Show BEAUTYS I 1 DAUGHTER by kathleen norris r ad nathleen kathleen norris non it L service STORY lucius farmer came to see them the next morning magda was restless victoria VIctori had gone into her own room to try on a gown her mother had bought her it was of sheer batiste embroidered broi brol dered delicately with tiny garlands of roses all in white etwas the sort of gown that makes any girls eyes dance and victoria coming back with its frail folds blowing about her wore the radiant expression that only a new grown gives to twenty years she halted at the sight of a strange tall man standing at the windo talking with her mother they both turned victorias band was taken in a big hard hand band she liked the man at once one must like him there was something about lucius that disarmed criticism that won all hearts something simple and friendly and a little uncertain and timid and at the same time something definite and vital there was a world of mirth a childs secret and delicious merriment in his gray eyes he was not smiling this morning he seemed serious and burdened immediately the pleasantries pleasant ries of greeting had died away victoria presently going back to her room could hear through the open doorway the gravity of his tone as he and her mother talked at the window their heads together 1 I cant magda he said more than once im so sorry I 1 cant but when victoria came out again to find her mother alone there was an air of disappointment or defeat in mrs airs manners attitude she was glowing with inner fires she was shaken laughing ecstatic she put her arms about vicky held the girl away from her to laugh into her eyes my darling do you like him victoria regarded her with a smile that had small heart in it the question do you vie c 0 on n the steamer the day we left buenos aires we found each other magda said he came up to me and said arent you the valdes friend senora manners I 1 dont know how he ever nerved himself to do it for hes not like that as a rule but he said he had I 1 seen me at the country club we hardly spoke to anyone else on the voyage we had our meals on deck we talked and talked as if we never could talk enough for the first time in my life vie vic I 1 have met a man who stirs in me something something that I 1 might have been might have had magda continued 1 he I e loves me I 1 know that althou although hes never told me so but it that its the companionship the exquisite delight of being under j stood magda broke off to say in amused scorn he knows more morel than I 1 of everything books mus ic people and his attitude toward life is so beautiful so simple and eager and fine there was a silence magda smiled and wiped suddenly wet eyes and victoria smiled too a mothers patient smile for a child so what the girl asked good natu so nothing ray my darling the tragedy magda answered lightly and there was another silence no she went on presently ending it ferdy gets here next week and lucius goes down to his wife and the little girls in carmel and the end the day moved on that night when they went downstairs to join the kendalls and be carried off for a dinner victoria saw lucius and a woman and two gawky shy girls all sitting in the great red chairs of the hotel foyer evidently waiting for someone was it for mother whether it was or not they all came over to vie vic and magda and there were introductions mrs airs farmer was waa a plain stout whole some looking little woman in glasses with ropes of oily gray brown hair wound about her head the girls were like her although both gave promise of some beauty vicky 11 said her mother in the course of the next few days when you fall in love make it with a man to whom you can be an inspiration its a sacred thing its worth all the pain and the ache to inspire a truly great man at first victoria felt most pity for the man he was clever keen affectionate simple and he was suffering g cruelly after a few weeks k she h e perceived that her moth I 1 er was in misery as great as his magda carried it better but it was there ferdy was back now restless irritable unreasonable he went to races fights polo games with men he went off on hunting and fishing trips sometimes victoria thought him entirely oblivious of what was going on sometimes she thought he knew magda was burning up with it ft she could not have wholly concealed it even if she would she glowed and trembled laughed and cried she was strangely awkwardly like a girl again a girl upon whom the inexorable forties had set act their trag ic sea seal somehow it hurt victoria to th the e d depths lep of her soul to see sec her mothers mothe agony in this grip of young love lucius was fighting it grimly honestly uselessly he and magda met sat long over hotel tea tables telling each other that this must be the end that there was no honor no happiness for them except in renunciation magda in her dark violet velvet with the broad brim of her dark velvet hat shadowing her splendid eyes and the rich goldbrown gold brown of sables setting off her exquisite skin was perhaps as beautiful at such moments as she had ever been in her life just to be with lucius brought the transparent color to her face and the strange liquid pulsing to her eyes but when they had parted it was only to begin the agony again ferdy was settled in a suite of rooms connecting with magdas own it was ferdy ano brought to victoria and magda a handful of steamship companies folders they opened the shining brightly colored little booklets eagerly studied floor pa plans ans discussed deck B and deck C it was berdys idea that magda and victoria take one of the canal steamers to new york stopping at america and island ports using up the coldest of the winter weeks on the leisurely trip its just possible that lucius will be on the El with us magda said one day innocently mother dont let him vie vic pleaded magda looked at her and the color rushed into her own face but what am I 1 to do vie vic I 1 cant stand this magda