Show t the ile lucky laurences lawrences lawre ado RC ces va AL v v v by kathleen norris copyright by kathleen norris carto T fi f f if IV W V V s SYNOPSIS the boston boiton lawrence Lawren ces camf to call fornis at the beginning of the sold gold rush roh but the th holdings holding ot of the family hava shrunk brunk to a small mall farm and tho th old family home in Clippe raville phil twenty five live has gone into the iron works work gall to the public library and edith to the th book department of a tore store sam is I 1 in school and seventeen year old ariel la Is becoming a problem phil I 1 is fascinated by that terrible lily cuss cass whose husband has deserted her young van murchison hlson scion of a weal wealthy thir family returns return from yale and gall has visions through marriage with hlin him of the turning of the lawrenc lawrencet Law renet i luck dick stebbins phils friend has ha the run of the house arlei ariel la is sneaking out at night for joy rides phil suggests ug gesta to his sisters listers consternation that they invite lily cass to the house gall goes goe with van for a weekend week end with the chipps chapps his hi uncle and aunt she Is received coldly at a roadhouse gall sees arlel ariel at midnight next day arlel ariel admits the she was at the place and displays display no remorse A policeman brings bring arlel ariel home announcing that a child has ha been killed in an automobile machup ma it hup arlel ariel was driving one of the nm can r n dick stebbins who has been admitted to the bar has the case against arlel ariel dismissed gall suddenly realizes re alise that she lovet love dick and not van CHAPTER vir VII continued 15 no thanks arlel ariel began to answer steadily but her voice shook suddenly and her words came in a rush 1 I dont want to go and have every old churchgoing psalm singing cake sale making old woman in this town pol pointing n ti ing me don ouva out she bhe said in a low tone 1 I 1 dont 1 want my clothes to come from mul lerg lees any more I 1 dont want sodas at dobbins and dances at Odd fellows hall im sick to death of this whole place and this house and being peorl poor I 1 rm im not going to stand it either I 1 im going down to hollywood if I 1 have to walk there and im going ah sweetheart only make yourself 1111 gall pleaded close beside her now sitting on the arm of ariel chair with one arm about the younger sisters shoulders dont get yourself oil all wrought up cp listen darling usten it if the whites do give a fancy dress party and we give a birthday party she stopped for arlel ariel cooki looking ng at her with a trembling laugh of scorn broke as suddenly into tears and was laughing and crying in the familiar manner before any one of them could attempt to divert her guided by gall she stumbled from the room and upstairs sobbing incoherently and now beginning to feel wretchedly sick cold hot nauseated dizzy gall turned down the wide old bed and flattened the pillows she carried a fresh nightgown to the poor little convulsed figure kept an arm about the shaking shoulders she lowered the shades lighted a bead of gas slipped the hot rubber bag comfortingly in between the old linen sheets and all the while her heart sang ol 01 on a strengthening note dick dick dick it was good to be twenty three and to have dick in the world I 1 gall felt that she had bad never been so near to ariel arfel never had loved her so dearly and so downstairs to the dear familiar plates and lights the peach tapioca and the blackberry punch the eager conversation that was punctuated with laughter and supplemented by the books they aliey always dragged in somehow tor for reference or support wonderful to have it cold again I 1 edith said wonderful Wonder full 1 gall echoed but it was not the autumn coolness that made her heart sing and float like a skylark the secret was always with her and when she forgot dick for a second it was delicious suddenly to remember him again gall had bad never had any feeling like this in her life before she had bad never known that there was suet such a feeling dick she ehe thought dick dick dick dick and at the realization that he might quite naturally come into the dining room and sit fit here visibly under the rasping gaslight she ebe felt actually taint faint with ecstasy you dont like van as well its as you did edith guessed shrewdly in the days that followed no but still I 1 like him gall answered defensively alel room they were la aniels room and arlel ariel lying on her bed reading old maga tines on the sunday afternoon following the accident outwardly everything was just as ag usual but gall was conscious of changes in the air she had bad been asked by van to dinner up at the chipps the night before and had ad declined the thrilling prospect of I 1 shabby quiet dick stebbins company at