HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Advance-Times, 1937-12-23, Page 15*
WINCHAM ADVANCE-’flMES EAdE SEVEN
had been sq sure, that she was going
to stay, it disquieted him to realize
how determined Jim obviously was to
take her away.
Howell' told himself, as the meal
progressed, that he would no.t lay so
much as a straw in her path. If she
wanted to go, then she must go. He
and Jane would see to it that Scott
Kelvin’s Christmas plans were carried
out, That should not be allowed to
hold Chloe back from what meant her
happiness. More than anything in the
world, he wanted her happiness,
By the time /lunch was over, the
sky, already overcast, had grown ev--’
en darker and a. sharp wind was ris
ing.
“Not very promising flying weath
er, Mr, Pearsall. I hope you will be
persuaded to stay over as our guest
for the night,” suggested Howell as
he made ready to return to the mill.
Jim hesitated, looking swiftly at
Chloe, before he accepted gracefully.
Chloe knew, without his saying a
word, that' he felt quite sure that if
he stayed over he could persuade her
to leave with him. When, he father
z had gone and she and Jim were alone
in the living room, she said gravely:
‘‘It’s no use, Jim. My mind is made
up. I’m staying here until the partv
is over..”
CHAPTER XIII
Jim smiled at her. A smile that us-
uallygot him his way with women.
Jim was arrogantly ■ sure of himself.
Of his charm. Of his mastery over such situations as this. After Jail, he
was Jim Pearsall —■ one of the most
eligible young men in the country. A
fine family. An excellent social po-
. sition. A great deal of monev sound
ly invested so that he need do noth
ing more than accept the handsome
yearly income from it. He was pop
ular. He was good-looking. He was
possessed of an unusual amount of
debonair charm and appeal. Why
shouldn’t he feel that in the end this
girl would capitulate as other girls
had done before her, and as he felt
sure they would do again? So he
smiled gayly at Chloe and caught her
hand in, his.
“Let’s not quarrel about it now,
you infant,” he said teasingly. “Let’s
go out and have a look about the old
town. Why not? I’ve heard that quite
a bit of our nation’s history was man
ufactured hereabouts.”
Chloe laughed and made him a lit
tle sweeping courtsy.,
“You’ve been rehearsing‘that little
speech ever since you knew you were
stopping off here in the deep South.”
Jim’s eyes lit suddenly with that
,pright, disturbing fire and his hands
caught her own and drew her up close
to him'so that, as she tilted back her
• head, he looked deeply into her eyes,
his own grave, searching, burning a
little; hers wide and startled, almost
a little afraid.
“I haven’t been rehearsing a darn
ed thing,” he told her, his voice un
expectedly rich, not entirely steady.
“I only wish I’d been able "to think
up and to rehearse some arguments
that-would show you just how inevit
able it is that you go South with me
in the morning. Chloe, won’t you —
please?”
Chloe’s heart raced* The color
flooded her lovely face. Her eyelids
drooped, for she could not quite en
dure the strange, disturbing brilliance
of his own.- But as she pulled her
hands free of his she only said, un
steadily: “I’m sorry, Jim, but I can’t I”
Jim flung away from her, his mouth
f stubborn, angry, his eyes smoldering.
“You could if you wanted to,” he
hurled at her vengefully.
Chloe studied him for a moment,
and saw instead, a darkly red head
against a white hospital pillow, eyes
that lighted with pleasure at her pre
sence. Startled, wide-eyed, she drew
herself erect and said swiftly:
"Let’s not quarrel now, Jim. Come
on, let trie show you the far-flung
beauties of Oakton!”-
, Aunt Jane stood at the window for
a lotig time after they had driven
away, her eyes on the drive down
Which Chloe’s small roadster had
Spun so merrily. And there was an
odd, puzzled look'in Aunt Jane’s eyes.
She liked Jim and told herself he
would be an excellent match for her.
Yet the very thought of Chloe mar-
tied to the tall, arrogant young man
Was one that made Aunt Jane vaguely
unhappy. Which was cause enough
*for her bewilderment.
( She turned away with sudden de
cision and went to the telephone
where she' called. Margaret Graham
and asked her to bring Philip, her
brother, and come to dinner that cv-
Ching. When Margaret learned that
Jim Pearsall was staying overnight
with the Sargents and that the hasty,
impromptu dinner party was in bis
honor, she promptly agreed to cancel
her own and Philip’s previous en
gagement and dine with the Sargents.
Another couple proved equally wilL
ing to sacrifice a previous engage
ment, and Aunt Jane went content
edly back to the kitchen where the
fat black cook Welcomed the news
that there was to be “comp’ny” for
dinner as a test of her’ own skill and
went promptly into action.
