Show thle the liacko laa L i a U a ck i ta y Law lawwill Lawre lIll sices by kathleen koit horns is copyright by kathleen cathleen norris service SYNOPSIS the tha boston laurences lawrences Law ces came to call fornia at the beginning of the gold rush but the holdings of the family have shrunk to a small email farm and the old family homo home in Clippers ville phil twenty alve has gone cone into the iron works gall to the public library and edith to the book department of a store sam Is in school and seventeen year old ariel Is becoming a problem phil Is fascinated by that te terrible trible lily cass whose husband has deserted her young van murchison scion of FL a wealthy family returns from yale and gall has visions through marriage with him of the turning of the Lawr lawrence enci luck dick stebbins phils friend has the run of the house ariel Is sneaking out af at night tor for joy rides phil suggests ests to his sisters consternation that they invite lily lilly cass to the house gall goes boes with van tor for a weekend week end with the chipps his uncle and aunt she ts la received coldly at a roadhouse road houBe gall sees arlel ariel at midnight next day ariel admits she was at the place and displays no remorse A policeman brings ariel home announcing that a child has hag been killed in an automobile smashup ema artel ariel was driving once one of the cars dick stebbins who has been admitted to the bar has the case against ariel d dismissed iam based gall gail suddenly realizes that a she he loves dick and not van CHAPTER VII continued is 15 no thanks arlel ariel began to anaw answer er steadily but her voice shook suddenly and her words came in a rush 1 I dont want to go and have every old churchgoing psalm singing cake sale making old woman in this town pointing me out she said in a low tone 1 I dont want my clothes to come from mal lers any more I 1 dont want sodas at dobbins and dances at Odd fellows hall IM sick to death of this whole place and this house and being peorl im not going to stand it either I 1 im going down to hollywood if I 1 have to walk there and im going ja ah sweetheart only make yourself 1111 I 1 gall gail pleaded close beside her now sitting on the arm of arkels chair with one arm about the younger sisters shoulders dont get yourself all wrought up listen darling listen if the whites do give a fancy dress party and we give a birthday party she stopped tor for arlel ariel looking at her with a trembling laugh of scorn broke as suddenly into tears and was laughing and crying in the familiar manner before any one of them could attempt to divert her guided by gall sho she stumbled from the room and upstairs sobbing incoherently and now beginning to feel wretchedly sick cold hot nauseated dizzy gall turned down the wide old bed and flattened the pillows she carried a fresh nightgown to the poor little convulsed figure kept an arm about the shaking shoulders she lowered the shades lighted a bead of gas slipped the hot rubber bag comfortingly in fr between the old linen sheets and all the while her heart sang on a strengthening note dick dick dick it was good to be twenty three and to have dick in the world I 1 gall felt that she had never been so near to ariel arfel never had loved her so dearly and so downstairs to the dear familiar plates and lights the peach tapioca and the blackberry punch the eager conversation that was punctuated with laughter and supplemented by bi tho the books they always dragged in somehow tor for reference or support wonderful to have it cold again 1 edith said eald wonderful I 1 gall echoed but it was not the autumn coolness that made her heart sing and float like a skylark the secret was always with her and when she forgot dick for a second it was delicious suddenly to remember him again gall had never bad h ad any feeling like this in her life before she had never known that there was such a feeling dick she thought dick dick dick dick and at the realization that he might quite naturally come into the dining room and sit here visibly under the rasping gaslight she felt actually faint with ecstasy you dont like van as well as you did edith guessed shrewdly in the days that followed no but still I 1 uke ilke him gall answered defensively 0 0 0 they were ivere in arkels room and arlel ariel lying on her bed reading old magazines on the sunday afternoon following the accident outwardly everything was just as an usual but gall was conscious of changes in the air she bad been asked by van to dinner up attebe at the chipps the night before and pad had declined the thrilling prospect of shabby quiet dick stebbins company at the lawrence house bouse had made anything the did or did not do an Important arlel ariel had seemed languid and d depressed and edith and hill all