The Washington herald., 1914-05-06
CLAS lie d
WANT ADS
DAILY SHORT STORY.
THE RETURN OF RHoDA.
By ELLA RANDALL PEARCE.

BY ELLA RANDALL PEARCE.
.Rhoda coming back" exclaimed
LAME, incredulously: and in the next
breath, "oh. won't Harvey be glad"
Then other thoughts. slow in taking
| shape, because they came from deep and
| secret recesses, sent flush over the
girls face. which was quickly averted
lest mother-eyes might see and under
stand.
LAME few to her room and stood by
the window looking unseeingly over
landscape opulent with summer bloom.
Rhoda coming back-her wonderful sis
ter Rhoda, who had carried her splendid
gifts OF nature to distant lands that she
might return a conqueror! LAME knew
| that many of the elder girls dreams had
| faded: that the voice upon which most
Of her hopes were built had not seemed
so marvellous in Berlin as it had In her
! native town. Rhoda's later letters had
carried something of the heartache and
| despair which come to many young stu
dents in foreign cities. Still, II was hard
for LAME to believe that Rhoda had &C
| tually failed.
She leaned over the window sill, her
| face suddenly radiant.
Harvey. oh, Harvey, Have you heard
the news? About Rhoda?'
The young man below nodded stiffly.
He seemed to be holding his features in
control. He jerked his head backward.
She wrote me, too" he said.
"'Oh-h. Well. I'm going to fx her room
now," called LAME. And tomorrow can't
| we both go to meet her? Mother wants
| me to drive TO the station; but thought
Il thought"
She paused, confused by the strange,
sharp glance which shot upward from
the mans dark eyes. Then Harvey
Towne smiled in his usual friendly fash
ion.
'AIl right, LAME. I'll go with you
He strode away, thinking of the clos
ceived from Berlin. Meet me, Harvey.
and come alone, II you can. have 50
much to say to you" His thoughts were
as grim as the expression which had
settled upon his sun-browned face.
LAME gazed after the retreating figure
wistfully.
Poor Harvey. He's all upset-and no
wonder. Rhoda was horrid TO him. Why.
she was as good as engaged to him for
years. and then. when she found she
had a voice she just laughed at him and
rem away. I suppose it'll all be made up.
now. with Rhoda back again.
The young face clouded. hot tears
welled to the clear hazel eyes. Then
LAME flung her slender figure about with
a wild gesture of her outfiinging arms.
II must bear II! / mustn't care-I new
er had reason to care-never. never!
Rhoda's all right. Harvey's all right. II
only had a voice, I'd run away now my
SELF
She started to sing shrilly. as IL in de-
| fance to the pain that was tuEging at
her heart strings, and the pretty pink
and white room which had been Rhoda's
was soon made fair and fresh again and
ready for occupancy.
Rhoda stepped from the train eagerly
on the morrow, sweeping the two persons
before her with a long critical look.
Harvey. You did come-and here is
LAME. Why. little sister. how you've
grown in a years time! and you're grow
ing pretty, toor'
LAME surveyed her in shy amazement.
This was a new Rhoda-this stylish
graceful woman in a taffeta suit of the
latest mode, with an odd looking hat tip
tilted audaciously on her auburn head.
and her gray eyes flashing in supercilious
glances that matched her air of cool as
surance.
It's good to be home again. unused
the traveller as they drove along the
broad roadway. Dear old sleepy town!
But you two look quite wide-awRke
LAME. I'll have to take you in hand. That
frock is preposterous-and you ought to
wear your hair up now. Don't you know
you're a woman"
Let her alone" growled Harvey.
She'll grow UP fast enough"
Why. you dear old bear laughed
Rhoda. tapping his cheek with her gloved
hand. But wait till l see you alone.
and tell you what I've come home for"
Harvey flushed in spite of his efforts
at self-possesson: and LAME shifted her
feet uneasiIy. II was rather indelicate
of Rhoda to refer to personal affairs like
that. she thought She saw her sisters
man who helped her to alight from the
carriage; she saw Harvey look back with
a fierce intentness that made LAME sud
denly feel like an intruder an undeslred
outsider.
"Rhoda's strange: but she's handsomer
than ever. And she'll have her way He's
going to resist her-he's that proud-but
he'll lose in the end. He can't help him
self Thus ran Lanie's thoughts as she
hurried to the refuge Of the house 1t
had been harder than she had expected
this meeting with Rhoda,
She was in her own room again after
supper. when a soft whistle sounded in
the garden below her window The room
was unlighted. and Lanie's mood match /
cd the enfoldinE gloom. Again the whistle /
came. hut crouChins just within the case
ment. the sdddened girl maze no reply. !
Her slowly awakening heart had Yielded |
its secret at last, but no one else should
know.
"Oh. Harvey, I was hoping you'd /
come" II was the rich voice of Rhoda. .
carefully lowered as she traiIed her pale
drsperies over the grass TO meet him.
Il was calling to LAME. but she isn't |
home. I guess" said Harvey. coldly
mo. l haven't seen her since we had
shes gone to meet sweetheart"
LAME has no sweetheart" returned
Harvey hercely. She's only a child