Evening Star Newspaper, June 30, 1936, Page 13

/ by PAYLS MOORE GALAGHE WHAT HAS GONE BEFORE. y Warfleld is calmly waiting the of guests at the home of her ather. retired admiral of the States Navy. who are coming hear officially the news of her en- gement to Dick Bowie young sci- ist and neighbor. Patsy is essen- tially of the Navy. for her father and grandfather were Navy officers. but She does not want to marry into the “for she fesrs a broken heart, al Stely there springs up a trel) e power that draws them into a net of unfore- seen circumstances. CHAPTER 11 OR a moment the porch was very still. The orchestra of the night paused. A grand- father's clock in the hall ticked evenly, & little laboriously with great age. Several scarlet leaves, plucked by & vagrant wind, danced round the white columns of the portico and off into the night. But Patsy's voice was very steady as she said: “Will you excuse me now, Mr. Cavendish?” There are a few things I must do. I suppose Ted told you, too, that I'm becoming engaged to- night?” He replied, deadly even: “Yes, he told me.” And there was something #0 young and hurt and defeated about him that Patsy’s breath caught in her throat. She turned quickly and ran into the house and up the long, winding stairs. In her own room she softly shut the door and leaned against it, as if for support. For & moment she closed her eves and pressed the back of her hand to her trembling lips. Her heart was pounding and her prain felt as 4 it had a fever. She thought: “I won't let this happen to me! I won't! He's handsome! He's attractive to women! He's Navy! He's married! He's everything 1 don't want” Suddenly, into the crying of her own mind Patsy became slowly con- scious of muffied sobs—sobs that came through the partly opened door connecting her room with ‘Marcia's. Patsy stood and listened and tried to veason why Marcia's happy mood had changed into one of her frequent spells of morbid despair. There | was never any accounting for it. Only tonight it might be because about this time in the Fall, four years ago, grandfather had announced her engagement to Lieut. Tom Kane. The house had looked very much as it did now—candles burning. flowers every- where, garlands of chrysanthemums strung through the spokes on the stair- way. her arms above the elbows with her hands. Marcia had loved Tom Kane— as her mother had loved her father— as Ted loved Virginia Keith—as she, Patsy, had promised herself that she | would never love any man! Love had wrung her sister’s heart like that, had | crushed her spirit and struck grim lines about her mouth and eyes—and yes—affected her reason & little. Suddenly Patsy was remembering & moment on the portico, a moment which had been breathless with ten- sion. She was remembering that ghe liked Lee's blond hair and his | She shivered and began rubbing | of Love 7~ the time her father was stationed for two years at the academy. And always, while Richard was a student at the University of Pennsylvania, he had spent his Summer vacations trail- ing Patsy over the globe—to Honolulu, to Seattle—and once clear to Shang- hai just to spend to weeks with her. Virginia went on in that curiously husky, voice of hers: “People say that Lee never loved Kitty, that he mar- rieid her for her money because an ensign—he was an ensign then— makes so little and he was so desper- ately poor. You know—first family of Virginia — stony broke —his father having a tough time raising the en- trance fee to the academy—that sort of background.” Portrait of Kitty. She paused & moment and joined Patsy at the dressing table. “I can certainly see,” she continued, “how Twin Oaks, the palatial estate that Kitty's father bought across the Sev- ern on the Claiborne side when he retired and moved down here from New York, would be enough to stagger fnny young man just out of the acad- |emy. But’ when you meet Kitty, if |you ever do, you'll stop and reflect. I don't see how any man could resist her. Brilliant blue eyes, gleaming black hair, clear-cut cameo features —the most beautiful creature I have ever seen! Looks about 20, though I know her to be at least 30. You see, I met Kitty Cavendish in Paris last Winter and got to know her inti- mately. We still correspond. I just had a letter from her telling me that she’s going to marry Count Rolfe de Veau the moment the decree is hand- ed her.” “And so what, Virginia?” Virginia shrugged her bare white