Show I 1 r a a 7 ir rs y R A F iq ra n nr L 13 s u bi 7 by K or copyright ay by iy K X izoa izo orria A 7 r CHAPTER VU VIL continued they were in aniels room ariel lying on her bed reading magazines on the sunday afternoon following the accident out eardly vard ly everything was as usual tut but gail was conscious of in the air she had been asked van to dinner up at the chipps the night before and had declined the thrilling prospect of shabby quiet dick stebbins at the lawrence house had anything the idid edid did not do unimportant gall gail in a cautious undertone as they wash edthe breakfast dishes had bad reported to edith that ariel had called van murchison on the telephone at about ten 1 I think from what she said at the telephone she talked ve very ry low she had resumed 1 I think that he wanted her to go off somewhere to lunch with him the chipps chippa 1 1 I tell gall gail if I 1 thought you care id pray about it edith had said passionately it be wonderful 1 I got a little fun butof ou tofit it gall gail had analyzed the situation husir musingly ig 1 I mean I 1 loved the excitement and knowing persons like the chipps but I 1 never got anything really out of van abigail lawrence he adored you no no he liked me I 1 amused him we were like two boys really we were gall gail had persisted as edith began a significant smile he never put his finger tip on me he make love or at least he to me she had finished thinking aloud feeling for words upstairs in aniels room they reverted to the subject 1 I like van gail said but I 1 think hes terribly giddy 10 what would you want him to be a priest ariel demanded un sympathetically dont you have the feeling hes always laughing at everything ariel arfel no arlel ariel answered stubbornly 1 I dont oli oh I 1 do gail said patiently 1 I want to go away edith and anc gail ariel presently said quietly phil can make a fuus fuss if he wants to or lie he can help me I 1 dont much care but im going away from Clippers ville they looked at her sorrowfully she had said this many times before she had been saying it indeed since her fourteenth summer I 1 but this was serious ariel had 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 ai ariel acl lawrence had been going 0 too fast and too far for some time A good boarding school at her age this had frightened gail and phil they had not mentioned it to the others least of all ariel they had no money for boarding school even supposing that ariel would go but very probably ariel would rebel she seemed older harder colder in these few days the events of the past week had seemed to embitter her to accentuate her familiar impatience with clip pers ville and life in it I 1 poor little butterfly caught in the trap of poverty pettiness shabbiness and general small town ugliness 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 gail thought shed know how hov to manage him she want more than he could give we seem to be growing up pretty last all of a sudden 1 she had grown up anyway she wa va 4 a h woman now because she loved a man it made her feel solemn i consecrated it was quite unlike any feeling she had ever known 1 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 she must leave behind her love marriage wife wifehood hoad these were solemn things gail experienced a premonitory pang it was not all afim fun saying goodby good by to being giddy free gail lawrence it was not all fun this strangely thrilling happiness fear and pain that inundated dated her heart they were still gossiping and idling comfortably in aniels room and the old clock in the hall had struck three in sunday stillness when a door sla slammed in med downstairs and gail flushed and tumbled descended to find dick himself in the kitchen going downstairs her heart hear trose rose on wings and she felt suffocated but when she saw him her mood experienced a sudden chill dick had bad on the old tweeds he had bad bought at a sale two years ago his pockets were full of packages suddenly seeing him so commonplace mon place and unexciting in the darkened kitchen gail found him entirely uninteresting her dreams melted into every day air and she felt ashamed and confused dick stebbins in ones dreams indeed it was a desecration of their filmy fabric even to think of him in such a connection he was unloading various cans and d packages from his pockets deviled liam ham cream rolls butter gail gad felt as remote from him as aa if she had never ever seen him in her life before he was nothing nobody she disliked him because she had made a fool of herself over him in her own soul oh are we picnicking she asked blankly arent we he demanded ping short her blood rose at once of course they would picnic she began to put peeled tomatoes lettuce fish nto into a deep glass jar dick stebbins b why he was the same country boy he had always been nice enough the salt of the earth dick came to stand beside gail the wrapped packages of coffee and sugar in his bis bis bi hand and she trembled and dared not look up they went up to the old dam in the sweetness of the autumn afternoon and built their picnic supper fire on the sunshiny sim shiny shingle phil sat silent utterly content watching vat ching a fish line his handsome thick La lawaence blows dhawn together ans aa lie pondered something that was far away from fishing ariel and van murchison were on the shingle sam not being at home when the picnic expedition had started a note had been left for him pinned to the kitchen door van arriving before sam had calmly read the note and had sat down on the lawrences Lawren ces doorstep to await sams return after which they had bad followed the others in vans car a circumstance that added the last touch of felicity to the occasion for gall gail she remembered her old efforts to attract van a few months ago the sallies of wit the constant attempt to amuse him ariel made no such efforts not she she simply was and van trailed her helplessly irresistibly when ariel went down to walk across the old boards of the dam van followed arlel ariel gail noted did not speak much she never did van did all the chattering the little fire burned hotly in the windless air long shafts of sunset were striking level upon the water now the dam was a sheet of blue satin twinkling in the light and slipping into exquisite jade and ultramarine shadows against the overhanging ver hanging banks oh we do have fun edith commented luxuriously lying on the flat hot stones as the meal finished there was silence in the group that 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 paus