a the lawrence house had made anything the did or did not do unimportant arlel ariel had seemed languid and depressed and edith and gall gail happy in the usual sunshiny routine of beds and dishes church and endless clint ter had been gradually infected by liar gall in a cautious undertone as the teiei washed the breakfast dishes tied bad reported to edith that ariel Arfel had called van murchison on the telephone at about ten 01 1 I think from what she he said at the telephone the she talked very low she had resumed 1 I think that he wanted her t to go off som somewhere where to lunch with iab him the ChIpps 2 01 1 I deiv tell gall it if I 1 thought you care rd fd pray about it I 1 edith had said passionately siona tely it be wonder wonderfully full 1 I got a little tun fun out ot of IV it gall had analyzed the situation musingly 1 I mean I 1 loved the excitement and knowing persons like the chipps but I 1 never got anything really out of VilA van n abigail bigall lawrence he adored youl no no he liked me I 1 amused him we were like two boys really we were gall had persisted as edith began a significant smile ile he never put his finger up tip on me he be make love level or at least he to me she had finished thinking aloud feeling for words upstairs in arkels room they reverted to the subject 1 I like ilka van gall said but I 1 think hes terribly giddy what would you want him to be a priest arlel ariel demanded feally dont you yon have the feeling hes always laughing at everything arlel ariel no arlel ariel answered stubbornly 1 I dont oh I 1 do gall said patiently 1 I want to go away edith and gall ariel presently said quietly phil can make a fuss if he be wants to or he be can help me I 1 dont much care but im going away from ClIppers ville they looked at her sorrowfully she had bad said this many times before she 11 or ts 11 they looked at her sorrowfully 4 had been saying it indeed since her fourteenth summer but this was serious arlel ariel had refused to return to school after the accident phil had talked to mrs tripp the principal mrs tripp had put the case plainly to phil arlel ariel lawrence had bad been going too fast and too far for some time A good boarding school at her age this had frightened gall and phil they had not mentioned it to tho the others least ot of all arlel ariel they had no money tor for boarding school even supposing that arlel ariel would go but very probably arlel ariel would rebel she seemed older harder colder in these few days the events of the past week had seemed to embitter her to accentuate her familiar impatience with Clippers ville and life in it it on saturday afternoon gall had found her tolling over a typewritten letter supposedly to some moving picture concern she had seen arlel ariel enclosing snapshots presumably of herself her beautiful little golden headed self poor little butterfly caught in the trap of poverty pettiness shabbiness and general small town ugliness I 1 arlel ariel was only one of a thousand a million girls all over the country who were dreaming of hollywood contracts admiration mi excitement shed not mind marrying a man like van gall thought shed know how to manage himi she want more than he could give I 1 we seem to be growing up pretty fast all of a sudden she had grown up anyway she was a woman now because she loved i man her feel solemn consecrated it was quite unlike any feel ing she had ever known before deeply eternally she was dicks dicki for sorrow or joy their two lives were hindls united she could even feel a little heartache for the girlhood she must leave behind her love marriage wifehood these were solemn things gall experienced perien ced a premonitory pang it was not all fun saying goodby good by to bel being ng giddy tree free gall lawrence it was not all fun this strangely thrilling happiness tear fear and pain that inundated her heart they were still gossiping and idling comfortably in arkels room and the old clock in the hall had struck three in sunday stillness when a door slammed downstairs and gall flushed and tumbled descended to find dick himself in the kitchen going downstairs her heart ros rose e on wings and she felt suffocated but when she saw raw him her mood experienced a sudden chill dick had bad on the old tweeds he had bought at a sale two years ngo ago his pockets were full of puck packages ages suddenly seeing him so commonplace and unexciting io in the darkened kitchen gall ahti i found him entirely leres lere llna her ln r dreams melted into every cr di ilo or il and she ml felt ashamed and confused dick stebbins in one li dreama indeed it wa win a desecration of their filmy almy fabric even to think of him in ouch guch a connection he glanced at her with a quiet grin as an the she came in tie ile was unloading various cans can and packages from hta his