Show BEAUTYS DAUGHTER a kathleen thlen norris Norri by KATHLEEN NORRIS service SY SYNOPSIS Norsis victoria herrendeen a vivacious little girl had been too young to feel the shock chock that came when her father keith herrendeen lost his fortune he is a gentle unobtrusive soul his wife magda cannot adjust herself to the change she Is a beautiful woman fond of pleasure and a magnet tor for mens men attention magda and victoria have been down at a summer resort and keith joins them tor for the weekend week end magda leaves for a bridge party excusing her self tor for being such a runaway the Herren deens return to their small san francisco apartment keith does not approve of magdas mad social life and they quarrel frequently magda receives flowers from a wealthy man from argentina whom she had met less than a week before manners arrives a lew few hours later magda takes victoria to nevada to visit a woman friend who has a daughter named catherine there she tells her she Is going to get a divorce victoria soon Is in boarding school with her friend catherine magda marries manners and they spend two years in argentina victoria has studied in europe and at eighteen she visits her mother when ferdy rents a beautiful home magda is unhappy over berdys drinking and attentions to other women vie vic dislikes him when her mother and stepfather return to south america victoria refuses to go with them magda returns and tells vie vic she and ferdy have separated meanwhile keith has remarried victoria is now a student nurse magda has fallen in love with lucius farmer a married artist while she and vie vic prepare for a trip to europe ferdy takes a suite in their hotel the night before magda and vie vic are to sail call magda elopes with lucius farmer while nursing the children of dr and mrs keats vie vic meets dr quentin hardisty a brilliant physician much sought after by women who Is a widower with a crippled daughter in a betea tete at the keats home he kisses vie vic several days later he invites her with other guests to spend a weekend week end at his cabin vie vic Is enchanted with the cabin next morning she and quentin go hiking and return ravenous the party Is disrupted sunday afternoon by the arrival of marian pool a divorced woman vie vic Is jealous of mrs pool and a few days later tells mrs keats she Is going I 1 to 0 honolulu in his office quentin questions vie vic about leaving he proposes to her she accepts him and they ar are e married vie vic and quentin are idyll icly happy in their home during six years victoria has four children the har day supper when victorias mother suddenly arrives from europe her romance with farmer ended a bit disillusioned looking older and r radically practically penniless she goes to live with the Hardi who now have five children at the opera the Hardi first see serena morrison an exotic and striking looking beauty quentin appears interested but they do not meet magda gives vie vic some advice in how to hold a husband warning her of sirens who are on the outlook for men CHAPTER VII continued 9 some men never would magda conceded but some men are after women smart women and beautiful women all the time the worlds full of them now women who have comfortable big alim ali monies onles or settlements and who are on the loose hunting for someone like quentin someone to love there are lots of men handsomer than quentin for them to go after victoria observed with a laugh but it looks that count vie vic that hard faced deep voiced dark headed square sort of man is well I 1 tell you mrs herrendeen said shrugging lightly looking away 1 I tell you that if I 1 were ten years younger id give that lad of yours a run for his mon money eyll for once vicky was not amused she was secretly affronted by her mothers words magda broke the silence marriage what it used to be vie vic in the old days if a man wanted co 0 o wander there were places he could go that his wife never heard about women suspected what was going on but they were having their ten or a dozen children and feeding chickens and making soap end and putting up preserves and they have much to say its different now the women they can buy are of their own class and not all after presents and trips and alimony they want love got money after the love part theres a sex war on vie vic women dont want one experience they want twenty bowl well I 1 hate the word sex and I 1 hate so much talk about it and I 1 hate the idea that its the most important thing in the worldly vie vic presently said with feeling but it is the most important thing in the world her mother assured her seriously victoria shook her head frowning she fell into thought and her mother idling in her favorite fashion on a couch beside the fire was silent too later that evening victoria asked quentin if he thought sex was so important sex he echoed in surprise vicky laid a hand on his 1 I dont mean in youth when flirting is natural and right but afterward does it have to go all through life men tempting women and women tempting men to throw everything else over decency and home and honor and obligation often the doctor said slowly it is that way they tell me about it it he added how do you mean it is that way 1 I mean that a man who really loves his wife and kids who is perfectly satisfied with his home life