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Show C and hs f j$0) dSSZtS PrCCY )ERN W.N.U. RELEASE Pjk It's a terrible imposition but " She fluttered her hands and the light glimmered on two very good diamond rings that she wore. Jim expressed himself as delighted delight-ed to be of service, as he rose from the table and went to get his tools. A moment later she and Jim were going down the steps and along the walk. Annie, coming In to clear the table, ta-ble, frowning blackly, said unexpectedly, unex-pectedly, "Whut's dat 'oman up to now. Miss Meggie?" Megan tried to laugh. "What do you mean?" "Comin' ove' heh, an' takin' Marse Jim away you s'pose she makin' up to him? Rollin' heh eyes like dat " Annie's anger was mounting and Megan rose swiftly. "That will do, Annie," she said firmly. "Mrs. Stevenson wanted Dad to help her hang some window shades " "An' she too burnin' stingy to pay somebody, so she get Marse Jim to do It fo' nuthin'," Annie finished THE STORY THUS FAR: Mtg learns I from Susie, a high school girl, that Alicia has spread gossip all over town about nor and Tom Fallon meeting on the ridge. She avoided Fallon for several days, but on Saturday he came Into the chicken yard where she was working. She told him ol the gossip. "Who started this talk?" be demanded. Meg told him It was Alicia Stevenson, the widow. "I'll bave a talk with her," Tom declared. She begged him to do nothing about It, but he left with a grim face. When he came back by to pick up the milk and eggs he told Meg that be thought Mrs. Stevenson was "going to mend her ways." Megan had her doubts, for she bad known Alicia longer. CHAPTER IV Megan shook her head. "She has no children," she explained. "She Is a widow. She came here to live In the spring, because, as she frankly stated, her Income has shrunk so much that she can't afford af-ford to live anywhere else. And she amuses herself by ferreting out mall things that people would rather rath-er not have known and then sort of broadcasts them where they will create the most excitement." "She sounds like a thoroughly unpleasant un-pleasant person," said Tom grimly. grim-ly. "And a dangerous one. Where does she live?" "Across the road," answered Megan, Me-gan, indicating the once drab little house that now wore an air of freshness fresh-ness that was almost charm. Tom said sternly, suddenly, "I think I'll have a little talk with Mrs. Stevenson." But Megan laid a swift hand on his arm, stopping him. "Please don't," she said urgently. "After all, nothing can be gained by talking to her. We've all tried it she only uses our protests and arguments to add more fuel to her talk. We've found that the best way is to avoid her, and give her "Well, then, what's all the fuss about?" snapped Jim. "The fuss is because Alicia gave the impression at Mrs. Stuart's that I was meeting Tom there almost daily and in secret," Megan returned. re-turned. "Then you should have explained ex-plained " "I did," Megan cut in. "But the harm had already been done." "Harm? What possible harm could come from such a thing?" "None at all, except that Alicia dropped her little information in the exact way to make it sound ugliest and of course the women around the quilting frame were most of them mothers with children in the school, and they promptly began to wonder you could almost see them wondering just how much truth there was in the suggestion, and whether Tom was the right man to hold the job he's got " "You keep calling him 'Tom'." her father cut in suddenly, and there was a curious, almost a sus-' sus-' plcious look in his eyes. Megan set her teeth for a moment, mo-ment, and then answered quietly, "I have never called him anything but 'Mr. Fallon' or 'Professor Fallon' to his face." She laughed and made a gesture of helplessness. "You see how well Alicia does her work?" she said dryly. "You wonder why the women at the quilting quilt-ing party yesterday afternoon could think for a moment there was any truth in what she was hinting and yet you yourself, my own father, are wondering uneasily if maybe I haven't been just a little well, in-discreetl in-discreetl " Jim rose from the table and flung his crumpled napkin down and snorted. "That's idiotic! I'm not wondering wonder-ing anything of the kind! I'm just puzzled to understand why sane, 81 IIP . es little material as we can." Tom nodded grimly. "Just the ame, I think I'll have e little talk with