The Waterbury Democrat., 1934-09-05
SYNOPSIS

SYLVIA RIVERS, richest girl
 ln Tarchneck, dislikes BOOTS
 RAEBURN. Due to Sylvia's
 malicious gossip, Boots is ask
 cd to resign from the Juniors.
 Hurt and reckless. Boots ac-
 cCpts the attentions of RCSS
 IUND, swimming instructor. He
 nsks her to marry him but Boots
 wants time to think it over.
 When Mrs Raeburn returns
 from trip out of town Boots
 drcads her mothers learning
 about her withdrawal from the
 club. Boots goes to New York on
 . shopping trip and on the train
 encounters Russ who begs her to
 marry him next day. She agrees.
 Russ goes to spend the night
 with his family, leaving Boots
 at n hotel.
 They are married and Russ
 takes his bride to his brothers
 apartment. 1t Is cheap and sOr-
 did place and Russ's brother and
 his wife, GLORIA, are disap-
 pointing.
 CHAPTER XXI
 As the days melted into weeks Boots realization of what she had done, the seriousness of the step she had taken that August morning almost overwhelmed her. She would have died rather than admit that her marriage to Russ had been a mistake; but there it was. Nature, for her own purposes, had thrown veil of glamour over this particular young man. Moon- lit nights, scent of roses in the hedges, the spell of physical near ness had blinded her to his imper- factions. Now, quite suddenly, she saw him with clear eyes. He was sunbrowned. he had excellent teeth and an agreeable smile. Beyond that, beyond the lovemaking which had already begun to pail little there was simply nothing; no bond between them. They spoke differ ent languages.
 She was not the first girl to come alive to this difference after marriage. But she was young and the lesson was bitter one. Her stoic acceptance of the situation spoke volumes for her growing ma turity. Although she celebrated her 18th birthday early in September she was years older-or felt it-in experience and wisdom. When she passed young girls on the street she glanced at them curiously.
 ''Was I really that stupid and unseeing last year?" she often said to herself.
 After that black afternoon when she had received from her parents a strapped and neatly addressed trunk and a brief, cold note advis- ing her that her father did not wish to hear from her again she had had no further word from Larchneck. She seldom went over to New York now She had no money to spend and Gloria, dis covering that Boots had a real talent for housework, was leaving more and more for her to do in the shabby flat.
 When questioned about their plans Russ usually mumbled some- thing vague about starting for Florida a little later. Boots had learned now that the car which he had driven about the village that summer was not really his. It had been taken back by the company because of defaulted payments. How they were to go to Florida she had no least idea but for long time she trusted in Russ to kep his word. against her better Judgment and indeed her common sense.
 The one thing she refused to do was to go to her parents for help. Russ had "a little job" now and then. Once he was requistioned as a helper on a bakery wagon, work ing for the firm Lou drove for, and Boots cheeks famed scarlet as she heard the news It seemed per fectly reasonable to all the family ito Gloria, Lou, and to Russ him. self-that he should do this sort of work. To Boots, in her pride and her love, it was cruel blow. Russ as a lifeguard had been a romantic enough figure, invested with all the glamour of the out of-doors. windswept blue sea and yellow sand. Russ as a bakery truck helper--shc shuddcred at the thought. But she had put her hand to the plough now; there was no turning back.
 Sometimes, in the dead of night. she thought of her mother and her tears fell thick and fast. She never let Russ sec her cry. It made him angry. He hated, he said, "squalling women." But usually he was kind. in a thoroughly unim- aginative way. To this girl who had been babied and petted all her life the experience of living as q member of this household was