The Waterbury Democrat., 1934-08-13

L. pOtotVH grumpy: there were always money | worries.
 "I'll finish up here" Boots said. She took the slim shoulders. push ed her mother bodily out of the kitchen Feeling work an outlet for her mood, she swished suds in the big pan. wrung out tea towels. l sluiced the old clipped drainboard
 Her task completed. she hung the dishcloth upon its hook and put down q saucer of scraps for the biz | yellow cat that came siding at that moment through the Goor opening onto the back ,screneed entry,
 "Nice kitty! Good Timmy!"
 The cat. arching his back, rubbed himself affectionately against her staring up through eyes the color of mutton-fat jade. Boots felt sud denly more light than she had been all day. Shades of coo.- ness had fallen on the grass, on her mothers Dorothy Perkins rose, writhing over the pergola; birds hummed and twittered in the dusk. | Whatafool she was to be discon- tented! The woric was a pretty i good place to be. after all. And there was so much before her! Why. tomorrow might bring any thing an offer to go into pie lures ~. romantic meeting with a grave. handsome. distin- | guished gentleman who, after one glance at her, would fall back and | say:
 "You exquisite creature, I have been waiting for someone like you ."
 She would marry him, Boots dreamed, sitting on the topmost step of the kitchen flight; she would go to Europe. When she came back one day she would be riding along Beechtree Drive in her second best limousine. It would be winter. She would be swathed in furs--rich, fine, sleek black cara cul, her face rosy above silver fox collar. She would notice q thin, rather bedraggled young ma tron pushing a perambulator along the walk. Sylvia Rivers! Sylvia | married and widowed. penniless l now, working in the library be- tween whiles, to eke out q living She (Boots) would bow graciously,
 Barbara . Barbara!'' Her mothers voice. She came back to reality with a start. Daddy and I are going to ride down 10 the shore and sit on the rocks for a while. It II be cooler there. Want to come along ."
 She relinquished her dream.
 'I think" she said slowly, "I'!l walk over to Abby Jane's for while. You go along. =. .''
 But Abby Jane was not at home. The Meriwethers' house was dark. Next door, at pr Hart's, lights burned hospitably in the big, wide widowed rooms. On sudden im- walk. Young Mrs Hart was very often alone, thcs doctor out on night calls. She wanted to talk to
 Lois Hart, tall red-bloEd, rath- CT gushing in manner, answered the bell. "Oh, come in, dear. was just boring myself with detective story. Out on the side porch-'
 A roadster cut in out of the gloom just as the two women seated themselves. Lois Hart rose quickly.
 ''Thatll be my cousin, Stay and meet him, Boots. He's -"
 What she said was lost in the sound of steps on the veranda. Boots felt embarrassed. She thought she ought to go. But be- fore she could take flight Lois ap- peared, tall stranger at her side. Boots glanced at him cur iously.
 He was sunburned a deep brown. l His eyes were startlingly, deep blue. Boots felt abashed, felt ter ribly young.
 My cousin, Denis Fenway."
 Boots, scarcely knowing what she did, extended her hand. CHAPTER H
 q must be running along" Boots told young Mrs Hart, rather un- | comfortably. She had been an idiot, she reminded herself, to come putting in here. Lois would think her a fool and this cool, ut- terly superior young man, with his foreign air of dandified elegance. rather bothered her.
 Nonsense, my dear" Lois seized h arm and made her sit down again. Denis is staying with us oh. you didn't know. you bad child, you haven't been to see me in weeks. Boots," she said affection ately and rather gushingly. was ] just graduated from high school some weeks ago-with honors. And are we proud of her!" Boots flushed, feeling more than ever a fool. Why must Lois em- phasize the fact that she was just out of school? She wanted to ap- pear woman of the world, want ed to escape from the tight shell | of youthful embarrassments and inhibitions which cramped her. ! The young man smiled coolly (she thought) at this. She had sat down again, at the insistence of her | hostess. Mrs Hart was lounging gracefully in a deep chair and the young man had eased his tall self into another. !