Evening star., 1934-06-16
CHAPTER XXI.

n T HAD been a long while since
Jeffrey Therrold had spent an
evening filled with such irritating
L occurrences as this one.
Sitting quiescent at the table
in the little alcove, he had had, per-
force, to play host to his sisters
with a deft competence and poised
detachment which made him the envy
of husbands and the bane of their
lives.
Tonight. however, things had gone
wrong from the start. Everything had
gone wrong There had been his de-
lay in getting away from the office
because of that determinable argu-
ment with the Credit Bureau regard
ing foreign shipments. Ignorant,
short-sighted upstairs telling him,
Jeffrey Therrold, how to run the silk
business.
Ursula had been unusually unpleas-
ant about his lateness, and his mother
had been upset. Then Barbara, usu-
ally his Stanchest ally, had to choose
the dinner table, of all places and
times, to begin again on that sense
less argument she had lately been
putting forth as to why she should 90
to Europe for the Winter with Connie
Bates. OF all the absurd proposals.
he'd as soon send her to the North
Pole without a fur coat Con-
ME Bates! And why Europe, all of
a sudden, was what jeff warted to
know. He couldn't possibly get away
to take her himself-business and the
condition of the world being what
they were. And last year. when he
had begged her to 60, she had said
that she hated the very thought!
Babs was badly spoiled, that was
all; and it was he who had spoiled
her the most. His glance sought her
out at the foot of the table
provocatively feminine in every line
of her slim body, in every turn of her
proud little head. But the expression
on her face was something else again.
His gaze, following her own. found it
riVeted on that table across the room
where Rose Therrold sat with down.
bent head, studying the menu in her
hand.
Hang i'll Jeffrey thought
Babs was getting morbid on that sub
lect 1t was ridiculous; it was going
TO stop. He felt an inexplicable wave
'f irritating impatience. Women, he
reflected. surely could take it out on
each other. Why didn't Babs let that
girl alone? She had a right to come
to the Country Club if she chose
and with whom she chose, jeff told
himself savagely. squaring resolutely
about in his chair.
He sat there after that. coldlv
analyzing these friends of his sisters
-analyzing them and resenting them
with a perspective that was new and
disturbing. Irene Fleming, languish-
ing, artlessly coy, leaning to talk to
him with that annoying cadence of
intimacy he had always hated so.
Connie Bates, smiling with meaning
ful glances at the vacant faced youth
from New York Ursula. darting
suspicious glances at Bill. as he came
back from too prolonged visit to the
kitchen-pantry. Cynical little Mrs.
Corwin, arguing tiresomely and in
cessantly with the college boy who
was visiting the Pritchards. =.
Slow Martin Coyle with his ponderous
jokes and too jovial smile all of
them shadows, jibing, nebulous
wraiths that seemed to peer at him
now through blue haze of cigarette
smoke. In spite of himself. his eyes
turned again toward the table across
Rose Therrold, meeting that SOM
Der, brooding glance. felt nothing of
what Jeffrey really was thinking: felt
only that something intense and ar
raigning she had always felt in his
manner toward here, silently disap-
proving and condemning. And re-
sented it with all of her being, as she
had resented him from the first.
Sitting rigidly beside him now in
the low front seat of the roadster,
Rose turned toward the black ribbon
of the roadway ahead face from
which all feeling and expression had
fed. Her eyes. staring straight before
her, were wide and luminous with un-
shed tears. but the mouth. dropping
family had ceased to CULVER
From the moment Jeffrey had led
her through the doorway Of the club
into the windy, murmurous dark out
side, no word had passed between
them. Shame and a faint heartache
fingered within her still She felt
limp and weary and defeated to the
core of her being.
The car sliding steadily down the
hillside, made no sound. The heat
which all evening had hung upon the
earth seemed centered now in a vast
cloud bank which obscured the moon.
The trees, silent along the river bank
below. bent their heads and fingered
the water with trailing fingers, SEEM
ing to shrink from the lancing darts
of lightning that played about them.
In flash brighter than the rest the
girl shivered slightly, looking up fleet
ingly with wide, unhappy eyes.
Its Kitten" she said, in answer TO
his down-bent look Il forgot to close
the bed room window-she's afraid OF
lightning-" Miserably she twisted
her hands together in her lap, turn
ing her head away to strain forward
toward the road. The mans voice,
suddenly deep and quiet, held an un-
accustomed note, almost of tender
ness that brought her bewildered gaze
back to the dim blur of his face.
We're almost there I've got to go
round by the lower bridge-my cars
too heavy for this one" And added
gruffiy, in a voice almost without in
flection: You're cold. Lean back
here"
With his free hand he reached be-
hind her, dragging from the rack his
light camel's hair coat. One hand still
gripping the wheel. he drew it across
her shoulders with expert deftness
and at her instructive recoil held 1t
there firmly for moment, his jaw
setting grimly in the dim light. Don't
be a little goose-do you want to catch
cold?" He felt her relax, insensibly
beneath his arm, and something
within him seemed to thaw into
Lightning struck again in the dis
tance, and thunder. deafening in its
echoing crash, grumbled across the
I,ao,a,,e 20 tboir foot Gone the mist