ats she wanted to see wilia allf the hotel was first rate he said she decided to go to moose bay she would not write him film that she was coming she wanted to surprise him to see his ties ces shine the steamer white 4 queen plying from quebec qu er to moose I 1 B bay ly and points partial bb beyond and mal would stop step fly by prearrangement arran gerne at at simouski rimouski Rimo Rum mulk uski to pick up p passengers ng r B robin b prearranged I 1 the h a at stop P she h e d decided el d t to 0 take like 1 two days to drive the miles from perce force she would want to do some sketching along 19 1 9 the file way and people told her things she must be sure to see the salmon pool on an york river above gaspe was one me of them she made the he n necessary e c e ar y detour and found th the aund PI place a c e and tam parked hr her car or she f found tw two 0 men e n standing together er watching the salmon talking quietly and she looked at the fish and was surprised to see so few there aren t very many are there she remarked both me men n turned to look at her b but t it we was on one of them that her atten attention tim fastened most men see ing robin for the first time felt is a quick friendliness and liking she may imay not law have be been palti particularly cula ly pretty but she looked like a nice girl and one whom it would be fun to know robin was used to seeing this thought in their eyes but this mans eyes did not change expression when he looked at h her T they remained grave a and nd still 11 band and they were so steady they were almost stem she had tried to do a portrait now new said and then she thought she would like to try him his face was pam table a his about a hundred rod and fifty he be said and he explained that it was still early in the summer there 11 b be more here later at we 11 have ve P five ve hundred hundred by the first ot of all august bust robin knew something about salmon salman she had even fished for them once or twice with her father b before he died and left her quite a alone jo ne but also she wanted to hear this man talk to watch stela his eyes she wondered how aid old he was where do you get them all alla she asked from fraina nets end and traps trap at the mouth of the river hsiou we I 1 tow them up here in boxes keep them here till till it s time tan to strip them salmon flop are around M d so when you take them out of w water ater she remembered 1 I do don t see how you can hold them still long enough to go get t the eggs she smiled as she spoke as thought though her a own question were amusing but he did n not at smile his gir gravity ity was not exactly forbidding she tried to define it to herself she thought it was wary W we ne pick them up in a dip net he be se said d and let them flop till fill they tired themselves out when they re quiet you take a fish by the tail with we one hand band rod and tuck his head under tier your armpit and hold him so strip the eggs into the it trays sh she said aid teasingly you mean her don t you but he was not amused yes he said she felt confused felt she hod had been convicted of improper levity ly she wanted to break the sur f fa ace e of his calm are all right to fertilize the eggs avealt aren t they she enquired faired not very satisfactory no they d don on t have much milt As though he felt he had answered all the questions she could possibly ask he resumed his conversation with the other ither man so robin dr drove away b but ut she I remembered in him w wondering T E bout about his eyes she stopped the first night at madeleine and saw him in the dining room and nodded and smiled he nodded but without smiling later she he h heard card him talking with someone about the salmon in madeleine river he was clear clearly Y an expert on the subject and she began to think or t ink of him as the salmon mo man they were speaking of the beauty of the pools bom four or five miles mile baay upstream and inter after t dinner with an hour bout r or so be before ef ore dark robin decided tail d to olla drive 1 up the river road read the road to d began be well w enough h but it presently degenerated into wheel tracks and narrowed to a shelf alcan along g a precipitous wooded hillside wit with h crumble crumbling ng cliffs above and a fear some a slope I 1 ope below she came suddenly d around ma an angle of the cliff and out on what once had bell been a railroad trestle now planked blanked plan ked across which I 1 the as ran road ran the trestle curved carved and ad there was no guard rail except an eight inch timber bolted flat on an the file ends of rf the ties it was tou too late to go anywhere but forward but robin felt her hour hair pr prickle ck ae and d ahr h held d her fir breilh till fill hl afia she was s safe across r H her interest in scenic beauty was forgotten she wanted to get back across that trestle ti e before dark b but it she had 1 to drive a mile or two be before far a she he found a place so wl wide it a am enough ugh t to 0 t turn u round around she bhe re retraced n raced tier her gaz way glided d gin gorly out on the trestle and elpe came I 1 face ace to face with another earl TO BE CONTINUED |