Show Laura wile wile of of Mike TEN-The Story So Far Laura wile wile of of Mike happy-go-lucky editor and mayor of the Is mother to four whose real estate job Is during tho depression and who Is married to Mary secretary to Harvey Cobb a big unable to get a Job and who takes up with a flashy older than CHAPTER XIV Kathleen was aware that Ritchie Graham had resented her little Long after Mike disappeared into his private office Kathleen felt Ritchie's gray eyes studying His desk was next to her needn't sit there and say I'm a nasty little she flared at although he had said course you think Dad deserves a medal for spitting in the bull dog's would be different if it cost him anything to put the whole town's interests before his But it doesn't You he wouldn't really mind if this landed him higher than a cocked It's the old fight he and the more he stands to the better he likes Ritchie Graham surveyed her And Kathleen's clear cheeks burned under his level and unflattering rather he'd kowtow to all the powers that and bring home more I you don't know how scarce we are of bacon at our Kathleen told Ritchie Graham going to be scarcer if Mike prints any more of those he don't look Or even What do you want out of he demanded nicest house in a car as big as a show charge a personal maid and that sort of I want is not to be cried Kathleen in a trembling voice as her mother had she was don't want to pay all I have and am for something that proves to be fizz And I don't mean Her pretty dimpled chin intend to keep my head and think straight whatever and be dead sure the purchase is worth the selling Ritchie shrugged his blessed little he said in a caressing drawl that spurred her you know you were born to be worn like a flower in some man's and it won't matter when he arrives whether he's a good bet or a rotten cried Kathleen At that moment the telephone on Roger Whyte's desk trilled Kathleen caught her Roger handled all the high powered She saw him go quite pale and his palsy was very noticeable when he replaced the He answered her unspoken query with a shake of the have just canceled their daily he said in a voice that quavered a decided against local newspaper Are going to use handbills printed in the blood to Eugene Mike from the doorway of the private Frisby's was Covington's largest mercantile Kathleen knew what it meant to lose that So did But he seemed more elated than And Ritchie regarded him with unconcealed Quite suddenly Kathleen felt she hated them Alec never got up for It just made the day seem more But on the morning after he took Lou Knight to the he woke t When he entered Henderson's Drug Store down town his moody dark face was The younger crowd in Covington used Henderson's as an informal Some of the gang were always riding the stools at the This morning was no it isn't old snickered Bandy tell me you were slumming last I didn't know you'd got down to dragging gutters for opined Jim Alec's thin dark face went little can tie that kind of talk he his hands face was that red I almost called out the fire yapped Butch murmured Hot Shot Mays with infuriating you weren't ashamed of the said his eyes very in his drawn white Only I've got over I'm not ashamed now of taking Lou Knight I'm Just ashamed of myself because I'm not good enough to shine her And thai goes for the rest of you drug store do believe the boy's cooed can believe what you Alec remember dirty tongues Lou Keep your Knight when I'm around or I'll smear somebody's mouth from ear to also out of work since his father closed up his fac tory to stop and whose marriage is thus in whom a Ritchie also a newspaper is Ma New-sum wants to marry Connie the banker's Tom wants Mary Etta to move to the town where to She may be and I grant you she's no scream for But she's a which is something you would know nothing Jeered Henry gal must carry a wallop like a She don't look But then I never took her home after If she's that potent maybe I'll cultivate her Alec got to his feet he asked for His right fist flailed He put into it a great deal of concentrated Henny ducked with the sliding half under the fountain for From his barrage he yelped for mercy in a shrill falsetto that wasn't so funny as he meant it to eat them can't you take a If you say the gal's a calla Far be it from me to insinuate anything that you growled Suddenly he felt As if he had released a lot of accumulated He felt almost in Maybe he had made a fool of He realized he would have been wiser to take the razzing with a When the gang found a 1 sore spot they romped on If he eat them can't you take a constituted himself Lou Knight's champion he would very likely have his hands But then Alec never had minded It was emptiness he Nothing so frazzled his nerves as a He had a queer feeling he would enjoy thrashing a lot of people in defense of a girl who was a little like a starved and bedraggled alley there you exclaimed