The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1922-10-04
When A Girl
 Marries
Bv ANNE LESLIE. CHAPTER 69S.


 eyes of you I meant a slant for taking things in, not for sending glances out.' he amended.
 You ridiculous boy!'' I laughed, with the freedom from all seIr-con- scioushess Park has a gift of making folks feel. You're about seven Aunt Mays enfant terrible of a nephew"
 The music stopped just then And Park, towering over me with a IIean, big bulg, looked down at me seriously and said in a grim voice that came strangely from him!
 ''I may be about seven, Mrs. A. H., but. Ralph Lacy is a man-every incn of him. Remember that"
 The blood constricted about my heart. I hated the note Park was 1n- troducing into my friendship with Ralph Lacy. I hated 1t the more pe- cause for one moment a little while before, Ralph Lacy had seemed about to prove himself a very modern man, with taste for comp1imenting another mans wife. Now I breezed back with answer which I felt ought to banish the tenseness from the atmosphere.
 Ralph Lacy is a gentleman He never forgets that" I said lightly, but with an undercurrent of meaning on which Park pounced.
 You're right. He never does!' he cried. If l were hero worshipper don't know where I'd get a finer, cleaner souled. keener minded, more boyish old idealist to adore. Old Ralph is a friend in ten million. He'1I be a husband in a hundred million some day if he falls in love with the right girl. I'd hate to have him waste himself-ever. Shucks. I'm talking like the head of a girls school, aren't F"
 You're talking like a friend 1n thousand million.'' I laughed. And you're making me realize more than ever what a privilege it is to be one of those who call a man like Ralph Lacy-friend. I know what true friend he can be. Your attitude proves it. And whatever of pal-shrp a staid old married women can give him is Ralph Lacy's.''
 "So we understand each other" said Park, and swung me back into the dance. punctuating his first step with a burlesque. but. nevertheless, frank and sincere: 'I want you to feel that silly little 'seven-year- old Park, is your friend, too, Mrs. Anne Harrison. If Ralph were to say love me, love my dog some folks might be hard put to it to tell whether or n ot he means his awkward old Are dai1e or his equally galumphing old Park"
 We finished the dance with scraps of conversation about the music or some ones dancing. When at last we swung back to the table we found that Miss May and Ralph Lacy had been dancing. I wondered if either of them realized that Park had prom ised to give her the first lesson in jazz" I wondered also if Park had forgotten it. Only @ larger interest could have turned him from prom ise to the little woman to whom he Is so devoted a play nephew. And that larger interest could be nothing that concerned itself with Anne Harrison alone. Only Ralph Lacy.
 I was saved from getting into my pet bad 1labit-a maze of introspec tion and analysis-by Park himself.
 Home, James. is now the order of the evening"" he said, pulling his face into an imitation of authoritative old age. f'Tis the witching hour Of midnight, and since the clock calls 1t a day I vote We do. too. Iris the more vital since the girls we're beau ing around are-for all the 1ilies-of- - the-fie1d beauty-toilers who are due at their desks any minute now. Who agrees?"
 'T don't!" rumb1ed Max Hoad1ey.~ 'I most decidedly don't. This is theG best party I've ever. been one Of. Not only do I feel like a two-year-old be- cause this May girl here has saved me my Hoadley's Hats for my old age, but I see my nephew and his new partner getting more friendly every second. So what's the use of setting a limit to such nifty afrairT''
 His voice held a little of his old time belligerance. The heavy toucn of his frog-like pomposity threatened to spoil the delicate gauze-like atmos- phere that had made our evening so perfect. But Miss May saved the eve ming She did it in odd little way all her own. She handed her pou quet of sweetheart roses" to Max Hoad1ey and said with a touch of inn performances:
 Find the one you want for a sou venir."
 Awkwardly and with something that was a absurdly cowed in his man ner he selected one of the tiny roses. Miss May slipped it through the but tonhoIe in his left lapel Then she selected three more posies and turned to me smilingly.
 You may decorate one of my nephews and MT HoadIey's nephew she said "I think for once I'll let you have first claim on Park. don't give you much chance at that boy And there, we're going home. So you've only a minute to pretty my Park
 Before I could wonder if this were an accident or a bit of some deHber- ate1y chosen pattern, Miss May leaned forward and said in 3, breathless little voice that held smiles and tears in it's tones.
 This has been the happiest evening of my life It's given me the youth I never had time 6or till you blessed young things cams into my lhe-aA five of you. You've let me feel use full and oxnamental-and 1ovedl May much good come of this wonderful night
 It sound ed like a prayer. But there was happiness in it. and on a note of ha ppfness and thankfulness our eve ming ended, when Parks car stopped at my door and Park himself escorted me up the steps and turned my key 2 in the lock of the Sturges home. As