happy in the usual routine of if beds and church and endle P had neen avil lv by dirr iw nicil d iball aai tn III a I ove u th ili I 1 washed the breakfast dish dishes es had reported to E edith biti that arlel ariel had called van murchison hlson on the tha telephone at about ten 1 I think from what she said nt at the telephone she talked very low sho she had resumed 1 I thiele think that lie he wanted her to tn go off somewhere to lunch with him the chipps 1 I tell gall it if I 1 thought you care yd id pray about it I 1 edith had said passionately siona plona tely it be wonderful I 1 1 I got a little fun out of it gall call had analyzed the situation musingly 1 I mean I 1 loved the excitement tind and knowing persons like the chapps but I 1 never got anything really out of van A abigail bIgall lawrence lie he adored you I 1 no no lie he liked me I 1 amused him film we were like two boys really we were gall call had persisted as edith began a significant smile lie ile never put his finger up tip on me lie he make mahe lovel or at least he to me she had finished thinking aloud feeling tor for words upstairs in aniels room they reverted subject 1 I like van gall call said hut but I 1 think lies hes terribly giddy what would you want him film to be a artel ariel demanded leally dont you have the feeling lies hes always laughing at everything arlel ariel no arlel answered stubbornly 1 I dont oh I 1 do gall said patiently 1 I want to go away edith and gall gail arlel ariel presently said quietly phil can make a fuss if lie he wants to or he can help me I 1 dont much care but im going away from ClIppers ville they looked nt at her sorrowfully she had said this many times before she J thay looked at her sorrowfully had been saying it indeed since her fourteenth summer but this was serious arlel ariel had bad refused to return to school after the accident phil had talked to mrs tripp the principal mrs tripp had put the case plainly to phil ariel lawrence had been going too fast and too far for some time A good boarding school at her age this had frightened gall and phil they had not mentioned it to the tha others least of all arlel ariel they had no money for boarding school even supposing that arlel ariel would go but very probably arlel ariel would rebel she seemed older harder colder in 10 these few days the events of the past week had seemed to embitter her to accentuate her familiar impatience with Clippers vIlle and life in it on saturday afternoon gall call had found her tolling over a typewritten letter supposedly to some moving picture concern she had seen seea ariel enclosing snapshots presumably of herself her beautiful little golden headed beaded self poor little butterfly caught in the trap of poverty pettiness shabbiness and general small town ugliness arlel ariel was only one of a thousand a million girls all over the country who were dreaming of hollywood contracts admiration mi ration excitement shed not mind marrying a man like van gall thought shed know how bow to manage him she want more than he could give alvel I 1 we seem to be growing up pretty fast all of a sudden she had grown up anyway she was a woman now because she loved man it made tier her teel feel solemn consecrated it was quite unlike any feeling she had over ever known before deeply eternally she was dicks for sorrow or joy their two lives were indissolubly united she could even feel a little heartache for the girlhood shed she must leave behind her love marriage wifehood these were solemn things gall experienced perien perlen ced a premonitory pang it was not all fun saying goodby good by to being giddy free gall lawrence it was not all fun this strangely thrilling happiness fear and pain that inundated her heart they were still gossiping and idling comfortably in arkels room and the old clock in the hall had struck three in sunday stillness when a door slammed downstairs and gall flushed and tumbled descended to find dick himself in the kitchen going downstairs her heart rose on wings and she felt suffocated but when she saw him film her mood ex experienced pert a sudden chill dick had on the old tweeds he had bought at a sale two years ngo ago his pockets were full or of puck packages ages suddenly seeing him so common mid iud unexciting in the dark darkened ened kift anil found him entirely teresing her in welted incited into ev ee r ni mr 1111 ati she tell and ana confused dick stebbins lna in ones dreams indeed t it was a desecration of their filmy fabric even to think of him in such a connection ile he glanced at her with a quiet grin as she came in ile he was unloading various cans and packages from his pockets d deviled liam ham cream rolls butter gail gall felt its as remote from him as it if she had never seen him in her life before