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Show IWHCIIOU CORNER 1 W SQUALLS I ViV L By MAUD McCL'KDY WELCH Gramma's experience in squalls with her seafaring husband prepared pre-pared her admirably for the role she was called upon to play when Nedra and Juhn called off their marriage. to bring these two stubborn kids together to-gether would come to nothing at all. It looked plain enough that John and Nedra had no intention whatever what-ever of making up their quarrel. . . . Next morning Mother Nature herself her-self decided to take a hand. They awakened to find the ship tossing in a sudden gale, thunder roaring in demoniac fury, lightning flashing with every split second, the waves tearing at the ship as if possessed of the fury of a thousand devils. Nedra dressed hurriedly, went into Gramma's room to find her also dressed, as early as it was. "Is it a hurricane?" Nedra asked shakily. "I don't know, dear. I think I'll just go and try to find out." "Don't stay long. I'm beginning to be frightened," Nedra pleaded. "I'll be back in a jiffy. There's nothing to worry about. At least I think not." She'd hardly disappeared before there was a loud knock on the door and John came in. "Nedra, Nedra darling, I had to find you, I had to tell you in ... in case anything happened, that I still love you, and I always will." ' "It's been the desire of my life to travel on a fruit-boat," Gramma Gram-ma said fervently. Nedra stared at her for a moment; mo-ment; then yielded. "In that case we'll go." So it happened that In a very few more days, Gramma and Nedra found themselves on a fruit-boat bound for the intriguing destination of Trinidad. And on their very first morning on deck, they both saw a tall, dark young man standing at the rail, gazing moodily out to sea. Nedra's heart almost stopped. She clutched Gramma's arm and drew her around to the other side so quickly that she almost lost her I ' ' j s , . ; " . .?---..;.., '0.-. . ... .-t I , ' ' ' J ' ' ' " , I I t ' - i I ! !f e: :H),j '.! NftDRA had been crying. Sitting in her chair by the big window in the living room, Gramma went on knitting. In one quick glance she'd seen that the girl had tried to hide the tear-stains by an inexpert inex-pert dabbing of powder around her pretty blue eyes. i After a minute Gramma said casually, cas-ually, "John left early." "And not a minute too soon," Nedra returned quickly, sinking deeper Into the fireside chair and turning her face away. "Ho, so you two had a quarrel." Gramma knitted a little faster than before. "No, a conflagration, an explosion, explo-sion, a dissolution, a parting of the ways." Nedra's voice was both , angry and vehement, and a little tearful too. "As bad as that?" Gramma inquired in-quired mildly. "I gave him his ring. It's all over," Nedra swallowed a sob quickly. Gramma made a little clucking eound but she went on plying her needles Industriously. At last Nedra burst out unhappily. unhap-pily. "Well, aren't you going to console me, or congratulate me, whichever the case may be?" Gramma stopped knitting for a moment, looked up. "You and John have quarreled before. They are something like the squalls we'd sometime meet up with on the Saint Lawrence when I'd made a trip with your grandfather on his steamer. steam-er. He was a sea-captain, you know. Well, there'd be a terrible lot of noise and wind, and then the most beautiful calm you ever saw. It's natural for people in love like you and John to quarrel once In a while." Nedra sat up. "Darling, you're an incurable sentimentalist. John and I are sensible and modern and analytical about love, as all young people are nowadays. We've had several bitter quarrels since we became be-came engaged, so we've simply had to face the fact that we're not compatible com-patible and that marriage would be a mistake." "It was sensible of course to face this before it was too late." "It's the modern way," Nedra said in a small, desolate voice. '13ut love is not modern," Gramma Gram-ma observed quietly. Then she added, "but of course someday you'll meet the right man." The sudden white horror of Nedra's Ned-ra's sweet face was like a shock. "There'll never be another man, never!" she exclaimed passionately, passionate-ly, as she rose and left the room. Two or three days passed. One day at noon Nedra was lying on a chaise longue in her room, listlessly turning the pages of a magazine when Gramma burst in, excitingly "waving two important looking tickets. tick-ets. "Listen, darling, we're going places. We're shipping on a fruit-boat fruit-boat for . . . for . . ." she studied the tickets for a moment, "for Trinidad." Trin-idad." "Where on earth is that?" Nedra asked indifferently, still pretending to be Interested in her magazine. Gramma lifted her shrewd dark brows. "My dear, I don't seem to have the slightest idea, but if we stay on the boat long enough, I imagine ' we'll find out." Nedra sat up. "Now, look, you absurd darling, if you're taking me on a sea voyage because you think my heart is broken, that's out. Girls these days when disappointed in love, don't waste time languishing. They go in for careers, maybe politics poli-tics or something." "We were silly to think we could," Nedra agreed softly. The next moment he had her In his arms. "And I still love you,1 John. The moment I knew the ship was in danger, I thought of you." Nedra's voice was a happy whisper.) He bent his head and tilted her chin, "Which only goes to prove, dearest, that love is something that escapes all logic and reason and analysis. We can't argue ourselves out of it just on the pretense of being realistic." "We were silly to think we could," Nedra agreed softly. "The only reason we quarreled," John went on, "was because of my absurd jealousy, because I love you so very much." "No," Nedra contradicted adoringly, ador-ingly, "it was my bad temper." John shook his head quickly. "You have the temper of an angel, and we'll never, never quarrel again in the future . . . if . . . there is a future left to us," he finished bravely. brave-ly. Neither of them was aware that the wind had ceased its wild roar and the deceitful sea had suddenly become as calm and benign as a summer day. Still holding each other in a close embrace, they hardly heard Gramma Gram-ma when she came back and saw them together. "Just a squall," she murmured softly as she went into her own stateroom, a happy smile wreathing itself around her lips. breath. "Hey, what goes?" Gramma Gram-ma asked in Nedra's own jargon. "That was John," Nedra exclaimed ex-claimed breathlessly. Gramma straightened her neat black toque and got herself better organized. Then Nedra's voice came suddenly accusingly, "And you knew it all the time. You did this on purpose." She whirled around angrily, "I'm going to my cabin and I'm going to stay there." Nedra kept her word. She stayed in all day, even though after she'd had her dinner, Gramma reminded her that there was nothing on earth more beautiful than a moonlit evening eve-ning at sea. "What do I care about a silly old moon," Nedra retorted in a voice that shook with tears. TT SEEMED a stalemate, so Gram- ma went on deck alone and soon found John, his boyish face looking tired and drawn even in the semi-light. semi-light. Gramma slipped into the chair beside him, and he said un-happly, un-happly, "Look here, Gramma, a man can't go a thousand miles away, more or less, to forget a girl and stay on the same boat with her all the way." "Why don't you two youngsters make up?" "We decided that if we quarreled before marriage, we'd do the same thing afterward. We're trying to be logical and modern but . . ." his voice trailed away sadly. "Well, someday you'll meet another an-other girl," Gramma said lightly. "That'll never happen . . . never. Don't even mention a thing like that." John's voice was hoarse with pain. But just the same, it looked more and more as if Gramma's plotting |