perfectly satisfied the tame phrase affronted her and she laughed well perhaps what I 1 mean Is that his new affair has nothing to do with his his organized life he meets some woman who appeals to him tremendously irresistibly physically vie vic put in scornfully as he hesitated for a word he accepted it simply oh yes primarily that primarily that she has some trick of using her eyes some note in her voice something that sets set schim him on fire just as definitely as if a fuse were lighted there was a pause victoria was studying his face attentively yes but suppose all that she presently said grant all that Is he then to tear up his whole life kick his wife out deprive his children of their father its usually the wife who does that vicky A man might expect his wife to forgive him vicky said after thought but then how would she know that it happen again she quentin said mildly unsmilingly ha vicky exclaimed out of deep thought quentin laughed it would seem that it takes you by surprise he observed well it does ive always felt ive always hoped that a man liked a woman for other things her being sweet tempered and a good sport and making him a comfortable home and loving him she stopped short in her catalogue so much in earnest that tears were near her eyes he does vie vic A man who has a wife like that is lucky and he knows it but that mean that oh well that the look some woman gives him over her shoulder as she goes out of his office wont wont stay with him tor for days oh quentin victoria exclaimed in surprise and dismay and irresistibly she added does that happen to you sometimes the doctor admitted laughing but but theres no sense to it look what it leads to look at mother and so many others the they make of it in the end in the end in the end its the who show them what tools fools they were quentin said teasingly quentin have you since we were married I 1 mean ever had that feeling about any other woman id tell you it if I 1 had would I 1 1 I think you would well I 1 dont know but that I 1 would I 1 believe be very understanding der about it pity the sinner and forgive the sin but a man with five kids another coming a new stove to put in bills unpaid and an operation at eight tomorrow morning has a swell chance at that sort of quentin yawned dawned id be afraid ot of your mother anyway he laughed CHAPTER VIII serena wife of spencer ashley george morrison was by birth part english and part dane she had been married to this her third husband for only a few years and was in her early thirties when the mor came to california in search of sunshine and health not that serena herself was not glorious in I 1 A you have six children health and strength and her child gita seven years old as strong as a bitle little bullock but her husband had been seriously injured in a hunting accident and would never be whole and well again there was a good income somewhere the little family could afford to choose what place and what climate it preferred menlo park some eighteen to twenty miles down the peninsula from san francisco finally had seemed to be the ideal place and they had bad bought the tracy house right next door to dr quentin Hardi big place in the week when madeleine hardisty was a year old the Hardi old fashioned place was spacious plain comfortable but the morrisons Morri sons residence was quite new and lovely in plastered spanish patios tiled oddments of sloping roof oaks peppers roses flagged paths little gita stewart daughter lonely and curious and bold had lost no time in creeping through the evergreen hedge that separated the two gardens crossing the Hardi old tennis court and skirting the berry patch threading her way under the oaks and over the lawn and finally discovering what she later had described to her nurse as the most fascinating family she had ever met a mother who was fixing the hurt head with rags and water and medicines and boys named kenty and dicky and bobs and girls named gwen and sue and a baby that could walk the adult members of the family did not meet so simply it was at a country club lunch that victoria first noticed the straw haired woman and identified her as the beauty quentin had noticed more than a year earlier everyone was noticing serena that day and asking about her it was her first social appearance since the long ago night at the opera although she had been in her new house for almost a month quentin and some of the other men had bad been playing golf since breakfast time victoria had come later to the club to carry her husband home for or lunch with gwen and her two older children she was watching the tennis when she saw mrs morrison for the first time presently phyllis tichnor came up with the new newcomer comei in tow vie vic you know mrs morrison 1 I dont vie vic said smiling im so glad to I 1 remember seeing mrs morrison at the opera last year and I 1 think our children know each other our children echoed the beautiful mrs morrison raising the delicate dark line of her eyebrows your small girl gita stewart you ought to know each other said phyllis you live right near Is there a place between you and the tracy house or arent you right next door oh of course we are serena said slowly with no change of expression beyond a hint of languid curiosity its your children gita talks to amah about 1 I