Show NALA by ethel hueston illustrations by irwin myers 1 copyright by 67 boar borrill co I 1 WN S service mc CHAPTER VIII continued 15 but bat the sparkle spar lile had bad gone from their merry plans aud and it was ii a relief when eddy started the motor for the rifle ride back to town wont you come along alex invited ginger pointedly we arr ap take one more oh no thanks miriam promised to take me in herself along a brut about midnight my doctor prescribed more pay cay nirl dirt for or me at the end of the driveway they looked rock mck miream sat on the high gate alexander aexander murdock murdoch steadying tier with one hand while tie he swung m the sate gate beneath her with the other their father smiling ng waved farewell inor father mourned ginger what would you call it bin bill pren preachers chers luck to lose his eyes lust just i theres the most to see seel A dull tupper supper tit nt the parsonage aage followed by the usual evening service at the church tub andrews hurried up op to iliam after the serece sen serl ice ce offering olT ering himself its as an escort home hoine a mere formality form alliy for those few safe intervening feet feel 1 I dont think we might to objected marjory you see the minister Is slaving laying with us and I 1 think we ought 1 I dont thinie it would look well weh for ns as to go off and leave hm him linger ginger can take him suggested tub gene generously she can give jill libin pointers pointer on running a church ginger can give pointers on running anything nui but ginger it ik so young stammered marjory 1 I feel that I 1 am rather the head of the house now and allram buckworth himself appeared at al that moment girls it if you will excuse me tie he said gravely 1 I 1 will walk over with mr westbury we are discussing some church business hurray burray tot toi jop chimed tub that suits me to a T weve got some church business of our own to talk about hiram hesitated a moment biting his lip its as though he felt annoyance but ut nodded at last anil and went away not without reluctance and mar alfir lory yielded her smiles al lilles to tuh an drews clinging meanwhile to gin gingel ei to ensure her accompaniment as they walked slowly homeward on the ta millar old veranda eranda tub started at once cheerfully in the direction of the file hanim hammork nh you cant can t stay tonight T tub ab said marjory with a smile warm enough to soften her ber dismissal 1 I have to send you right straight nome I 1 hove have heen been under tinder the weather for a dav da or cir two to and miss bliss jenkins jenkens want me to go to church at all she lias has ordered me to lo bed tub complaining loudly submitted perforce to ibis ejection and sauntered away lugubriously marjory still riling citing to tic her r sisters rs band gingel wait a minute sli sh dont ae let I 1 him bill hear you lets sit in the hammock a while they sat down huddled together and waited in silence until die sound of nf tubs footsteps on and tubs whistling subsided Bub sided into the d ar kness ginger I 1 want to ask you will you just sli sit here alib iab me arid and talk until mr buckworth comes hoine hoiney and ginger if ae comes over und and sits don he always dors does you know would you mind would you yot just ds as ilef you mind would you go to bed you mean well you see linger ginger I 1 want to ask him about soni sit ething 1 I see im to talk my head off andl he get gets s here beret I 1 and I 1 then im jo to go to her bed marjory squeezed her hei arm ano about her sisters waist you see well you see ginger anger it Is like this you remember that thai inight night when you crept downstairs I 1 I 1 flow lung long ago it seems I 1 nod he had find ibis his irm around me well ginger I 1 care a bit bil because yoa saw it il it make any to me rut but I 1 think it embarrassed blin bin or made him angry or for tie he so cruch as looked at ne jio since sat sald linger ginger dully 1 I want to tell him that th it you you yori dian didn I 1 hank a thing ot of it a little I 1 thin thing uke like that thal I 1 think maybe bo be thinks I 1 feel bad about it ILI you dont do 10 you no marjorye Marj orys olce sank to a whisper not a bit I 1 like liim him so tire two girls sut sat ami waited nod and presently front from the he church they heard the two men corning cornyn cor slowly talking as they walked marjory clunn to dingers gingers Gin Oln gers band and held beld tiar ble hi on 1111 at the end of the arith ilie stood for a while anre said good night and paired Y you talk whispered marjory elneer talked 1 1 I think its such a silly name for a fara farm spid grid just like eldy eddy jackson who else would do such a dumb thing pay cay dirt everybody anoa a farm Is nothing but dirt and if it pay nobody would farm it oh hello air buckworth home so soon its lovely tonight wont you come and d talk to us not tonight thanks I 1 am tired pleasant dreams and he be passed inside the girls ant very still for a moment they heard him say good night to miss bliss jenkins and so go up P the stairs marjorye Marj orys tense arm gingers dingers Gin gers waist relaxed suddenly her quiver ing breath was more a sob than a sigh her shoulders rose convulsively you c can n go now thanks ginger ill 11 sli sit here a minute and listen listed to the night ginger went in without a word she was a stricken soul she climbed to the studio and o anted cun ted her store of ditnes dimes she looked tit at tier her corn com page ot multiplication and ad addition dillon she sat for a long to ng time ti file figuring thinking obviously marjory and tire rich ness cess of it wealthy husband were to be denied them as succor marjory was forever lost losi to tier her plans for the future all the file years vears of washing dishes for the ilie sake of marjorye Marj orys hands had find been in vain rain all her dreams of a romantic II 11 figure tire breezing mysteriously into their commonplace circle were dissipated into thin air 11 1 I 1 A ginger what do you mean Is marjory engaged or she ai linger inger was practical enough to ad mit hill defeat when she met it and marjory was her waterloo marjory beautiful peach bloom marjory would marry a minister and her future 1 would he be that ot of catering to a meth