suddenly muttered defensively CHATTER IV irv victoria looked sympathy distress well be gone in a week mummy then wont it be better magda looked at her daughter somberly im forty two vicky and ive never liked anyone b e f ore 0 r e magda faltered with a little difficulty fi it only myself truly vie vic it but its to hurt him so horribly to ruin his life now nov when hes just beginning to succeed what kills me magda whispered but youre separating mother well be gone in a few days thai that will help victoria said forcing herself to gentleness and sympathy just it vie vic kill him magda shut her eyes and tears squeezed themselves under the lowered lashes but hell have his work and his us wife and children victoria began began and stopped his wife means absolutely nothing to him vie vic been nothing t to 0 each other for five years he told me so but mother she presently offered doubtfully a man belong to his wife T to 0 this magda superbly made no answer with an expression of patient endurance she rose and swept into her room when the bright soft morning came magda was vas exhausted her face was bleached and blotched with tears her eyes swollen and the hair that had so of often ten been pushed off her forehead during the fevers of the night hung in careless locks and showed darkness at its roots victoria was dressed in silk pajamas having her breakfast when her mother awakened she set magdas tray on the tumbled bed before her but her mother could not eat she drank a little coffee set the trap aside vie vic she breathed what shall I 1 do mother you cry so berds coming up this morning he will be here for lunch ferd knows her mother whispered not opening her eyes ferd knows victoria was waa startled 1 I told him magda shrugged indifferently well what does he think Is he what does he say nothing it amused him I 1 think magda said with more bitterness than victoria had ever seen in her before you like to divorce ferdy victoria asked doubtfully if lucius got a divorce he wont hear bear of it ferdy wont it was an exclamation cla mation no hes frightened to death of that cambell woman ashes going to be on the loughborough yacht he knows that the minute im out shell be in hes tiring of her already or if hes not hes beginning to feel that he will some day As long as hes married to me li hes safe she was silent staring into space with narrowed somber eyes that were ere reddened with tears mummy I 1 have to remind you that berdys coming up today he has tickets and things he said can you talk to him vicky da darling r do a lamb magda said gayly tell him I 1 had to go to burlingame and that I 1 felt terribly magda was rummaging about in a bureau drawer she spoke absently today and tomorrow are our last days she said and presently she gave vicky an absentminded absent minded kiss and was gone it was five when victoria got home magda had evidently preceded her by only a few minutes and was lying flat on her bed vie vic we had a very serious talk this morning you poor chicken and ive been thinking about you all day magda said her eyes rounded over her teacup itil ill tell you happened and what wo we decided were not children this a first affair and there are a great areat many other persons to consider so so the upshot of it all is vie vic that you and I 1 sail on saturday and that its all over magda was a little subdued and pale in the morning but showed no other signs of her recent emotion the day was exciting with final purchases much talk of wardrobes drobes and plans 1 vie vic wandered out to the balcony I 1 looked down at the waterfront over which the mist was softly closing through the cold dusk the fog horns were steadily sounding horrible weather to go through the gate what makes you say that thata I 1 magda askea asked looking up from her letter heavy fog you cant see the the Kon alei maybe she going in along now I 1 hope ferdy made her h e r wait for ferdy they may not even sail what is this darling the eighteenth tomorrows the twentieth of course magda reached for the thrilling telephone tell mr farmer to come up she said immediately and then to vie vic im going out with him for just a little littie while call me if im asleep when you get back vie vic answered going toward her room she heard lucius voice a few moments later her mothers voice one more day of this she said to herself vie vic awakened with a start with a sense of something wrong the telephone was ringing and someone was knocking at the door the room was filled with dusk and fear and confusion at the door it was otto with the dinner card on the telephone was mollie jervis saying goodby good by victoria answered both claims ordered oyster stew and brown toast and meringues snapped up lights but she still felt frightened and bewildered wil dered her forehead sticky with goodness what horrible perspiration ler her throat thick dreams she went to her mothers door saw only dusk and confusion and emptiness within ashes late vie vic yawned dawned seeing a clocks hands at seven maybe ashes taking a bath the bathroom was empty too perhaps mother was going to have lave one last dinner with lucius perhaps she had left lef t a note somewhere it might be in her rooms victoria went in there lighted lights she saw the note on the dressing table a large square note addressed to vie vic and even be fore her eyes reached its first words my darling darling you must forgive me somehow she knew 1 I never thought of this she whispered aloud in the tumbled desolation that seemed now like a deserted battlefield like an ocean after a wreck the glance went on she saw the word tahiti the word malolo the words snatch our few years of heaven vittoria Vit coria went to the balcony and sat down in a green iron chair her legs had failed under her she felt cold but her face was burning one trembling hand clung tight to the note in the empty hotel rooms behind her the lights shone brightly over the packed handsome trunks with their bands of white and blue to be continued |