Jim was an instant success with the
dinner guests, frankly a trifle awed
of his lean, dark good looks, his per
fectly tailored dinner clothes, his de
bonair manner. The girls were flat
tered, the men prepared to* be stiff
and jealous, but finding themselves
relaxing despite the stiffness, as Jim
skillfully managed the conversation
so that they themselves were quite as
interested as „the girls. Jim was a
ladies’ man, in a certain sense of the
word, which means that his manner
towards women was delightful, that
he never forgot birthdays or anniver
saries ,or a girl’s preference as to
flowers or entertainment or the like.
But being a hard hitting, hard-riding
sportsman, he was also a man’s man,
Chloe, watching him, found herself
thrilling a little to the knowledge that
this man wanted her badly enough to
make a very special effort to include
* Don’t worry about my pallor, Gran, I’ll get a beuatiful winter tan. in Ber
muda,” said Chloe sweetly.
her in his sister’s party. She was hu
man enough to be flattered at the
thought. But she knew quite certain
ly that she would not leave Oakton
until the very last and tiniest of Scott
Kelvin’s plans for ‘/his people” had
been carried out.
She tried to visualize Scott here at
this table., Scott, in immaculate din
ner clothes, his darkly red head
gleaming like burnished copper in the
light of Aunt Jane’s tall candles. And
couldn’t. It was possible to think of
Scott, white-gowned, capped and
masked, rubber-gloved, going into an
operating room; or into one of the
dingiest, drabbest tenements the vil-
age afforded, there to combat disease
and ignorance and sheer stupidity for
the sake of a child’s life; it was pos
sible to think of Scott walking a coun
try road, his head up, sniffing with a
keen delight the crisp fall air. But it
wasn’t possible to visualize Scott
making gay, amusing table talk.
"Darn it, I like that guy!” said
Philip Graham in her ear.
She looked up a little startled, and
knew by the warmth of her face that
she was blushing.
"I didn’t expect to, you know,”
Philip added frankly. "I came pre
pared to hate him, almost to invite
him to a duel, yoti know, one of those
pistols for two, coffee for one af
fairs.”
Chloe stared at him, wide-eyed.
“But why on earth? Why should
you dislike him?” she demanded in
honest amazement.
Philip looked down at het and his
dark eyeSt held the ghost of laughter
as he said promptly. “Because, of
course, he’s in love with you and you
would be a very foolish young woman
not to be in love^with him. We hoine-
towners resent such finished and ex
pert competition!”
Chloe smothered a little laugh.
“Phil Graham, arc you flirting with
me?” she demanded gayly.
u‘Of course. Violently. Hadn’t you
guessed?” answered Phil, a little hurt
Chloe laughed at hint and Philip*
looking steadily at her, leaned a lit
tle closer and his voice dropped.
“But given the very slightest en
couragement, I could be very seri
ous!” he assured her firmly.
Chloe’s eyes widened a little. For
a moment they plunged' deeply into
his and what she saw there frighten
ed her a little. She could not control
the expression that touched her face
for a fleeting moment, and Philip saw
it. He straightened and the smile van
ished from his own face, the eager
pleading look from his eyes.
Ellen Marshall, who sat on his oth
er side, leaned forward to say some
thing to hint and Chloe turned to her
partner on the left, relieved to be free
of that tiny tense moment. She was
not entirely sure that Philip had been
merely flirting with her. Yet it seem
ed silly to believe that he could pos
sibly be doing anything else, since
she had seen him no more than half
a dozen times since her return from
school. Although she had been away
for three years, she knew that south
ern men make a, fine art of flirtation.
Half the time, she warned herself, a
girl doesn’t know whether a man is
flirting with her, soothing her sense
of importance, or whether he is real
ly idiotically in love with her. It
made things a little disturbing, she
told herself a trifle resentfully.
Jim smiled at . her across the table
and lifted his glass with a little cheer
ful gesture. Chloe smiled at him and
lifted her own and they drank toge
ther,- silently, Hut eloquently.
CHAPTER XIV
After dinner, someone remembered
that a well-known New York orches
tra was playing a limited engagment
at Oakton’s one night" club out on
the Washington Pike, and with Jane
and Howeell as chaperones, the party
drove out.
The Pine Tree Inn was a rambling
log structure set well back from the
highway ina beautiful pine grove be
side the edge of an artificial lake.
There were a number of cars before
it and as they-drove into the parking
space, the sound of “hot swing” mu
sic” came out to them, mingled with
the faint shuffle of slippered feet and
the'sound of a megaphone-aided voice
chanting the chorus of a popular tune.
Inside, the room was crowded,
thick with smoke, odorous with the
smells of food and liquor and a hund
red perfumes all mingled, against
which the cool scent of the -piny
woods was powerless.
