The Wingham Advance-Times, 1937-12-23, Page 19WINGHAM ADVANCE-TIMES PAGE ELEVEN
'She put her hand in his, almost re
luctantly, and, for a moment met his
eyes. His own were pleading, afraid
a little to hope for that incredible
thing he had glimpsed for a moment
in her eyes. His hand tightened on
heres. Drew her down a little and
she heard him saying nothing more
than the ghost pf a sotind.
“Choe — please?”
But suddenly shy, a little -uneasy,
startled by that thing she had sudden
ly discovered in her heart, Chloe pull
ed her hand away and followed Me
lissa to the door. There she would
not look back, though it was the hard
est thing she had ever done to close
the door wetween them without that
backward look. But she knew she
could not endure the plea that would
be in his eyes. She had to have a lit
tle time to pull herself together. She
had to. She didn’t quite know what
this thing was that hap happened to
her—that made her breathless, happy,
yet afraid.
CHAPTER XXI
Outside in the roadster, as Melissa
looked sharply at her, Chloe burst out
with the last words in the world she
had meant to say.
“Gran, is it possible to be in love
with two men at the same time?”
“Of course,” said Gran sturdily. "I
was in love with four men when I
married your grandfather. And not
pne of the four that I didn’t love bet
ter or thought I did, which amounts
to the same thing, than your grand
father. But after we were married I
discovered that I hadn’t been in love
with any of them except him. It’ll be
that way with you. You’ll find that
you^re not really in love with this
Pearsall creature at all—that that’s
just a sort of glamour, moon-magic.
Just a young girl’s first attack of the
love fever. And. that all along you’ve
been in love with Scott Kelvin.
“Gran!” Chloe gasped. “How dare
you-----”
“Oh, fiddlesticks! That ‘how dare
you’ went out of fashion while I was
a girl. And anyway, if you were in
love with Scott Kelvin, it probably
wouldn’t do you any good. Scott Kel
vin’s ah ambitious young man and he
will want a wife who can help, not
.hinder him, in his profession,” said
Gras cheerfully.
Chloe, her blue eyes flashing fire,
her red mouth set in a thin angry
line, said: “And you think I — a girl
like me, I mean—wouldn’t be able to
help him in his profession?”
“Do you think so? Then the more
fool you, Chloe, my child,” said Me
lissa quite undisturbed bv Chloe’s
barely concealed fury. “You’d make
all sorts of demands on him. You’d
want- to be flirted with and amused
and babied, and he’d be so tired from
his work, that he wouldn’t be able to
live up to your ideal of a husband. No
the Pearsall creature will make you a
much more satisfactory husband.
From what I understand, he has no
ambition whatever beyound that of
having a good time.”
Chloe said through her teeth, fury’
shaking her- body, “Will you kindly
stop calling Jim ‘that Pearsall creat
ure’? And what’s so disgraceful a-
bout having a good time?”
“Nothing. Nothing at all. Only
Scott Kelvin’s idea of a good time
and your are miles apart, which is
why he would make you a very bad
husband, or you would make him a
very unsatisfactory wife, or both,” an
swered Melissa frankly.
Chloe sent the little roadster rock
ing-ahead at a reckless speed and Me
lissa said sharply, “Mind where you’re
going, child. You barely missed that
truck?’
“Well, you make me so darned mad’
admitted Chloe frankly, her voice a
little shaken, "that I don’t know what
I’m doing.”
“Then I’ll get out here and wait for
Noah and the Ark,” said Melissa firm
ly. "‘You may have no* regard for
your bones, but mine are more brittle
and more precious. And anyway,
why should it make you ‘so darned
mad’ just because I say that Scott
Kelvin is not the,man for you? Not
thinking of falling in love with him,
are you?” t ,
Chloe felt Melissa’s eyes, ■ dark,
shrewd, a little lnalicous, on her face
and knew that she was scarlet and
that she was powerless to do any
thing about it, and so raged the more.
"Certainly not,” she answered shar
ply, through her teeth.
“Well, then, what’s all the excite
ment about?” Melissa wanted to
know.
Chloe brought the roadster to a
halt tn front of the new Day Nursery
and said ici>\ to her grandmother,
"Would you care to go in? I want
to see how things are.”
"Of course, why not? Ini very
much interested,” answered Melissa
with such perfect courtesy and sweet
ness that Chloe could only draw a
long, shaken breath and offer her
hand to help the old woman o,ut of
the car,
Melissa, she told herself as she fol
lowed the old woman up the steps,
looked, a saintly old thing, in whose
mouth butter wouldn’t melt. Melissa
herself would have resented that
“saintly” phrase more than anybody
else. But to Chloe, her grandmother
was by no means an unmixed bless
ing. Melissa had a thoroughly dis
concerting habit, to her granddaught
er at least, of looking beneath the sur
face of things and seeing a great deal
more than she was supposed to,see.