shoulders. “Nothing, darling. Except | I like the name of Cavendish. Vir- ginia Cavendish. That's rather euphonious, isn't it?” There was some one at the door | now. Some one who said evenly, deadly cold: “Patsy, I'd like to be with Virginia—alone!"” Patsy and Virginia wheeled quickly | and faced Ted Warfield. He didn't say anything more just then. He didn't need to. He was an eloquently miserable young man, proudly and & little shabbily erect in his shiny uni- form, agony in his black eyes. His lean cheeks were flushed hot and painful. He was a young man who had | Virginia Keith in his blood. Like some kind of flame burning him up, de- stroying him. As Patsy, white-faced and shaken, | passed through the door and hurried | down the steps. leaving them alone, | she heard Ted's voice, harsh and | strained with forced control. Heard | him say: “What was the meaning of | that last crack, Virginia? Just what | did you mean by—euphonious?” 1 Patsy reached the bottom of the | stairs and nervously looked back. Sup- pose some one heard them quarreling! | | Suppose Ted, wildly jealous as he was, | | killed Virginia! She felt the blood fly out of her heart to the farthest cor- ners of her body, where it beat in- tolerably. She stood still. Ted's and Virginia's voices were drowned out by the clatter in the drawing room and some one playing softly on the piano. THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, TUESDAY, JUNE 30, 1936. ~ SPECIALLY PRICED! 4-Star Savings on These SHELDON SUMMER SUITS 6 73 ® 2.Pc. Tropical Tweeds! ® 2.Pc. Wool Orashes! ® 2.Pc. Tropical Worsteds! ® 2.Pc. SILK Shantungs! Here they are . . . all the popular summer fabrics at a price that is doubly popular! All the comfort and coolness of summer suits with all the style and lasting appear- ance of wool business suits! Smart patterns, checks, plaids and stripes in all sizes! Men's Shope—Second Floor—The Hecht Co. blue eyes and his gentle smile and | She lifted her golden head and fixed 3 t cree] into | i 2 chull of stark fever went through her | serenely into the drawing room. and she covered her face with Ner| y.e cavendish, Patsy saw, was not palms, Then lfih"heg‘n‘:‘,’t‘ ‘\?:)fie.know there. Richard and grandfather were thffl:f\v;l‘r :;:(nsg;“e arriving! That fhoer ";i conversation before the flick- sour ‘future husbend i pacing the | 1Lod “blfim?;l:;:-g] wu“;u:::‘: floor below! Thab: }:‘ld[ Eflfl:":’;’:‘;‘; | slowly from one guest to another with doing his best to be host a SUeSS | cocktails on a Sheffield tray. nced couple all in one!” : ‘n:ais;fl: h:nds fSH to her sides. She| Tippy talking to blonde little Char- eould feel them cold and moist and| lotte Fellows looked up and saw Patsy. trembling. Virginia Keith trailed He grinned and joined his fists to- gether above his sandy head in the languidly across the room to Patsy| wit; her golden sandals shining and | salutation of a prize-fighter in the ring. her peacock-green satin clinging to her voluptuous young body—Ileaving so little to the imagination. Forked tendrils of smoke curled up the length of her white arm from the cigarette in her scarlet-tipped fingers. A beautiful woman, almost 30, but Jooking much younger, and who with her two discarded husbands, her money and jewels, her Paris back- ground and her sleek red head made the conservative Navy folk of An- napolis feel a little like country boobs. Patsy wondered now, as she had for two years, how Ted had ever got up enough nerve to pursue her and 1o fall in love with her. She wondered what kept Ted in love with Virginia, when she was so obviously man crazy and fickle. And probably not quite moral. Patsy swallowed hard. It was dif- ficult to speak, but she managed to gay: “I didn't hear the knocker, Vir- | ginia” She hurried over to her maple dressing table, dabbed powder on her nose and ran a cursory comb through her golden curls. Virginia inhaled deeply and held the smoke on her tongue. She did it sensuously, as she did everything else. She said: “You're due for a surprise, Patsy. There is a most gorgeous man downstairs. Handsome. And some- thing s little better than being mere- 3y handsome. Something you can't quite put your finger on. He's tall, of course, frightfully blond and has the dreamiest blue eyes you ever saw. And he's tanned. You know that Tich bronze that comes of riding the gea or walking the deck in the sun or being stationed in the tropics.” «yes, I know,” said