Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1928-03-09

dldllS VI the uCdIIt IL dlls
/ came home TO find Elizabeth grown
up, saddled with her abominable nick
name of Boots, and a beauty. She had
scarcely any hair left, and her frocks
came to her knees when she danced, and
she looked, at times, about ten years old
er than she was, but I stick to the
beauty. She was all of that. Shit ac-
cepted me again at once, though she
took to calling me by my first name, and
| was delighted to see that my absence
had probably made 1T only easier to be
friends with her in her new incarnation,
since / hadn't been round while she
was painfully emerging from her cocoon.
Tommy. I realized at once. had stuck
to his guns. He had grown up, too. lie
was much better looking, now that he
had gained weight and broadened out.
And / saw, at the first of the Saturday
night lance after I was home, that he
had the inside track SO far as Elizabeth
was concerned. Under the queer, half
hostile jargon they talked it wasn't hard
TO sense the odd tenderness each had for
the other. 1t didn't surprise me to find
that he was still in love with her; that
he had been true to that swift passion
for her that had famed up in him, a
spindly, half own boy, that day he had
come over to play golf with me.
But it did astonish me a little that he
should lave gone as far as he plainly had
III bDt COIlQQtoJ Ol IliLdDtJn. ONT ~
cepted their relation; acquiesced in the
way all the other youngsters took 1T for
granted. She scarcely danced with any
one else: when she did 1t was, as a rule.
because some one cut in, and he usually
took her away again before long. He
certainly didn't have eyes for any other
girl.
Katharine and I went out on the porch
to rest and talk after a dance-while 1t
was still going on, for that matter.
"Welli' I said. Il see Elizabeth has a
beau"
Katharine's eyes narrowed a little; she
laughed lightly.
isn't it absurdI" she said. IT feel
ninetyl I don't know what to do. What
do you think?"
Nothing much you can do, is there2"
l asked. How do you like the boy?"
"He seems nice" 1t made less differ
ence to Katharine than 1T would have to
most mothers, l think, but this boy was
the heir of uncountable and still grow
ing millions, you know. "Bill doesn't
altogether like him."
bill wouldn't like any young man
who came after Elizabeth" I said. Are
they engaged?"
Heavens. mol Those babies? Don't be
absurd!'
They mightn't be engaged. but, after
a week or two, / wouldn't have been sur
prised at any time to hear that they were
married. Still didn't know. Elizabeth
was holding off; she hadn't made up her
mind. / saw her looking at him, some
times, when he didn't know it, and she
didn't think any one else did, and there
was a queer, inquiring look in her eyes
that was a lot older than her years
Something there was about him that she
knew, that kept her undecided, that
made her doubtful of him.
l didn't see much Of him. He was too
busy, between Elizabeth and golf. He
seemed glad to see me; he was pleasant
ly deferential to my grazing hair, and
tremely brilliant golf one afternoon,
! when l happened to come upon him
practicing with a driver from the first
tee. But 1 didn't learn much about
things from him or with him.
l picked up the threads of What had
happened in my absence one by one,
here and there. About Tommy's golf, for
instance. He hadn't come through, not
really. He'd won some fair tournaments;
he'd been well up in one open champion
, ship he'd reached the round before the
| semi-1nal in the last amateur. He had
a following; the newspapers gave him q
! good deal Of space, But, as yet, he just
t hadn't come off. n the explanation
! was-his temperament.
:. He had played marvellous, infinitely
brilliant rounds; he had overwhelmed
l great golfers in single matches-only to
:. lose, In the next round, to men not In
8 his class. And l found out, gradually
? that 1T was, and yet was not, the old
s trouble that afflicted him and kept him
: back. He could control his temper, out
S wardly, now. Specifically he was the
/ best and truest Of sportsmen. 1 heard
no more tales Of smashed clubs, of fam
/ ing outbreaks on the curse. But let
something go wrong and his game went
to pieces. 1t might be a poor shot OF
/ his own that set him off, an undeserved
!, and lucky rub of the green for his OPP
: ponent, a stupid bit Of interference or
an untimely bit of noise from some
I member OF his gallery. Sometimes there
was no explanation at all; he would just
play badly from start to finish of an i'm.
, portant match. / couldn't talk to him
; about it-but I could, and did, to Eliza
beth.
. II know she said, and I saw that
same inquiring, roubled look that ] hac
: seen, more han once, fixed upon hin
: when she thought herself unobserved
: HE tries SO hard-but he can seem K
: help himself. And I'm afraid"
She didn't hnish her sentence, but
Z knew what she meant. And l didn'
: blame her. She was young; she looked
t as Eighty as the rest of her crowd. But
5 Elizabeth had a lot of sense. Our tall
came to nothing in the end though.
: suppose 1t couldn't. And / had, anyway
= no Justification for my curiosity excepf
my liking for both of them. / did like
: Tommy; I couldn't help it, though
e knew that most Of the men / knew bes
: felt about him much as Katharine sale
= Bill Graham did.
n / saw things as the summer wore on
T | saw, for one, that Elizabeth was trying
definitely, to break the monopoly she hac
been letting Tommy make of her. Sht
danced more with other boys; she disap'
9 peared with them, outside; she refused
more than once, to let Tommy cut in
: And he reacted badly to that sort o.
: thing. He was possessive and Jealous; 1
was inevitable, OF course, that the boz
J. he had been should grow up into tina
: sort of young man.
She was fairly frank with me.
L I'm crazy about him." she told me
one night. Sometimes / think I'm *
mad about him / Just can't live without
him. But then / get to WONDERING
. whether / could live with himi"
He's sweet" she said. You don
: know how sweet he can be. But he cal
u be a perfect devil. too. and then he say
!, the rottenest things to mel It's Just Xix
his golf-and you never know which wa,
q he's going to be. / don't know what Il
J dol wish / did"
: / couldn't tell her. No one could.
didn't even n what / wanted her Il
/, do. And then abruptly, late In August
she seemed to make up her mind.
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