That Melissa had caught that little
winged glance that had sped between
herself and Scott —- that Melissa had
been conscious of the undercurrent
between them — oh, it was unpardon
able that Melissa should not only have
seen but haye guessed even more than she had seen. Chloe decided that she
did not like her grandmother very
well, even though she had given the
furniture for the Nursery and been '
very decent .about the arrival in the
Sargent home of young Timmy and
The small, big-eyed,, frank Susie ,May.
The Nursery was in the throes of
being made ready for its first occu
pants, most of whom had already ar
Just as Chloe turned the corner, a man stepped from the curb directly
in her path.
rived. In the big front room that had
once been a parlor, and that was still
touched with the smell' of paint and
freshly scrubbed wood, half a dozen
children played and quarrelled, as is
habit of children. A girl who kne’lt
among them .looked up as Cliioe and
Melissa stopped in the doorway and
Chloe recognized her as Callie John
son.
“Oh, hello, Miss Sargent,” said Cal
lie eagerly and effusively. “I brought
my little cousin over for the day and
when I found that you hadn’t been
able to hire a matron yet, I volunteer
ed to stay and amuse the small child
ren for the day.”
“That was very kind of you,” said
Chloe politely.
Melissa was not willing to dismiss
it so casually. She peered at Callie
with bright, shrewd eyes that took in
Callie’s frizzed, permanently waved
blonde locks, the thick rouge and
powder caked on her plump round
face and the long, dangling cheap ear
rings that swung from her ears. Cal
lie wore a sleazy dark blue dress, high
heeled strapped patent leather slippers
whose heels were run over, and cheap
silk stockings.
"Don’t you work in the mill?” de
manded Melissa, in the tone of auth-
ority* , /Callie got to her feet, unwilling yet
helpless to obey the tone.
“Yessus,” she answered, abashed be
fore Melissa, yet with a manner that
had been almost offensively casual to
Chloe. t .• "Then what are you doing away
from the mill now, in the middle of
the busy season?” demanded Melissa.
"Oh, I don’t have to work. My dad
and my two brothers work in the mill
and they give me all the things I
want. I just work becuse I like to,
answered Callie. “I can afford to be.
docked now and then I wanted to
help Miss Chloe and the others.
Melissa shiffed.
“If you’re working in the mill just
because you like to and you don’t
need the work, then you've no-busi
ness with a job. There are other girls
and women* who work because they
have to have food and shelter, and
you’re taking a job away from one of
them. If your father and brothers
work in the mill, then you’ve no right
to' I’ll see to it that my son puts an
other girl who really needs a job, in
your place at once. Come along,
Chloe,” said Melissa, and stalked ma
jestically away, leaving Callie to look
ver y crestfallen and sullen.
“But, Gran —” Choe made a half
hearted protest.
“No arguments, Chloe, the girl is a
conceited, arrogant thing. Maybe Su
sie May’s mother 'might have kept her
job and her babies if this girl and oth
ers like ,her didn’t hold down jobs
they don’t need. In times like these
no girl or woman who doesn’t actually
need the work has any business to
take a job. There are too many wo
men working now just to get away
from „ housework and to, avoid being
bored. If they all stayed home and
let people who needs the work have
it, you wouldn’t see such hard times,”
said Melissa vigorously. “I’ve been
through depressions before. I know
what I’m talking about.”.,
“She’s in love with Dr. Kelvin,”
said Chloe, and Melissa shot her a
shrewd glance.
“A lot of good I imagine it will do
her,” she sniffed. "Now there’s an
other example of the kind of wife that
could ruin a busy, ambitious doctor.”
Annoyed because she knew that her
color was high, Chloe said sharply:
"You certainly seem determined to
saddle Dr. Kelvin with a wife.”
“Of course. He’s human. He needs
a wife — but the right kind,” said
Gran firmly.
CHAPTER XXII
Chloe’s friends were having the
. time of their lives getting the Day
Nursery ready for what they called
its ‘formal opening’ the next day.
“Of course it couldn’t possibly be
‘open’. There are only half a dozen
yo-ungster already here,” said Melissa,
her da'rk eyes twinkling.
"Of course not,” grinned Margaret
Graham. “The Johnson girl came a-
long With half a dozen and we could
n’t turn them away. So we let the
Johnson girl make a fire in the living
room and turned her loose with them.
And now all we have to do is find a
matron.”