her," he said, and before Megan Me-gan could stop him he had turned and strode away in the direction of the little silvery-gray house with its green trim. It was almost half an hour before Tom came back and stopped at the back door to get the two bottles of milk and the eggs that she had waiting for him. i His face was grim and set. There was a little white line about his mouth, and his eyes were angry. But he managed a slight smile that tried hard to be comforting, and said quietly, "I don't think you need to worry any more. And there is no reason why you should not continue con-tinue your walks to the Ridge any time you like. I think Mrs. Stevenson Steven-son is going to mend her ways a bit." He picked up the milk and the Back of eggs and went his way. j' After a minute Annie said, as she elid a pan of biscuits deftly into the oven, "Dat Miz Stevenson sho' do make a heap of trouble, don't she?" Megan looked at her sliarply. "What do you mean by that, Annie?" An-nie?" she demanded swiftly. "She be'n tellin' folks dat Ruby Mae dat's Pearl's gal stole a ring ofT'n her," said Annie. "An' Ruby Mae, she say she ain't nebber seed de ole ring. An" den dat ole Miz Stevenson, she tell people she found de ring on de back po'ch, when she say Ruby Mae done hid it; she say Ruby Mae skeered Miz Stevenson Steven-son gonna call de Law an' she stick de ring up deh so folks think she ain't took it." Annie straightened, put her strong brown hands on her hips and faced Megan almost belligerently. "Miss Meggie, dat po' chile ain't stole nuthin'," she said sharply. "Ruby Mae a good gal! Y'all knows dat. Miss Meggie but white folks always believes white folks 'ste'd o' colored folks an' Ruby Mae cain't git a job." Annie's lower lip thrust out a little lit-tle more and her chocolate brown eyes were almost black. "Sometimes "Some-times when folks do like Miz' Stevenson Ste-venson things happen to 'em." They were not more than halfway half-way through supper when the front door opened and a cheerful voice called. "Yoo-hoo it's only mel I'll come right in!" It was Alicia, of course, cool and fresh looking in a brown and yellow print frock, her hair brushed into coquettish curls, a yellow bow tucked into it. She was rather heavily rouged as usual, and if she was feeling the unpleasantness of Tom's visit, she certainly did not show it. Jim MacTavish, always with an eye for an attractive woman, greeted greet-ed her with obvious pleasure, and drew out a chair for her. She demurred de-murred prettily at their invitation to have supper. And then she broached the subject of her visit; she had bought some new window shades for her house and was completely com-pletely helpless when it came to putting them up, and wondered so prettily! if Mr. MacTavish would give her a hand. "I know it's terrible to ask youto help, Mr. MacTavish," she apologized, apolo-gized, "but it's simply impossible to get anyone to do anything In this crazy little place I mean to hire anyone. It makes one terribly dependent de-pendent on one's friends. I'm afraid normal people like these in Pleasant Pleas-ant Grove should so cruelly misjudge mis-judge a woman like Alicia Stevenson. Steven-son. I confess I was amazed last night, to discover how childishly friendly and simple she is. Why, I'm positive there isn't a malicious bone In her body! Maybe she chatters chat-ters too much but I'm convinced it's merely a guilty conscience that makes people think she's talking about them! You know the old saying say-ing 'if the shoe pinches' and he strode out of the house. For the past two years, Megan had had two dates a week with Laurence Lau-rence Martin, from the county seat. Laurence was a Pleasant Grove product who had, by grim determination determi-nation and an almost superhuman amount of labor, managed an education edu-cation and a law course. Two years ago, he had gone to the county seat and into the office of old Judge Graham, Gra-ham, where he was getting much valuable experience and very little money. He and Megan had grown up together in Pleasant Grove, although al-though Laurence was older than she by several years. He had been quite honestly disappointed disap-pointed when he had been rejected for military service, partly because of his eyes, partly because of a stomach disorder resulting, as Megan Me-gan knew very well, from an impoverished im-poverished childhood, and malnutrition malnutri-tion during the years he