Jim claimed Chloe for the first
dance and before they had finished it
he had danced her to the door, across
the threshold and out into a glass en
closed veranda that looked out over
the lake. The veranda was a bit chil
ly tonight and so they had it to them
selves. The moon had just come into
view above the lake, a thin yellow
slice of a moon whose radiance was
feeble and tremulous.
Jim said, his voice a little strained,
“Cold?”
“Not a bit,” answered Chloe swift--
ly. “It was terribly stuffy inside
there.”
“Cigarette?” Jim offered his case.
She accepted one, held a light for
her and lit his own. The next mo
ment he had flung his own as well as
hers to the floor and she was in his*
arms, being held very close against
his beautifully tailored coat. So close
that she knew that he was trembling
a little, and above her his face loom
ed dark and mysterious, the moon
light behind his dark handsome head.
“Look here, Chloe, I’ve had about
all of this I can stand,” he told, her
almost roughly. “I’m in love with
you. Frankly, I haven’t wanted to be.
I haven’t wanted to give any woman
a mortgage on my future. I’ve liked
being free, and when I first met you
I just thought you were a cute little
trick and that was that, But when I
found that you weren’t going south
.with us, I was so disappointed that 1
knew right away it was more than
just liking that I felt for you. I had
to come after you. I had to-see you
again. I thought maybe just seeing
you again would be enough, but it
wasn't. I was just enough to make
everything worse. Chloe, I love you
and you’re going to marry me, so you
might just as well begin getting used
to the idea.”
He tilted back her head until it lay
like a dim yellow flower against his
sleeve. And he bent his own head
and set his mouth on hers in a kiss
that seemed to Chloe to go right
down to the very depths of her heart
and curl warm fingers about that
startled, rapidly beating organ.
He lifted his head after a long, long
moment and said, not too steadily,
“Well, what do you think of the
idea?”
Chloe put one shaking hand to her
forehead, pushing back the cloud of
hair that suddenly seemed so heavy.
Her heart was beating so that her
whole body was shaken-with it-, yet
she was oddly, strangely shy with
him. Wildly she wished that she could
run away and hide from him, yet, ev
en 14Ore than that, she wanted to
creep still closer in his arms and nev
er' leave them again.
“Oh, Jim, I — I dont' know —
what to say!” she stammered child
ishly. • . „ ,
“Yes, would be nice,” suggested
Jim hopefully, and kissed her again.
“Will you marry me, Chloe?”
“I — yes, Jim,” she utttered at last,
and Jim laughed triumphantly and
kissed her again.
“When shall it be, darling? On the
cruise? Rio’s a grand place for a
wedding,-” he suggested after an in-.
terval had passed and speech was
once more possible.
Chloe said quickly, "But Jim, I’ve-
told you that I can’t go on the
cruise!”
“Darling, don’t be a stubborn little
goop. Of course you’re going!” pro
tested Tim shortly. “You surely don’t
think I’m going to fly away in the
morning and leave my brand new
fiancee here to stage some sort of an
idiotic celebration for some other
man? Not much I'm not!”
“But I promised him—”
"Suppose you did. You didn’t
know then that you were going to be
engaged.” Jim, annoyed, advanced all
the arguments that he had used be
fore and Chloe offered in rebuttal on
ly her insistence that she 'was to
. blame for Scott’s injury and so she
was responsible for his job in so far
as she was able, until he was well
again.
At last, cold-eyed with anger, his
handsome face set, Jim walked beside
her back into the club room. The
others looked at them curiously. She
felt as if she had been buffeted by a
storm. Tired, and her body aching
as if it had been a physical storm
that she had combatted, rather than
a storm of words which had grown
angry and harsh as she had shown
no signs of relenting..
Jim said good-night to her quite
coldly when they reached home and
Chloe went off to bed worried, a lit
tle apprehensive. Yet with her de
termination completely unshaken. It
was a little strange, she told herself
as she sat huddled in a chair beside
the open window, staring out into the
darkness. A little strange that, in
spite of being in love with Jim, she
was unwilling to do as he asked. To
shake the dust of Oakton from her
feet and go south with him to the
gay Christmas that he offered. She
only knew that not for a moment
had her determination to stay been
shaken by Jim’s caresses, his argu
ments, his pleas. 'She had given Scott
her word to see this Christmas party
through in his name, and she would
do it no matter what Jim said. She
was a little frightened at the strength
of that determination. It did not. wav-,
er for so much as a moment, although
she knew that Jim was furious at her.
Perhaps, she told herself with a lit
tle uneasy tremor, Jim might be so
angry with her that he wouldn’t want
to marry her after all. The thought
of that frightened her a little. Be
cause, she told herself, she loved Jim
and she wanted to marry hmt, She