Show INSTALLMENT NINETEEN The Story So Far Is wife to happy-to-lucky editor and mayor ot whom banker Mays tries to ruin and a bribe to stop exposure of a bad banking She is mother to four Ill treated by the society editor for her who criticizes his quixotic slapping of Mays at the expense of the family She Is In love with Ritchie i CHAPTER Continued Laura laughed a strained do you know of Walt till you've lived with a man a quarter of a And borne him his Walked through the shadow of death at his side and drunk of his Grown older clinging to finding comfort and peace against his heart Always first with him as he is with Wait till you've grown so deeply into your mate he's part of Till it almost frightens you when you think how much he means to Then you will know about Love like mine and Kathleen stared at As if she were a Someone she had never seen Laura's face went very now you think he's killed To leave me his took his revolver with him when he left the said Ritchie Laura's slender shoulders were Mike would never kill himself to leave me He knows that to me he is all the riches of the and without him I'm a broken Kathleen was agonized Laura made a tremendous effort and went over to going to be all took her mother's hand and laid it against her didn't she said doesn't It has so dreadfully much to But you must not suffer like Mike could not break your heart or It isn't The telephone rang When Laura came slowly back to the living her eyes had a queer startled has been down at the bank for Locked up with the directors and the state bank she and then went on as if she were a little Investment Brokers did not open for business this They've failed to the tune of twenty million ejaculated concern in which Eugene Mays was Mays is said blew brains out ten minutes ago when they told him that his bank doors had to personal fortune is completely The crazy fool gambled the last dime he had on earth trying to recoup his The Maguires were at All of Shirley and Jaird had hired someone to look after their place for the Tom and Mary Etta had driven over after Alec and Mike had brought Ritchie home from the office with It was Mike who was somberly reviewing the extent of the Mays has been on the verge of ruin for That's why he snatched at such a desperate cliance as the Donahue And it ripped him wrecked the town with added Tom explained He great many people seem to have read the Even if our revenues did drop fifty per cent after I attacked Depositors have been drawing their money out of his institution like fury for the past six The bank examiner told me he had never seen anything like CHAPTER Laura smiled at her don't you break down and confess that Covington has one peach of a Lord and knows Kathleen saw the look that passed between And her eyes misted with How could she have been so blind to the beautiful thing that existed between her father and her Love so perfect it needed no words or Understand-ing so deep it was as natural as the air they said Alec Swearingen took your articles to heart Or rather Lou he found her small hand and pressed never gave either of us a minute's peace till he got our little wad out of Mays' Mike smiled at his newest daughter-in-law and Lou smiled back at a shy nervous little but very sweet looking down the long crowded table at Lou's small blissful thought that God works in a mysterious way His wonders to Such a fragile little Vet she held Alec as nothing else Because she believed in him and needed Mike his older son somewhat hope Colonel Shoup didn't act newspaper aid of her but won't admit Instead she engaged herself to Mays' but breaks the engagement In a few who had separated from his wife when he had to move from the bigger city to get a Mary Etta held on to her secretary Job and started to But Laura brought the two who secretly married the town the goat and stick to Mays to the bitter Or did He's never liked me a lot Says I go off half-cocked as often as Tom Colonel may be stubborn but he's not a He fumed around a lot when you began to spout about the And he cut out advertising with For spite or But when you opened up on the Donahue the Colonel And he kept on weakening until last week he transferred all the money he had in the world to a safety deposit vault And it's there Thanks to Incidentally I've orders to resume our old business relations with the We'll want our regular daily ads with the full Sunday Mike 'S funny how the folks have suddenly decided practically in one afternoon that they can't do without me or the They've been shooting advertising contracts and renewals at us so fast and furiously since noon darned if the staff isn't about to have the Kathleen drew a long guess after she said in an uneven reputation for unimpeachable integrity Is more precious than Banks may break and Investment brokers go but a good name goes on and Mike's boyish face looked suddenly very gay and that mean you've got over your peeve at your blundering old he He but his eyes were not Kathleen leaned over until her shoulder brushed always adored she I lost my way I'm back on the tracks for good this And I I love Mike squeezed her Kathleen with a shiver glanced down the table at her Laura was wearing the ecru Her face was a little It had been a trying But her clear brown eyes were strangely lighted by a deep and abiding She and Mike had built their house on the eternal And although the tempest had whistled above the house had in all the shooting I forgot about exclaimed taken an awful jolt By I don't know how he's ever going to hold up his head happened to demanded Kathleen In a fierce little She glared at her I don't think It's funny of you to laugh if it's as bad as you Mike flung up his hands and gave Ritchie a mock pleading off the kitten before she claws me to over a younger handsomer Kathleen blushed furiously and Ritchie He fussed at his isn't really he but he looked as if he wished he could crawl into a about those articles I sent the agent in New He er I guess maybe the big publishers aren't as yellow as I Anyway he's sold the whole he concluded drunk's Lou after he had taken her to his mother's house when her father died rescuing a crippled boy In a married at last to Jaird who also was out of but the couple pawn their buy a hamburger Mays kills himself and the bank closes when his crookedness comes to Laura and Kathleen discuss more money than I expected to see in five just cried laughing till the tears ran down his was all set to starve in an attic for truth's sweet And now darned if he isn't on his way to becoming a bloated Ritchie's mouth like he overwhelms you with the success you don't want and slaps you down when it comes to you Ritchie's glance met Her gray eyes were hard and She looked away with a sharp ache stabbing at her heart Ritchie has got over wanting she her eyes want to talk to said Ritchie after dinner in a harsh peremptory Meekly Kathleen followed him down the path which led around the house to the grape arbor at the The July night was breathlessly So still thought Ritchie must hear the painful throb of her broke my engagement to Gene Mays this she said at last in a small tremulous drawled Ritchie without looking at I got back to the he'd been calling for you every five He seemed to think he could force you to marry him or the like of But I disabused him of the His made a hard won't bother you was never really an she didn't even kiss Not I couldn't let She heard Ritchie catch his breath sharply but he said never grew up until she told her voice breaking on a until I realized what I might have done to I've been All confused and mixed I don't deserve that you should bother with But I He turned His arms caught her Crushed her to He had always been her private He always would His kisses taught her passion and An almost intolerable Cheat Kathleen knew if she lived forever she could not be grateful enough for the aching rapture of Ritchie's his This moment was worth anything It cost whispered love cried On the veranda Laura leaned back against Mike's She was as mothers of her They had been Each of even her But they were safe this night her children and her They had come out on the other side of the storm There were rainbows in the is pretty grand after said Laura out of her deep Michael Maguire chuckled as his arm tightened about he you've always played it that THE END |