am not a very formal person you cant be when you have six children vicky explained when they were comfortably seated watching the tennis but I 1 do mean to come and see you ons one of these days you have ax children 7 the beautiful voice could not be said to have even a trace of norse accent and yet there was a charming little halt in words now and then a slight clinging and lingering that marked her as not all english born bom she always tells everyone that instantly phyllis said 1 I have and they make it hard for me ever to get away but do come and see me except for phyllis here serena said completely expressionless in voice and face 1 I am quite strange in calif california ornia we were in school in paris together ge ther serena and I 1 but I 1 know they were here until last week phyllis explained it if you know phyllis you know everybody ashes the special minster minister between europe and america I 1 ca victoria said we were in the assumption in rome together too but we had known each other before that you were at the assumption how I 1 hated it serena said in her calm emotionless way gallo coming to take us driving on sundays phyllis put in and the three laughed together then phyllis went away and victoria could study at her ease the extraordinary beauty of the flower like face in the clear shadow of the parasol exquisite womanhood those were the two words that serena suggested there was a silence filled with taint faint distant sounds and the click ot of balls the club gardens blazed with flowers there were stretches of green lawn beneath the trees the sun shone warmly there chos that serena suddenly asked with the first sign of animation in voice and manner that vicky had seen her which one the brown man the square one in white with that other man my husband dr hardisty vicky said pleased at her interest run get him gwen yes go along susan you can gol go your husband serena asked not moving her eyes from the distant figures of the men yes well trot along with them kenty vicky said bracingly dont cry because ahead of you quent she added as he came up with the children hanging on his hands were all ready to go well be just in time quentin and mrs morrison were looking at each other smiling have to introduce me vicky oh I 1 do beg your pardon I 1 always think that everyone knows everyone else mrs morrison my husband dr hardisty quentin do you remember who this is 1 do quentin said smiling down at serena his white teeth and white clothes in almost startling contrast to the indian brown of his face and skin serena looked up from the lavender shadows of une the white parasol that was slowly turning behind her golden braided head you were on your way to china it was before my husbands accident yes we had a wonderful kripl the woman said smiling lazily with sea blue eyes raising heavy dark gold lashes and neighbors vicky told him they are the people in the tracy place next door quentis broke again into his own A smile you remember gita quentin who plays with the children mrs morrison Is gitas mother oh I 1 thought the name was stewart gitas father is dead serena explained it she continued to look up at quentin and quentin to look down at her youve all been such angels to the child she said she ashes been horribly lonely all her life alone with her amah I 1 brought her amah with her from china vicky was baffled by the other womans comans sleepy manner by the vague words that seemed to have some meaning beyond their obvious meaning for quentin at least tor for his face was absolutely radian he continued to hold serena serendia Sere naia and to look down at her ashes had you she vicky said sensibly and she touched quentina Quen tins arm with that wifely signal that says the children are ravenous lets get home and have lunch serena was paying baying no attention to vicky she looked only at quentin 1 I cant be much with my little girl you see my husbands an invalid she said in a childs flat tone ali ah too bad 1 i they said he was slated for a brilliant career but he was thrown from a horse and dragged about four months ago its his back and he lost his bis eye tough luck quentin said victoria toria pressed his arm again will you come and see him dr hardisty id like to 1 I wish you would mrs morrison said were always there in the late afternoons the frills ot of her parasol tumbled slowly as she twirled it daddy im hun n agry kenty shouted quentin accompanied his family to the waiting car after a cordial goodby good by from them all to the new neighbor mildly as he took his place in the drivers seat the doctor observed to his wife that he wished that the children would not be rude hes terribly hungry daddy and were late 1 I know quentin said 1 I know but she was telling us of her husband I 1 dont imagine she often gets to talking of her troubles victoria glanced at his profile in surprise ready to laugh but he be was quite serious but did you ever know anyone to talk of dreadful of ghastly things so calmly that poor husband of hers imagine being cut off in the very beginning of your career blinded quentin turning into their own made no cam comment ment and kenty said animatedly why din gita go to the club mummy she stays with her amah susan supplied you speak of the mans 5 tune quentin began unexpectedly at lunch 1 I was thinking of hers |