c clearing away all signs of the picnic in the fast gathering dusk gall gail tried an experiment upon dicks carrying off the coffee pot to throw the grounds away behind behin d the trees she rewarded him with a casual thank you dear said in just the tone she used to sam and phil later laier she said again take that will you dear she remember wh whether she had ever called dick dear before if she had it had not meant anything probably she had for it seemed to make not the slightest impression on him tonight if he had looked surprised she had planned to laugh quite naturally and say 1 I thought I 1 was talking to sam but there was no necessity for this explanation dick paid no at 1 to the affectionate monosyllable oblivious old dick she thought whomever who never dreamed that close beside him was a woman who was thrilling with love and ha happiness I 1 ne Is and the need for him in this wonderful hour of autumn warmth and moonshine they alicy walked singing down the steep rutty half mile to tile the cars gail cail needed a hand now the hand that gripped her was dicks she marveled that he could not feel the electric current that ran chiou I 1 the tips of the square firm fingers I 1 afterward she always remembered the n ight ht they went at rp to the dam A hot night of M moon oon hane and laughter and talk on the shingle above the alie dam soon the weather chan changed geI an autumn came in with v ith october in barnest sa rnest the leaves leave z began to fall no now v and the winds to bow blow to gail it was a time this autumn filled with hints of change of andin endings s and beginnings she was in love and it was endrel entirely different from what she had expected it to be far from giggles capture and excitement it was a serious business it made her feel gioan up and responsible she could never love anyone else but dick it was all settled everything she thought now had to have him in it the future had narrowed itself down to just dick he had no money he was coun try bred he was only the son of the people who rented the old lawrence place over in stanislaus it did not matter gail who had always felt that Clippers ville limited and bound her knew herself quite willing ah breathlessly willing to live contentedly in Clippers ville forever or out on the stanislaus ranch forever if dic dick k so decreed what ariel or edith would think of this sudden altering of all her dreams was nothing there was nothing anywhere except dick all life was a miracle now and bec walked in the glory of it like somebody lifted above the earth all the happy old customs that she and edith had known for years were touched with new joy joi and new pain when men dick joined the family circle the air was only a little more electrified than when he did not come and meanwhile van van had bad established a more comfortable footing in the old lawrence house bouse than ever before and while he be and ariel did not seem to be exactly flirting exactly having an affair there was a far more substantial base to their relationship than his friendship with gail had ever known very quietly in an almost bored tone ariel told her sisters in ely early e ly november that van was going east to get to work no more college no he wants to lo get into bustness business his father says hell start him aim in the new jersey plant then he wont come back to yes hes heb going to be back for a week in january month after next hes coming back after her I 1 edith said when she and gail were alone alond oh ede it does look like it gails imagination was off at full speed ariel married at eighteen to young van murchison edith and phil and sam living on here at the old house herself and dick but this last snatched at her breath breath herself and dick people in the library would glance at her ashes engaged ashes going to marry that young lawyer richard stebbins dick would have cases and she would study every detail of every case and keep up with him and she would have babies babies tumbling about among the flowers HaD happiness happiness happiness to be married to him to have dick all to herself the miracle of marriage the amazing flaming glory of it surrounded her with a cloud of mist by day and of fire by night it began to seem as if things were happening in Clippers ville after all the sluggish current of galls gails life was stirred in many ways it was not only that phil got a raise and that van murchison might marry ariel sam was work working in g for a scholarship and might actually win a year at columbia columbia university in new york gail was assistant librarian now with the name abigail lawrence printed in gold on the library window and a salary of fifty five dollars a month and then christmas was vas coming always exciting it seemed doubly so this year dick was boarding with them now for his mother had gone to oregon to stay with a daughter newly widowed and there were only men on the stanislaus ranch there was one cloud in the sky to be sure gail and edith acknowledged ed its existence bravely one cc enber evening when they asked dick if he thought phil really cared for lily cass a hard question to answer dick said with a faint frown and a sigh do you like her dick well ashes not my type but ashes an awfully sweet little thing really la Is she divorced dick no put but theres tall talk of it if she were do you believe belleve phil really would marry her A pause then dick asked slowly would you girls care youve answered gail said with a brief mirthless laugh 1 I suppose I 1 have dick sighed again there there never was anything wrong with lily he offered doubtfully no gail agreed forcefully except that she was as common as fruit flies and ran with that terrible box factory gang and chewed gum in church and talked way up to G major this rather finished lilys case for the moment but a little later gall gail said apologetically 1 I dont know why I 1 got so wild about P poor lily she certainly Is having a rather tough time of it 1 ill 11 tell you dick said eagerly phils the quiet sort he loves Clippers ville he change places with the president Preside nL phil wants to stay here and develop the place and he loves lily or if he loves oves her 2 dick floundered turning red and correcting himself hastily we know he loves her you be so scrupulous gail said with a dry little laugh 1 I believe stand up for phil if he went out some night and cut some blodys throat but she dick for his lo 10 loyalty aal yal none the less and curried the mutton stew with one idea in her mind they all eat it and he loves lovea it curried to be continued |