Buddy bounding in at the street door with the exuberance of a gazelle who had had a dose of hot been combing the town for Where on earth did you disappear to last Myra was fit to be tied when you never came Alec He hated to have Myra and Natalie get onto the Lou So he suffered in silence while Gene Mays explained exactly where Alec had vanished to the night protested told us she turned you And you paid your bets too as if you had queried Gene who had a nose like an eagle for scents other people would prefer to keep to bet Alec he couldn't make a date with Lou Buddy it was all a stunt Myra didn't think Alec would have the But I guess be was drunker than be Gene Mays that's why the new girl he accused blonde lady picked the worst little in town and dared you to phone And you were full enough ol giggle water to call her said In a strangled exactly how it He heard a little gasp and whirled Lou Knight stood in the rear of the store waiting for a package which the druggist was wrapping up for Her face was Alec could see only her profile and a quivering little But of course she had And once she had thought him Lou clutched her purchase and he can make a she won't up her they Alec dates up Lou Knight on a She is the town drunk's Banker Mays calls on Mike and threatens to break him If he continues to flay banking Kathleen Is critical of her father for her mother's Kathleen Is very without turning her head stumbled out into the blazing sun of the side street CHAPTER XV Laura was sitting flat on the floor In the living room patching a worn place in the big Axminster rug when Tom came softly through the open folding doors from the boxlike front halL She assumed that he had had to make a business trip to Covington for his firm as he sometimes Only as she scrambled to her feet she saw first the ghastly shadows under his hazel eyes and next the suitcase which he gripped in his left she her voice trailing off into a tremble in spite of don't she but she couldn't go Tom nodded Etta and I are all washed loves her job and her efficiency apartment and the new car far I than she ever loved Anyway she wouldn't think of giving them up for me or any other She was willing to pay my way since I don't seem to be very good at that But I couldn't see I offered her an A pretty shabby I admit But she wasn't And he spread his to love's young dream or was it a Laura could have wept She was not deceived by Tom's laconic He was terribly thin-skinned She knew she had to tread And she prayed for tact she said very is a cruel and the rewards seldom equal the he said but his mouth did not lose its difficult love Mary She is your And happy are always a matter of One gives and he said again and added also what that Frenchman a In which one loves and the other merely reflects his I'm sure Mary Etta cares for say that because you think I want to hear it But you are And I've been a fool not to know it long Mary Etta must have had some affection for me once or she would never have thrown in her lot with But you she is true most of all to And I've let her down She admires successful men who kick their way up in the world by the sheer drive of their ruthless She couldn't respect any man if she paid his Knowing she merely tolerated me while at the same time her money kept us I've got I had For her sake and I'm going in with Colonel He's offered me fifty a month and commissions If there are Mary Etta and I could live on that in I gave her the She And so here I Only his hazel eyes were feverish God's keep the others ofT I don't believe I could bear a lot of damn fool questions right Tell them the truth if you that we've made a hash of whatever happiness we might have had and are through for But don't expect me to talk about it even to Laura's hand rested on his shoulder which quivered under her she said that's the way you want He squeezed her hand gratefully and picking up the rapidly mounted the staircase to the back room with sloping eaves which he had shared for years with Kathleen came home from the office at four that afternoon in anything but a happy It had been one of those days when everything tangled itself up Mike's fracas with Banker Mays had left his daughter both nettled and Then there was Ritchie Kathleen admitted that from the first he had been a source of an unreasonable amount of exasperation to Ruth Yates was throwing a swimming party that evening at the new Porterville And Hot Shot Mays had called Kathleen at the office to say he'd pick her up at home at a quarter to Kathleen who felt as if she had been used to strike matches on all day found the idea of a plunge very And that had little to do with the fact that it was one of those sultry May afternoons which borrow their languor from It had even given her a disproportionate thrill to tell Gene Mays she was just living to see him again this in a voice loud enough for Ritchie's although he merely RE |