Patsy, lightly, touching her lips with crimson. “But Lee Cavendish is married! And even 4t he were not, I'm becoming en- gaged tonight and engaged girls aren’t on the market for gorgeous surprises! As for you, Virginia, if you make & play for him, Ted wil probably kill you. Ted is intense, like mother’s side of the family, and wildly jealous. Wou ought to know that by now.” She thought: “If Ted could hear Virginia talking about another man tike that he might kill her. I've seen him craszy with jealousy. I've seen him look at her as if he wanted to kil her. Why couldn’t Ted have been more like Tippy? Tippy never feels anything for long. Nothing really gets under his skin. But Marcia and Ted . . . and yes, I come right along with them no matter how much fike Tippy I try to be!” Virginia opened her incredibly green eyes, turned her head a fraction of an inch and smiled languidly at Patsy. “So you know Lee Cavendish? But I'll bet you don’t know that next month he'll be a free man—complete- 1y Renovated. Lee probably dosen’t know the date of his freedom him- pelf!” She paused and took a drag on her cigarette and inhaled slowly. She wondered a little why Patsy's pale cheeks suddenly began to flame. Cer- tainly Lee Cavendish being 8 free man didn't mean anything to -her. Or did it? No, it couldn't. Patsy and Richard had known each other * ever since they were kids, ever sinos | violinist, is touring Japan. Patsy's silvery laugh rang out. Tippy's nonsense was just the tonic she needed to give her courage. The night, distorted and blurred by what had happened on the portico and upstairs, grew less disturbing. She said: “Tippy, you're an oaf!” Suddenly it seemed to Patsy that every one was speaking at once. They had heard her, had turned. The room became a giant, friendly octopus. Hands reached out at her from every- where. Presently everything Patsy had felt on the portico became a little vague, a little unreal. It was not true, she thought, but only her silly imaginings, that her heart had pounded and her wrists and temples had ached—that she had wanted to creep into Lee Cavendish’s arms and stay there for- | ever. She flung back her slim shoul- ders, raised her glossy head and searched for Richard's eyes across the | room. When she found them she gave him all the glory of her young smile. He excused himself from Admiral Warfield, came over to her and drew | her away from those gathered around | her. He bent close: “Let’s get out of this for a moment, angel. I told Ephraim that when dinner was an- nounced he'd find us in the library.” He ushered her into the hall then and in the dim amethyst shadows of the winding stairs he stopped and pulled her near and kissed her with tentative gentleness. When she did not move his lips stayed on hers— ardent, tender—and there was peace, not passion, in her heart. After a moment they drew apart. With his grm half about her waist they walked slowly toward the library. Richard didn't say anything. He never spoke immediately after he kissed her. She had asked him about that strange silence once and he had said: “From heaven to earth takes a moment, Patsy.” She had felt shy after that and never could find any careless words to say. Suddenly Patsy had the feminine urge of necessity to talk. She pulled a little away from him. She had sald something about test tubes and burettes and acetylsalicylic acid. She knew the subject he liked best—his work. For a second Richard was perfectly still, staring past her through the windows at the blackened sky and the tall live oaks that were swaying in & wind that seemed to have a stony hardness, & crushing weight. In an- other hour or two, he thought, it might be a real Eastern Shore storm—the kind that flailed the trees of leaf and limb and tore off the roofs of smaller houses. Then he looked down into Patsy’s blue eyes with a beguiling tenderness and took her face between his hands. He said: “This isn’t a night for talking shop, Patsy. It's a night for telling you how beautiful you are —how much I love you.” Patsy opened her lips to speak, but the first word died. A tall, slended shadow came out of the library and stood on the threshold of the sun parlor. (To Be Continued.) L e Ry Jacques Tribaud, famous French » As Right As They Are White! Packard-Kent WHITE Shoes 5.50 And they're whiter than a Hollywood snow scene (which makes them plenty right). >, v, . 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