Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1931-06-04
IN THREE PARTS-PART THREE

TIE WENT out, taking his hat from
the hall table. and looking back
only once. I'm coming here to-
morrow before luncheon, Peggy.
want to talk to you again and / wish
Vane could be here, too. Don't trust
too much in the essential difference
of one man from other men, Peggy
unless you've seen him in other mems
Shoes"
Peggy remained where she was, dis
turbed by his last remark and almost
u%nnerved. 1t had been hardly a fail
day, a day of resolutions and then
doubling them. She wandered in to
look at the children. Penny'S little
fist tangled in Paddy's fair curls on
the pillow. She caught herself Won
dering what she might have done If
Rob had come a month ago. All, but
there was one factor in the equation
which Rob didn't fgure-Philip him.
self. He was different. She was re-
Numbering his difference as she went
into her own room and bent down to
pull her large travelling bag from under
the bed.
At noon the next day they were
miles on the road TO Bagnoles. The
excitement of getting away-Philip had
been almost feverish. although defiant,
about it when she told him of Rob's
threat-the instructions to Miss Simms
about the children, and to the con-
cierge about what to tell Mr.. Holt
when he came, the mail, a tat packet
If Springfield gossip from Janet Ha-
zelton which there was not time to
read.
Their bags had been taken upstairs
and, after a happy moment over their
coffee on the terrace, Peggy went up,
too, discovering a sweet, wide, sunlt
room with welcome white On the beds,
a white bath, and an escritoire and
dressing table which might have been
fetched from a chamber in some sew
enteenth century chateau. Philip had
driven to the marie to make sure
papers and all were in order and he
was calling back for her in an hour.
In an hour she was going with Philip
to be married.
The thought of it seemed to stun
Peggy a little, as though she'd never
actually considered it before. She sat
on the edge of her bed, her eyes lost
in some imaginary distance, while her
fingers fumbled Enthusiastically with
the catch of her travelling bag. Per-
haps it was just the startling intimacy,
Philips heavy brown luggage in the
corner. But there was also his thought
fitness, his gentleness, for her reas-
surance. Or was there.
When the lid of Peggy's bag came
open, Janet Hazelton's fat letter fell
out upon the bed. Peggy tore it open
and tried to distract her mind with
the disconnected but plentiful items
of Springfield gossip with which it
began, developed, and ended. Eleanor
Townsend was going to have another
baby and almost certainly a boy. Har-
rison Vickery was heavily involved in
a new omance with an unexplained
young widow from New York who was
pretty enough to get away with it.
The Haliburtons were going to try to
break the old gentleman's will.
And then a paragraph which meant
more to Peggy personally, and still
more as she read it over again: "As
for you, dear Peggy, the loyalty Of
your friends has hardly been enough
to stem the changing tide of SPRING
field opinion-whatever that's worth
against you and towards Rob, and I
should wait a bit to come back if I
were you. Of course, that smashup-
apparently he turned deliberately into
the street a rather than hit the fool
who jumped from the back platform,
and everybody thinks it was heroic
and then his quitting the highball
crowd-and, well, you know how peo-
pie are, Peggy. A mar always gets
the sympathy in the end, although our
friend, Philip Vane, didn't. It's all
out now about his slipping out Of Par
while old man Parrish faced
the music and went broke when the
thing crashed. Apparently the men
knew all about it months ago. Why
don't they tell us?"
Janet's letter slipped from Peggy's
fingers as she stood up.
In the midst Of Peggy's running
thought a tear slipped out of her gray
eye and stood on her nose. She had
just remembered Rob standing in her
apartment living oom last night ask
ing her to go home, while she, stirred
and trembling with his very presence,
had talked like a little fool about be-
ing in love with another man.
Something broke. Peggy felt it go.
There was a sudden catch of her
breath and then she flung herself
across the bed and let the sobs come
slowly and the tears burn her cheeks
without trying to stop them. She lay
Am00RATRn Il RunA