The Washington times., 1931-12-31
CHAPTER IL

at the wheel Of the car-drove
slowly and with a deep sense
of enjoyment over the Long
Island roads.
She had left her mother at
the Country Club, bent on her
tango lesson. She herself was
going on to Imogen's. Mean
time she was alone. With the
country glowing all about her.
she felt a vivid sense Of beauty
seep into her spirit till her very
soul was beauty-drenched.
''It's a gay, glad old world,
said she to a pied wagtail that
was leading her young brood
beside a little stream. She
drew I'D the machine at the
side of the road and lit a cigar
cite.
Bees buzzed in the honeyed
air. Foxgloves added bold love
illness to the scene. Laurel
shifted the sweet odor of hello
trope.
Indeed, this benificent sun
drew out the perfume of all
kinds of green and growing
things, and on the wimpled
stream that murmured a soft
song as it flowed by there was
Q tangle of forget-me-nots.
A kingfiSher darted down to
the surface Of the water on the
track of a bright insect. Laurel
ruminatively watched a little
family Of goldflncheS being fed
by the parent birds among the
seeding thistles.
The babies waited in a bunch
Of grass, while fuSsy little pa
and ma flew back and forth,
swapping up insects which i'm
mediately they brought back
and placed in the yawning
beaks Of the youngsters. There
was a continual flirting Of
tails and calling Of "tizzit,"
"tizzit."
And Laurel thought of her
own home, where there wasn't
what could be called much
cleaning up"
Well. she wasn't a youngster
any more! And yet the sight
of that united little family
gave her a queer, warm SEN
timeptl
Also a feeling of missing
something, somewhere. was it
affection in the home? Or was
this aroused by Comics re-
cent and unwonted interest. 2
She watched the parent birds
go off, the dapper little father
making his toilet and mamma
flying to some bushes.
The young ones called in
vain. Presently one of them
swooped off on his own and
captured an insect. This
caused excitement, and the
mother bird flew back to them
Immediately.
But Connie wasn't Of that
kind! thought Laurel Specu.
latively.
Connie was with a typical
lounge lizard now, shut in
from all this sun and splendor.
TangO-Mad
Connie was tangoing with a
sleek-headed Argentine at IS a
lesson.
There had been something
iwistful in her mothers face
today when she had quizzed
Laurel on the subject of
romance" odd, wasn't it?
The dangerous age" lovely
Connie was in the forties. .
would that explain this?
Connie didn't want to miss
q single trick, because time
was flying. -?
Unlike those parent birds,
she and dad went their own
separate ways in. life. and if
daughter were pushed out of
the family nest they wouldn't
really miss her. -!
A wave Of self-pity swept
over Laurel.
Where Was She Going?
Why hadn't life, thrilling as
It was, any direction to it?
Hadn't that young doctor
told her almost in so many
words last night-thiS morning
early, rather-that she sud-
denly said aloud.
That was his old-fashioned
PuritaniSm, of course.
II hope I never see him
again" she suddenl: said
aloud. She tossed her cigarette
away. stepped on the gas. The
car shot off.
Imogen was not at the
bungalow when Laurel drove
up.
So the girl left the car, and
walked to \the willow-fringed
knoll where Imogen did her
alleged sun-bathing. ..
She thrust some bushes aside.
The sun was in Laurel'S eyes,
and at first Imogen did look
as though she were clad in
"sweet nothing"
But a second glance displayed
her friend reclining on a rug
flung on messy ground, arrayed
in what are known as "Scan-
ties"
OF fleSh-pink silk. A littlo