The Waterbury Democrat., 1934-08-13


 "My dear, we had a good laugh out of it Mrs Waterman called
 Mother and said who could she get at the last minute. Mother said, of course all the crowd was spoken | for. Then Mrs w. brooded for bit and said she's try the RaebQrn girl She didn't think she had much fun and they were such fine people-all that rot. And, my dear. | if she ism: going!"
 Boots lay still as statue. her heart hammering,' hammering in her breast. She felt a little sick. She did not stir.
 There was a general burst of laughter and the gay, inconsequent voice went on. Pattys voice.
 Ut will be a riot. l can just see | Sylvia face when she sees her
 with the graybeards-" Well, I think it's a shame.
 think Boots is pretty swell said Isabel Loyalty. Just because | they've lost all their money and
 she can't keep up with the
 crowd -
 If she hadn't been so desperately sick, if her head hadn't been whiri
 ing and her heart pounding like
 wild thing Boots would have | blessed her for this. Instead she
 lay there. transfixcd. unable to | move hand or foot.'
 "Oh, can all that stuff" she
 heard a boys voice, unrecognized. say disouste ediy. You women"
 Then the group dlifted away.
 She wished that she might die.
 Only that. To be engulfed in some
 blessed. all-enve. .oping tide. To
 pass out of life painlessly. definite y. one and for all. That was all she asked. Her pulse pounded in her temple; she thought for min ute she was really going to be sick, With pIungins heart she fought off
 the feeling Any minute now. any
 minute she might get up and crawl | away, like some stricken thing. some mortally wounded creature. Why, she had never known any
 one could be so cruel! It wasn't her fault that their house was shabby. that they had to plan and contrIve for everything. She
 hadn't realized that anyone ever talked so about her: what venom there had been in Patty's light, careless voice, what una bashed slee. But then Patty was Sylvias friend and sycophant. And Sylvia was definitely her enemy-had al- ways been since that first day of school four years ago when Boots theme had won the first term prize and Sylvia's had been shelved.
 Its absurd. It doesn't matter. None of this matters" Boots tried to tell herself calmly and judicial ly. Years from now I'll laugh at it. Maybe I'll have forgotten It entirely"
 raised herself from the sand. There
 were only few people on the
 beach and circling the polo now. Somehow Boots managed to walk to her cubicle. She thought even stupid Dintsy Adrian must see that something had happened to her, as he handed her the key. But Dintsy only stared owlishly and said it sure was hot.
 She struggled into her few brief garments. The striped seersucker dress had seemed pretty and fresh this morning. Now the hateful cheapness of it sickened her. A 69-cent remnant she had made it herself. feeling happy and clever to be able to contrive this way. Now everything was black ened and spoiled. All she asked was to be able to get away, to get out of it all to some new place where clothes and money didn't matter. Maybe she could be set tlement worker anything. She came blinking into the dark ness of the awninged porch some moments later, slim girl with dark eyes burning in a white face, her gilt hair framing her face in a classic cap of wet ringlets. The young man idling with the rolls at the player piano turned a frank stare of admiration up to her
 Hello" he said amiably.
 Boots returned his salutation | lifelessly. She remembered him now. Russ Lund, the new swim ] ming instructor. Isabel-or some body-had languidly dismissed
 Russ as a "big roughneck." He
 was a strong, squarely built young man of 25 or 26 and therefore, to Boots. one of the oldsters. He had a thick, unruly crest of stiff brown
 hair, magnificent shoulders and a rather engaging smile. Boots could not remember actually having | spoken to him before, although she
 had known, of course. for num- Der of weeks who he was. He sim1 ply did not "belong."
 To-day she returned his greeting | alphabetically. Nothing mattered. Going over town?"
 She nodded, already moving | across the big. bare room, scented with aust, it's floor scared bl young dancing feet. She was in very daze of pain and misery.
 What did 1t matter what he asked her?
 Russ Lund was at her side. I'm | driving. Can drop your" Another day she would have re-
 fused, politely and definitely, To- day she shrugged her shoulders and sterped into his little car. (To Be Continued)