pock eta deviled ham cream rolls butter butte gall felt as remote from him as if she had bad never seen him in herll her life fe before ile he was nothing nobody she disliked him because shi she had made a fool of herself over him in her own soul oh are we picnicking she asked blankly arent we he demanded stopping short her blood rose at once of course they would picnic 1 she began to put peeled tomatoes lettuce fish into a deep glass jar dick Stebbin st why he was the same country boy he had always been nice enough the salt of the earth dick came to stand beside gall the wrapped packages of coffee and sugar in his big hand and she trembled and dared not look up they went up to the old dam in the sweetness of the autumn afternoon and built their picnic supper fire on the sunshiny shingle the air was sweet with wild grapes tarweed and crushed grass the scent of boiling coffee mingled with the other good odors in the hot sunset stillness poll phil sat silent utterly content watching a fish line his handsome thick lawrence brows drawn together as he pondered something that was far away from fishing arlel ariel and van murchison hlson were on the shingle van was so close that his head bead almost touched her elbow he be was lying on his side looking up at her as he talked sam not being at home when the picnic expedition had bad started a note had been left for him planed pinned to the kitchen door van arriving before sam had calmly read the note and had sat down on the lawrences laurences Lawren ces doorstep to awalt await sams gams return after which they had followed the others in vans car a circumstance that added the last touch of felicity to the occasion for gall she remembered her old efforts to attract van a few m months 0 n ago 0 1 th the sallies of wit the constant ta n t attempt m p t te to amuse him arlel ariel made no such efforts not she I 1 she simply wash was and van trailed her helplessly irresistibly when arlel ariel went down to walk across the old boards of the dam van followed when she came back and idly began to build a little pebbly pen for the velvet brown yellow bellied water dogs van became her e enthusiastic aide ariel gall noted did not speak much she never did van did all the chattering the little fire burned hotly in the windless air long shafts of sunset were striking level upon the water now the dam wai was a sheet of blue satin twinkling in the light and slipping into exquisite jade and ultramarine shadows against the overhanging basiks and this was the night that phil actually got a trout quite a big one and the night they saw a rattler and the night they picked the hazel nuts oh ob we do have fun I 1 edith commented luxuriously lying on an the flat hot stones as the meal finished there was silence in the group that was resting on the shingle in the dusk A great owl floated low over the dam and was gone the creek rippled rippled in the pause clearing away all signs of the picnic in the fast gathering dusk gall tried an experiment upon dicks carrying off the coffee pot to throw the grounds away behind the trees she rewarded him with a casual thank you dearl said in just the tone she used to sam and phil later she said again take that will you dear she remember whether she had bad ever called dick dear before if she had it had not meant anything probably she had for it seemed to make not the slightest impression on him tonight if he be had looked surprised slit she had bad planned to laugh quite naturally and say 1 I thought I 1 was talking to saml sami but there was no necessity for this explanation dick paid no attention to the affectionate monosyllable oblivious old dick she thought who never dreamed that close beside him was a woman who was thrilling with love and happiness and the need for him in this wonderful hour of autumn warmth and moonshine I 1 they walked singing down the steep rutty half mile to the cars gall gail needed a hand now the hand that gripped her own was dicks she marveled that he could not feel the electric current that ran through the tips of the square firm fingers afterward she always remembered the night they went up to the dam A hot night of moonshine and laughter and talk on the shingle above the dam soon the weather changed and autumn came in with october in earnest the leaves began to fall now and the winds to blow to gall it was a thrilling time this autumn filled with hints of change of endings and beginnings beginning she was in love and it was entirely different from what she had expected it to be far from giggles rapture and excitement it was a serious business it made her feel grown up and responsible she could never dever love anyone else but D dick ick it was all settled everything she thought now had to have him in it the future had narrowed itself down to just dick TO BE BB CONTINUED |