Carolina watchman. [volume] (Salisbury, N.C.) 1871-1937, 1933-07-07
Seventeenth Install1nenr

Frills wasn't wild and reckless
when l married her-you-say, l
don't know who l did marry!"
That's what I've got to find
out, Neil! It's been driving me
nearly crazy, and now at last I've
had the courage to tell the truth,
as far as l know it. Will you tell
me, Neil, how you met Frils and
all that?"
why, at Joe and Maisie Tur-
ner's, of course! Don't you really
remember, Frills-er, l mean JOY
ce? Gosh, this gets my goat, l feel
as tho we'd all gone absolutely
nutty-"
Il felt that way when l first
woke up and found myself Mrs.
Packard she said gently, "but
Eve lived with the idea so long
that I've gotten a bit used to it.
Tell me about the Turner's"
"Why, it was their car that ran
into your taxi in Chicago. Joe was
running for some political office at
the time, and he was very anxious
to keep out of the papers in ar-y
way that might bring him any I'M
pleasant publicity, SO he gave the
police a tip, I suppose, and got
them to allow you to be taken to
his house instead of to a hospital.
You were unconscious a couple of
days, and when you woke up you
were in a dazed condition. | re-
member Maisie saying they thought
you never would say a word, and
how queer it made them feel, hav-
ing some one lying there conscious,
but just looking at the walls with
out saying anything"
Fancy! That was me, and
don't remember any more about it
than if it had never happened"
zoe and Maisie had a time find
ing u who you were. The doctor
said just leave you alone and you
come around all right, And, sure
enough, that was what happened,
or what everybody thought had
happened.
The Turner's were lively, enter
tanned a lot, plenty of money and
all that, and as soon as you were
well they introduced you around
to their friends. You made a hit
with everyone, and hat tickled
them. My cousin Lawton Pack
ards wife was a great friend of
Maisie, and I'd met her and Joe a
number of times in Manzanita, and
they'd always told me to look them
up if l was ever in Chicago. 1t
struck me to do it one time; | call
ed them up and Joe invited me out
to dinner that night, throwing out
a lot of dark hints about a sv; ell
girls who was staying with them.
| went, and it was you l met
Florence Hilton was the lame
took a terrible tumble, and in a
couple of weeks we were engaged.
Il kept stringing out the bust
ness in Chicago, and fnally--I re-
member now that it was your own
suggestion!-we were married right
away, before we left town, and
you came back to Manzanita as
Mrs. Neil Packard!"
Joyce had been held spellbound
by Neil's recital. 1t was all SO
queer and unreal, and she felt her
head swimming by the strangeness
of it.
Didn't you ask me anything
about who l was, and all that,
when you wanted to marry me?
How did l act? Wa l like the Frills
I've heard about, or mort liAe Joy
ce?"
"Well, you see, every one treat
ed you with kid gloves, so to speak,
on account of this accident" said
Neil, ut was understood that you'd
had a great shock, and that you
mustn't be pressed. The doctor
kept saying, just leave her alone
and she'll come around all right.
All this mystery was very exciting,
you understandable all got a great
kick out of it l remember
wanted to ask you a lot of things
when we were first engaged, but
you said to me, Neil, you've got
to trust me. There are some things
[ can't tell you, and you mustn't
ask me about who l am and all
that. There's nothing Pm asham-
ed of, and some day I expect I'll
tell you all there is to tell'." A
shade passed over Neil's face. 81
always thought you would tell me,
but you never did. 80"
Joyce watched him excstedly.
The strange story gripped them, Sc
chat realities were seen through a