Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1932-06-03
CHAPTER Ii.
GONE.
I'M KEITH had Loft Riuf

plained-received a wire calling
~ him back West, wire which
contained bad news no doubt,
for the mans face was very grim and
his lips set firmly as he spoke about it.
Whatever it was, it required his i'm
mediate presence. He would catch the
morning train.
He departed, leaving Mrs. Cameron
bewildered-Natalie disappointed. Joyce,
he did not see. She learned the news
through Kitty, who came rushing into
Joyces bed room while she was putting
on her riding habit for an early ride.
"Jims gone. Burke told me he'd
just driven him to the station to catch
! the 9 O'Clock train. He's gone and he
isn't coming back"
The girl across the room had turned
as she spoke, and even through her
agitation Kitty found time to notice
how white Joyce looked this morning.
How large and dark her eyes. :.
She suddenly laughed, harsh little
laugh. We'll, don't look so disconsolate.
Kitty darling! I'm quite sure we'll all
live quite as long if your dashing hero
has gone!"
do you know" Kitty went on.
"I'll bet he wasn't engaged to Natalie
else why would he go away, suddenly
like that?"
The girl across the room had turned
| back to the mirror and was engrossed
with the collar Of her white silk shirt
which was undoubtedly the reason why
her voice sounded a trif1e smothered.
Perhaps she turned him down"
mot her!" said Kitty promptly. She
was crazy about him"
Perhaps her mother finally heard of
his unsavory past. That old scandal
the ships doctor was always chatter
ing about"
Il don't believe it," said Kitty Loyalty.
Il like the lad always have
"Oh, Kitty-for heavens sake sing
another tune!" Joyce snapped. 1T S
| nothing to me if that fortune hunter
finally had the good taste to go
| away"
Nothing to her. 1t only turned all
| OF her life fiat and stale. 1t only
turned her heart to lonely whimper-
ing thing, so that all her will power
went to holding her head high, to
| forcing her lips to smile.
Joyce rode up the trail through
/ Meeker's woods. and the beauty of the
morning only made more poignant the
unhappneSs in her own mind.
Early sunlight spotted the brown
earth, striking through the trees in
long, quivering shafts.
Her horse broke the webs Of rose
spiders which draped the bay bushes
! along the trail. dew filed canopies
which threw off rainbow sparkles in
the light.
The air was crisp and heady, bring
| ing the tang of early Autumn. Birds
flashed through the trees and chip
hunks ran along branches, scolding
and peering at her with curious, bright
eyes. A few yellow leaves drifted
down on her uncovered head from the
maple trees, as though some woodland
god pelted her with Summer gold.
! And it was lonely-lonely-ridin
| through all this beauty alone.
All of her life had been lonely, wait
| ing for some one who never came.
Joyce thought of it now, riding with
| head bent. reins hanging loose in her
/ hands while the horse slowly picked it,
own way along the trail.
! Her friendless drudging childhood
har been lonely after her mother died
To be sure. there was MaGdy. but Mad
/ dy had never filled the secret depth of
her heart. Her girlhood had been
| lonely until Norman came-twice as
desolated after he went. She thought
Of that hectic period in the city with
Nadine-it was like looking back into
another life. She had been bitterly
lonely then. The gray hospital and
Kitty-dear. loyal. warm Kitty :. that
much life had given her. Rogers-and
! the strange, colorful world opening up
! before her, and moonlit night of sea
and sky when for few brief moments
her arms and her heart and her life
! had been full.
| Jim'S arms about her-Jim's lean,
dark face bent above her own d. and
her own shaking voice. love
| you. :"
| "Oh =" She covered her face
with her gloved hands as though to
shut the memory out.
! She was in the heart of the woods
now, and her memory drifted back to
the time when she had come up here
with her mother long ago. There was
the bank where her mother had sat,
with the sun dappling her white skirt,
and there she had found the broken