odist church and a parsonage mini mum of three in that hour ginger lla rose to great heights of renunciation she relinquished ail her dreams of fortune of fame faine of social supremacy for her beautiful sister she would he bp to see tier her merely happy she smiled she nent ent down the ladder without a moments pil lillise lise for her decision was roade she knocked at the door of tier her fa oom nom now occupied by allram buckworth silene prevailed within ginger knocked again who lio Is it aleuse tense just arni a minute nute lie opened the door with ne hand as he struggled into Us his coal with the other ginger fill all uninvited lie stepped poil inside and closed he be door behind her mr buckworth she began gentle 1 I 1 was just going to bed he in D rudely you misunderstood what I 1 told you she pers istel patiently pati enily 11 1 l say marjory was edgag engaged ged exact exactly ay no you merely said it was understood der stood cut but I 1 mean a man mam I 1 meant money money he was entirely puzzled yes you see we hae always heed been so very hard up father did not go to seminary as you did he even go to college tie lie only gets about BB at much mch money now after all these bears as you will get ut at the very start arid and it tikes takes so much for his eyes and the I 1 Is simply fallin falling to pieces and you call see yourself we tiny clothes cloi hes yes I 1 know ginger he said not without sympathy but laiu ill has that to do with her she Is so beautiful so we naturally decided that she had better marry a millionaire you tou must ad mit sties rot got the looks for or it ginger what do you bienn luenal ts t marjory engaged or she ghe not engaged not exactly hut but it was all ail understood we talked it over and we ill agreed we girls did that Is father just laughed nt at us that margle margie should marry aty money lots of money millions ins and sties ashes not engaged to that fat young andrews or anybody else certainly not theres no roan man mixed up la in it at all just money fr it looks could slay the career of allen ellen tolliver Toll lver would have ended at that mom moment ent why you little devill devil 1 N h ejaculated irreverently and flung her roughly out of his way sher still in the hammock called ginger meekly then she went immediately to bed she wept for or a while softly dufily tor for ll it la 16 0 natural tural that youth auth should abandon its dreams and its expectations of gre great riches with reluctance but in the end slie she sin smiled fled and her slim little shoulders beneath the while sheets very well alien plainly the file future of the lie entire household de voided VOI Aed naon her and ami her alone selah Seln li she whispered into the th darkness CHAPTER IX A great peace a bort son of subdued grandeur descended upon the turbulent spirit ut of linger briger ella for she had schooled herself lier self to accept lifes it Is ind mold it to her own pattern as opportunity came that the opportunity port unity would never come now as concerned marjory she was well aware but bui without rt after nil ail perhaps inq on had no tempi to mold lives free souls like herself As for miriam and the hie grocery clerk she yet had hors nor en alexander murdock was leaving ou in tills ibis very day and ail ginger did not for a moment belleve believe that the sensible twin was so deeply interested as to disqualify her for interest teresi in in more intriguing figures granted the appearance pe pen rance arance of 0 such fi thures get tier her away unit that was the best method singer ginger was adjusting her self to a new impression of the lie sens hie ble twin so she had always seemed so subtly impenetrable that in contrast with marjorye Marj orys rad radiance lince she had appear appeared pl more of a liability than an anthina anu liing thing else but there was something strange about miriam cinger lid dirt not understand it it she remembered liow how tub andrews even in the gorgeous presence of marjory ar fir raved rayed for the hie beauty passant pase ant had succumbed to hiriams she how alexander murdock Mur dork it mere grocer of nf course but bill still no doubt possessive sive of the file usual male inclinations had passed over marjory with a passing cordiality to plant himself immovably tit nt the dancing un feet of miriam strange about herl strange about everything ginger thought the world she concluded largely it all gone leehey beebee the grocers grovel to brains anti and the preachers pick beauty hs is all wrong hut but perl perhaps aps ops when the twins found themselves away from the conrin confining flig of red thrush anav among strangers tit at the normal school will clothes that became girls of their profession and their looks clothes paid for from contributions to lo the home for the blind but nn an ather finno annoying yIng thought arose to disturb the even tenor enor of nl her plans at the normal school they would meet only teachers primary tench teach PIS is ipac bers of geography teachers of anglish aind algienia gin ser sighed it aris unfortunate but tt it was the file hest they could manage this oils spar spir what 0 with the operation and ibe he retirement ou on pension ge be aldes it 11 un an embryonic teacher could supplant the can grocer in hiriams Mir iams lams heart no doubt a little later on the new conqueror could also be conquered by tay say an embryonic eler cler she roust must hope for the best As tor for marjory marjory whose beauty and whose married fortune were now forever denied them hero why should they from their limited funds fund provide the money to send marjory to normal to study to ne be a teacher when she would he no teacher why learn pedagogy when all tier her future held was as the accommodation of tier her person societies and ladles indies 0 to o missionary aids arid and the I 1 he minimum of three the fingerov fin tanger gerof of relentless logic pointed in another way let marjory prepare herself for keeping ti parson parsonage fige by keeping a 11 parson parsonage sige their own she could take lake miriame Mir iams lains place as servitor to their father thus leaving ginger free for tier her own further schooling and for the conduct of her favorite charity TO BE CONTINUED |