Carolina watchman. [volume] (Salisbury, N.C.) 1871-1937, 1933-06-09
G. TN INC
Thirteenth Installment

- >NSS
Of 4 towering redwood grove.
When she lay down on her back in
the warm sunshine and looked up
through the pines at the blue sky,
he felt as if she were floating in
space.
She lay thinking of Neil, and
with a little thrill of satisfaction
she decided that he showed no
evidence of missing the old Frills.
She had now met PRACTICABLE
every one who moved in their cir
Gle in Manzanita and had found
out enough of their history and
circumstances so that she could
get by safely in most cases,
The month was not yet up but
Joyce, summarizing her impress
ions and the knowledge she had
gathered, felt hat she had given
her environment a fair study and
was entitled to draw her conclu-
sions and plan her future course
without further research.
First, as to Neil. She had made
4 number of enlightening and
cheering discoveries concerning
him. He was devoted to golf but
did not car for dancing; he liked
liquor but never drank to excess,
and he disliked risque stories more
than most of his acquaintance
guessed. He believed in taking
ones part in the life of the COM
munity but he would have been
happy to stay at home four even
ings out of a week to enjoy the
quiet pleasures of private life.
On her return from San Fran
cisco she had once more been fore
ed to face the problem of her re-
lations with Maitland. He had
telephoned and called several times
the first day while she was cut, and
On the second morning, just as she
was ready for a ride on Rosita, he
had appeared and caught her .
Joyce let her thoughts dwell
dreamily for a m on Matt
land and instinctively she found
herself comparing him with scorn
TO two men-Robert Ainsworth
and Neil Packard. Measured BY
Ainsworth's standards, Maitland
had no chance at ALT was al
most unfair even to compare them.
Maitland had once or twice at
tempted to reopen the subject of
their love, but Joyce had continued
to treat him with such unmistak-
able GOODNESS that he was baflec
and finally let her alone.
in her thoughts she now came
back, with a quickening of hel
pulses, to the problem of her rela-
tlons with Neil. They had gone
out together the evening before
and cooked a camp supper high uF
OF a hillside overlooking the valley
They fingered until it was dark
watching the stars creep out into
their places. Joyce, hugging hel
knees, sat and breathed in the peace
and quiet, while Neil stretched out
close to her, smoking a pipe ano
playing gently with Dickie's ears.
Suddenly Neil had rolled over
toward Joyce, and, putting hi:
arms around her waist, laid hi.
head on her lap. Joyce leaned back
resting her weight on her hands be
hind her and did not touch him.
She had lately avoided every slight
est demonstration of affection to.
ward him, for she had come to the
d~lsconcerting conclusion more than
once that Neil was finding it hard
er and harder to keep his feelings
in check.
She could not help realize that it
was both unwise and unkind for
her to slip her hand in his, to
smooth back his hair, to lean a.
gainst him when they sat together,
to do any one of the dozen of
little caressing things which she
found herself, in her liking and
pity for him, Involuntary and
quite innocently inclined to do. -
The slightest motion of this sort
sent a flame of hope leaping into
Neil's eyes.
How long could this go on? 1t
was becoming more and more diff
.hcult for them both. Joyce trem-
bled a little to recall the tenseness
with which Neil had finally %releas-
ed his hold on her the previous
evening.
Joyce had been curious to see
Joyce Abbott, the one woman Neil
seemed to like, and the meeting
with her had come two days after
her conversation with Ethel about
the dinner for Rhoda Maitland. 1t
was near1v five o,c1ocL md Tovce