ile he was nothing nobody she disliked him film because 8 she lie had ni made a de a fool of herself over him film in her own soul oh ob are we picnicking she asked blankly arent we he demanded stop stopping pling short tier her blood rose at once of course they would picnic 1 sho she began to put peeled tomatoes lettuce fish into at 9 deep glass jar dick insl why lie he was the same country boy he had always been nice enough the salt of the earth dick came to stand beside gall the wrapped packages of coffeo coffee and sugar in his big hand and she trembled and dared not look up they went up to the old darn dam in the sweetness of the autumn afternoon oon and built their picnic supper fire on oil the sunshiny shingle the air was sweet with wild grapes tarweed and crushed grass the scent of boiling coffee mingled with the other good odors in the hot sunset stillness phil sat silent utterly content watching a fish line his handsome thick lawrence brows drawn together as he pondered something that was far away from fishing arlel ariel and van hlson were on the shingle van was so close that his head almost touched her elbow he was lying on his side looking up at her as lie he talked sam not being at home when the picnic expedition had started stir ted a note had been left for him pinned to the kitchen door van arriving before sam had calmly read the note rind and had sat down on the lawrences Lawren ces doorstep to await sams return after they had followed the others in vans car a circumstance that added the last touch of felicity to the occasion for gall she remembered her old efforts to attract van a few months ago ii go the sallies of wit tile the constant attempt to amuse him ariel arfel made no such efforts not shel she 1 she simply was and van trailed tier her helplessly irresistibly irresistible when arlel ariel went down to walk across the old boards of the dam van followed when she e come came back and idly begin began to build a little pebbly pen for the velvet brown yellow bellied water dogs van became her enthusiastic aide arlel gall call noted did not speak much she never did van did all tile the chattering the little fire burned hy h IK y in the windless air long iong shafts ot of sunset were striking level upon the water now the dam was a sheet of blue satin twinkling in tile the light and slip ping into exquisite jade and ultramarine shadows against the overhanging banks and this was the night that phil actually got a trout quite a big one and the night they saw a rattler and the night they picked the hazel nuts oh we do have fun faunl I 1 edith commented luxuriously lying on tile the flat hot stones as tile the meal finished there was silence in the group that wits was resting on the shingle in the dusk A great owl floated low over the dam and was gone the creek rippled rippled in the pause clearing away all signs of the picnic in the fast gathering dusk gall call tried an experiment upon dicks carrying off tile the coffee pot to throw the grounds away behind the trees she rewarded him with a casual thank you dearl said in just the tone she used to sam and phil later she said again take that will you lou dear she remember whether she had ever called dick dear before if she had bad it had not meant anything any I 1 ng probably she had for it seemed EU to make riot not the slightest impression on him tonight it if he had looked surprised she had planned to laugh quite naturally and say 1 I thought I 1 was talking to saml but there was no necessity for this explanation dick paid no attention to the affectionate monosyllable oblivious old dick she thought who never neier dreamed that close beside him was a woman who was thrilling with love and happiness and the need for him in this wonderful hour of autumn warmth and moonshine I 1 they walked singing down the steep rutty half mile to the cars gall gal needed a hand now the band that gripped tier her own was dicks she marveled meled that he could not feel the electric current that ran through the tips of the square firm fingers afterward she always remembered the night they went up to the dam A hot night of moonshine and laughter and talk on the shingle above the dam soon tile the weather changed and autumn came in with october in earnest the leaves began to fall now and the winds to blow to gall it was a thrilling time this autumn filled with hints of change of endings and beginnings she was in love and it was entirely different from what she had expected it to be par far from giggles rapture and excitement tt it was a serious business it made her feel grown up and responsible I 1 she could never love anyone else but dick it was all settled everything she thought now had to have him in tt it the future had narrowed itself down to just dick TO BB CONTINUED |