had been fighting his way through law school. On this Tuesday night, Megan dressed for his arrival, with a feeling feel-ing of relief that she was not facing any complication in Laurence's arrival. ar-rival. She liked him sincerely. She had, she admitted to herself, thought of marrying him. He wanted her to, when, as, and if he ever achieved a position that would make it possible for him to support a wife. That was an understanding understand-ing between them that had no need to be put into words. Tonight, standing before the mir-. ror in her neat, cheerful bedroom, she studied her reflection in the mirror, with a soberness and an intensity in-tensity that she seldom bothered to give the girl in the glass. She seldom sel-dom had time to do more than glance at herself as she brushed her hair; but tonight, dressed and ready for Laurence, she looked at herself thoughtfully, trying to see herself with the eyes of someone else, or a stranger perhaps of Tom Fallon. Fal-lon. She saw a girl a little over medium me-dium height, neat, trim, well-rounded figure born of the hard work and outdoor exercise of her daily life; she saw leaf-brown hair that had no need of the curling iron and that she wore shoulder length because be-cause it was less trouble to have to go to the barber shop once in two months, than every week; her eyes were her best feature, her chief claim to beauty. They were gray-blue, gray-blue, long lashed, set well apart beneath be-neath airy brows. She was not beautiful, beau-tiful, she told herself with an almost al-most impersonal frankness. She looked healthy and wholesome, and that was all! As she reached the foot of the stairs, her father turned, almost guiltily, from the front door, and said stiffly, "I knew Laurence would be along soon so I thought I'd step out tor a little fresh air." He was dressed, she saw, in his "test" suit, ordinarily reserved for trips to the county seat and rare trips to the city more than a hundred hun-dred miles away. (TO BE CONTINUED) He was at the table having his final cup of coffee, when she came Into the dining room. angrily, departing with a tray loaded load-ed with dishes before Megan could answer her.. Megan went on into the shabby, comfortable living room and sat down with a mending basket. But though she sewed until after ten, which was disgracefully late according ac-cording to Pleasant Grove's early-to-rise habits, her father had not come home when she finally went to bed. Indeed, she had been in bed for some time and was almost asleep before she heard his cautious cau-tious entrance and the door of his room closing behind him. In the morning, she had already had her breakfast and done her morning chores before her father came down. He was at the table, having his final cup of coffee, when she came into the dining room. He looked up at her a little defensively. "That Mrs. Stevenson is a delightful de-lightful little woman," he stated firmly. "I can't think what this filthy-minded little town means by low-rating her as they have. I've heard all sorts of gossip about her. I have never had a chance to get acquainted with her but now that I have, I intend to defend her whenever when-ever I get a chance." Megan looked at him, startled, and then she smiled. "Look, Pops," she said firmly, "Alicia is getting exactly the treatment treat-ment she seems to want. She has an absolutely scandalous tongue and she goes around making people miserable by ferreting out their pitiful little secrets and broadcasting broadcast-ing them " "People have no right to be upset about the truth " her father began sternly. Megan said quietly, "Yesterday at Mrs. Stuart's quilting she dropped the information that 1 have been seen meeting Professor Fallon secretly on the Ridge." Jim stared at her for a moment, and then his handsome, rugged face began to darken with anger. "Is that true, Megan?" he demanded sternly. "I met him on the Ridge once, purely by accident, and talked to him a few minutes," Megan answered an-swered quietly. "After all, he is a customer of ours he is a fine, intelligent, in-telligent, interesting man. I could' not very well turn around and walk away, refusing to speak to him, could I?" "Certainly not but you didn't have to keep going back to meet him again," snapped Jim furiously. Megan held on to her temper with an effort. "I've told you that I saw him there just once, purely by accident," she told him levelly. |