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Show INSTALLMENT TEN The Story So Far IN Laura Magulre. wife of Mike Maguire. happy-go-lucky editor and mayor ol the town, Im mother to (our children: Tom. whose real estate Job Is profitless during the depression and who is married to Mary Etta, secretary to Harvey Cobb Leigh, a big shot; Alec, unable to get a lob and who takes up with a flashy dl-. dl-. niHer than himself: Shirley, en- he can make a living; she won t give up her job; they separate. Alec dates up Lou Knight on a bet. She to the town drunk's daughter. Banker Mays calls on Mike Maguire and threatens to break him if he continues to flay his banking methods. Kathleen is critical ol her father for her mother's sake. Kathleen is very unhappy. gaged to Jalrd Newsum. also oui 01 work since his father closed up his factory fac-tory to stop losses, and whose marriage mar-riage is thus delayed; Kathleen, in whom a- stranger, Ritchie Graham, also a newspaper man, Is Interested. Ma New-sum New-sum wants Jaird to marry Connie Mays, the banker's daughter. Tom wants Mary Etta to move to the small town where to ear. She may be poor, and I grant you she's no scream for looks. But she's a lady, which is something some-thing you would know nothing about." "Dear, dear," jeered Henry Baxter, Bax-ter, "the gal must carry a wallop like a mule. She don't look torrid. But then I never took her home after aft-er midnight. If she's that potent maybe I'll cultivate her myself." Alec got to his feet deliberately. "All right," he said, "you asked for it." His right fist flailed out. He put Into it a great deal of concentrated venom. Henny ducked with the blow, sliding half under the fountain for protection. From his barrage he yelped for mercy in a shrill falsetto that wasn't so funny as he meant it to be. "I'll eat them words. Cheest, can't you take a joke, feller? If you say so, the gal's a calla lily. Far be it from me to insinuate anything else." "See that you don't," growled Alec. Suddenly he felt better. As if he had released a lot of accumulated bile. He felt almost blithe, in fact. Maybe he had made a fool of himself. him-self. He realized he would have been wiser to take the razzing with a grin. When the gang found a sore spot they romped on it. If he CHAPTER XTV t g Kathleen was aware that Ritchie E Graham had resented her little tl speech. Long after Mike disap- a peared Into his private office Kath-leen Kath-leen felt Ritchie's gray eyes study- t tag her. His desk was next to her L own. "You needn't sit there and say e I'm a nasty little beast," she flared r at last, although he had said nothing. noth-ing. "Of course you think Dad de- , serves a medal for spitting in the j bull dog's face." "Don't you?" "It would be different If it cost , him anything to put the whole town's , V interests before his own. But it doesn't. You see, he wouldn't really ' mind if this landed him higher than a cocked hat. It's the old fight he loves, and the more he stands to lose, the better he likes it." Ritchie Graham surveyed ber steadily. And Kathleen's clear cheeks burned under his level and unflattering scrutiny. "You'd rather he'd kowtow to all the powers that be, and bring home more bacon, I suppose?" "Maybe you don't know how scarce we are of bacon at our house," Kathleen told Ritchie Graham Gra-ham stubbornly. "And going to be scarcer if Mike prints any more of those guaranteed-to-scorch articles." arti-cles." "Queer," he mused, "you don t look mercenary. Or even grasping. What do you want out of life? he demanded suddenly. "The nicest house in town, a car as big as a show window, charge accounts, a personal person-al maid and that sort of thing?" "All I want is not to be cheated," cried Kathleen in a trembling voice as her mother had been, she was thinking. "I don't want to pay all without turning her head stumDieo. 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 did 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 hand. "Tom!" she whispered, her voice trailing off into a tremble in spite of herself. "You don't mean" she began, but she couldn't go on. Tom nodded curtly. "Mary Etta and I are all washed up." "Tom!" "She loves her job and her efficiency effi-ciency apartment and the new car far more, I guess, than she ever loved me. Anyway she wouldn t think of giving them up for me or any other man. She was willing to pay my way since I don't seem to be very good at that myself. But I couldn't see it. I offered her an alternative. A pretty shabby one, I admit. But she wasn't interested. And so," he spread his hands, "blooey "bloo-ey to love's young dream or was it a nightmare?" Laura could have wept. She was not deceived by Tom's laconic manner. man-ner. He was terribly thin-skinned emotionally. She knew she had to tread delicately. And she prayed for tact. "Darling," she said very gently, "pride is a cruel master, and the u nn,ml tVio nnnish- I have and am for something mat proves to be fizz water. And I don't mean to." Her pretty dimpled chin set. "I intend to keep my head and think straight whatever happens, hap-pens, and be dead sure the purchase pur-chase is worth the selling price.' Ritchie shrugged his shoulders. "You blessed little idiot," he said In a caressing drawl that spurred her heart, "don't you know you were born to be worn like a flower in some man's lapel, and it won't matter when he arrives whether he's a good bet or a rotten one?" "No!" cried Kathleen violently. At that moment the telephone on Roger Whyte's desk trilled impatiently. impa-tiently. Kathleen caught her breath. Roger handled all the high powered advertisements. She saw him go quite pale and his palsy was very noticeable when he replaced the receiver. re-ceiver. He answered her unspoken query with a shake of the head. "Frisby's have just canceled their daily spread," he said in a voice that quavered a little. "They've decided de-cided against local newspaper ads. Are going to use handbills printed In the city." "First blood to Eugene Mays," yo-deled yo-deled Mike from the doorway of the private office. Frisby's was Covington's largest mercantile store. Kathleen knew what it meant to lose that revenue. So did Mike. But he seemed more elated than staggered. And Ritchie regarded him with unconcealed admiration. ad-miration. Quite