"I thought we’d give the job to
Mrs. Barwell if she wants it, when
Jicr husband gets well,” answered
Chloe. “But until then-----”
"There must be a dozen women
here in the village who would like
- the job and could hold it, too,” said’
Melissa. “But until you have time to
find one, why hot a nurse from the
hospital? Suppose I arrange it and
take cate of her salary until you get
yourselves organized and know what
it’s all about?”
"Mrs. Sargent, yom are a lamb,”
cried Margaret, and embraced her,
"Chloe, my angel child, had you
stopped to think that we are going
to need money to carry on this noble
Work?” demanded Margaret when the
door had closed behind Melissa.
“What are we to do, draw on our
Dads ?’’
"We are not going to call on any
body for anything, except to buy tick
ets twice a year to a show we are
going! to put on,” said Chloe firmly.
'I figured it all out last night. We
will put on a spring and a fall show.
A musical revue, or a Follies or some
thing of the sort, and sell tickets to
our friends and thus support our
charity. And meanwh.ile I’m using my
own money to cover the expenses. I
wasn't quite sure I could manage the
matron’s salary but now that Gran is
taking care of that, I’m all set.”
The other girls stared at her.
“You mean your own personal al
lowance?” demanded one of them un
easily.
“Of course. There isn’t an awful
lot to spend it for here and I’ve tons
of clothes. ,Many more than I need.
Only you’ll haye to resign yourselves
to seeing me in the same’ old duds
for a while,” answered Chloe cheer
fully.
- Margaret said firmly,- “Oke-dokee,
Chloe, if you can do it, so can I.
I’ll chip in a half or my own allow
ance.” «
The other girls chimed in one after
the other, until Chloe stared at them
with shinning eyes and said unstead
ily, "Don’t ever tell me again the
Christmas spirit doesn't still live.
You’re all swell—the whole crowd of
you.”
“Oh sure. Little daughters of Kris
Kringle, that’s us,” said Margaret and
laughed. •
"Not a bad title for a'club, at that.”
said Melissa from the doorway, and
none of them knew how long she had
been there. "How about writing me
in as a member? I’ll be a sort of
Emergency Committee of One. Good
for a ‘touch’ now and then when ex
penses get out of hand,”
Margaret turned to Chloe.
“I told you she was a peach. Three
cheers for Melissa!” said daringly,
and the other girls cheered ulstily un
til Callie Johnson peered in at the
door, sullen and envious, but not
quite daring to thrust herself into
the little group that had been polite
to her but who had made it quite
plain that she was an outsider.
That evening when Chloe, and Mel
issa returned, to the big old red brick
house on the hill, Chloe found a fat
letter waiting for her. Even before
she saw the stamp on the bulk of the
letter as well as the. strong dashing
handwriting across its face told Tier
that it was from Jim.
The stationary bore the yacht’s
name and its insignia at the top. Jim’s
dashing handwriting filled the pages
so that though the letter was bulky,
it need not have*been for there were
only a few words to the page. He be
gan by calling her “My Lovely," and
went on to tell what a super-grand
time the crowd was having, how much
die missed her, and how swell it was
to be away from all the “idiotic jam”
of Christmas.
“No snow, no ice, no red flannel
Santa Clauses ringing bells on street
corners; no fighting with a wild mob
to buy presents for people you hate
yet dare not forget, knowing that
they’ll buy you something equally
hideous; no listening to a lot of stu
pid carols and being solicited for all
manner of charities; the only thing
needed to make it all perfect is for
you to be here. Come on darling,
grab yourself a dice fast plane and
spend a sane and safe Christmas with
somebody who loves you a lot.”
The letter ended with an account
of a party to which the crowd had
gone the night before at a beautiful
club in Rio. There had been perfect
music, a pluperfect floor, a great
many excellent drinks. It had been,
in short, a typical, very gay party.
Folding the letter, Chloe looked
back on some of the parties she had
attended. Parties like the one Jim
described. That would be life as Jim’s
wife. A great deal of money. Any
thing she wanted that money could
buy. Beautiful homes anywhere she
wanted to live; swank hotels; swank
clothes. Jewels, Furs. Fine cars. Trips
abroad. Trips anywhere she wanted
to go. Parties and more parties. Fun.
Excitement. Glitter. Once she had
thought that being Mrs. Jim Pear
sall would be all she wanted out of
life. Yet now—she sat very still gaz
ing into the fire, her thoughts caught.
The past two weeks she had spent
in knowing the people who worked in
the Sargent Mills. She had visited the
homes pf the workmen. Talked to
their wives. Asked questions about
their children. What did the children
want for Christmas?
Chloe had seen, in those two busy,
crowded weeks just what money was
for. Not to buy fine liquor, or im
ported frocks, or yachts that were
floating palages,’ bitt to buy happin
ess for those to whom was an ever-