suddenly Kathleen felt she hated them both. Alec never got up for breakfast. It just made the day seem more endless. But on the morning after he took Lou Knight to the Airdrome, he woke early. When he entered Henderson's Drug Store down town his moody dark rewards seiuuiu cquoj r ment." "I .know," he said bleakly, but his mouth did not lose its difficult line. "You love Mary Etta. She is your wife. And marriage, happy marriages, mar-riages, are always a matter of com- promise. One gives and takes." "I know," he said again and added add-ed bitterly, "it's also what that Frenchman said, a mirror. In which one loves and the other merely reflects re-flects his love." 1 "Tom, I'm sure Mary Etta cares for you." "You say that because you think I want to hear it. But you are wrong, Mother. And I've been a fool not to know it long ago. Mary Etta must have had some affection for me once or she would never have thrown in her lot with mine. But you see, she is true most of all to herself. her-self. And I've let her dowfl badly. She admires successful men who kick their way up in the world by the sheer drive of their ruthless personalities. per-sonalities. She couldn't respect any man if she paid his bills. Knowing she merely tolerated me while at the same time her money kept us going, I've got out. I had to. For her sake and mine. I'm going in with Colonel Shoup. He's offered me fifty a month and commissions If there are any. Mary Etta and I could live on that in Covington. I gave her the choice. She refused. And so here I am. Only" his hazel eyes were feverish "for God's sake, keep the others off me. I don't believe I could bear a lot of damn fool questions right now. Tell them the truth if you like, that we've made a hash of whatever happiness we might have had and are through for good. But don't expect me to talk about it even to you." 1 Laura's hand rested on his shoul-1 shoul-1 der which quivered under her touch. "I'll eat them words. Cheest, can't you take a joke, feller?" constituted himself Lou Knight's champion he would very likely have his hands full. But then Alec never had minded that. It was emptiness he dreaded. Nothing so frazzled his nerves as a vacuum. 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 kitten. "So there you'are!" exclaimed Buddy Pryor, bounding in at the street door with the exuberance of a gazelle who had had a dose of hot drops. "I've been combing the town for you. Where on earth did you disappear to last night? Myra was fit to be tied when you never came back." Alec shrugged. He hated to have Myra and Natalie get onto the Lou angle. So he suffered in silence while Gene Mays explained exactly where Alec had vanished to the night before. "But, gee," protested Buddy, "you told us she turned you down. And you paid your bets too as if you had lost. "What bets?" queried Gene who had a nose like an eagle for scents other people would prefer to keep to themsefves. "Myra bet Alec he couldn't make a date with Lou Knight," Buddy explained. ex-plained. "You see, it was all a stunt Myra didn't think Alec would have the nerve. But I guess he was drunker than he looked." Gene Mays laughed. "So that's why the new girl friend," he accused ac-cused Alec. "Your blonde lady picked the worst little suggin in town and dared you to phone her. And you were full enough of giggle water to call her bluff." "Yes," said Alec in a strangled voice. "That's exactly how it was." He heard a little gasp and whirled sharply. Lou Knight stood in the rear of the store waiting for a package pack-age which the druggist was wrapping wrap-ping up for her. Her face was averted. Alec could see only her profile and a quivering little chin. But of course she had heard. And once she had thought him wonderful. wonder-ful. Lou clutched her purchase and face was sullen. The younger crowd in Covington used Henderson's as an informal club. Some of the gang were always riding the stools at the counter. This morning was no exception. ex-ception. "If it isn't old Whoop-Em-Up-Alec!" snickered Bandy Taylor. "They tell me you were slumming last night?" "Boy, I didn't know you'd got down to dragging gutters for skirts," opined Jim Atwood. Alec's thin dark face went a little white. "You can tie that kind of Otalk outside," he muttered, his hands clenched. "Alec's face was that red I almost al-most called out the fire engine," yapped Butch Henderson. "Why, Alec," murmured Hot Shot Mays with infuriating sweetness, "surely you weren't ashamed of the gil friend?" "Yes," said Alec, his eyes very biack in his drawn white face. "I was. Only I've got over it. See? I'm not ashamed now of taking Lou Knight out. I'm just ashamed of myself because I'm not good enough to shine her shoes. And that goes for the rest of you drug store insects." in-sects." "I do believe the boy's serious," t cooed Gene. "You can believe what you like," I Alec snapped. "Only remember j this. Keep your dirty tongues off Lou ' Knight when I'm around or I'll smear somebody's mouth from ear "All right," she said quietly, u that's the way you want it." He squeezed her hand gratefully and then, picking up the suitcase, rapidly mounted the staircase to the back room with sloping eaves which he had shared for years with Alec. Kathleen came home from the office of-fice at four that afternoon in anything any-thing but a happy mood. It had been one of those days when every-, thing tangled itself up unpleasantly. unpleasant-ly. Mike's fracas with Banker Mays had left his daughter both nettled and uneasy. Then there was Ritchie Graham. Kathleen admitted that from the first he had been a source of an unreasonable amount of exasperation exas-peration to her. Ruth Yates was throwing a swimming swim-ming party that evening at the new Porterville pool. And Hot Shot Mays had called Kathleen at the office to say he'd pick her up at home at a quarter to five. Kathleen who felt as if she had been used to strike matches on all day found the idea ol a plunge very edifying. And thai had little to do with the fact that i1 was one of those sultry May after noons which borrow their languoi from June. It had even given her i disproportionate thrill to tell Gem Mays she was just living to see hin again this in a voice loud enougl for Ritchie's ears, although he mere ly grinned. (TO BE COSTIMED) |