Evening star., 1934-09-02
CHAPTER XXI.

NE morning MdlQa received
thick letter with an Eastern
postmark She told herself
~ she was surprised to hear
from Gerald Pryde, not ad-
nnitting the feeling, of expectancy
which had made her unusually arx-
ious to see her mail Of late, or the
certainty that they would meet soon
again. 1t was long letter and a
humble one when you considered the
arrogance of the man who had writ
ten it. "You may be surprised to
learn that I have been thinking in the
last few weeks, and my thinking has
led me to the conclusion that I am
something of an unlocked cub"
That was one sentence, and the
letter closed by saying, II am coming
back to Cramburg soon, and when 1
do am hoping that We will be friends
again, as we were last Summer"
MAZDA meant to be a little cool,
Just as a matter of discipline; but
when he called her a few days later
she found herself Unexpectedly glad
to hear his voice, and besides, she was
having her afternoon off, and it would
be a pity to waste perfectly good
afternoon when you had a chance to
60 out with an attractive man.
Neither of them referred to Ger
aids letter, but his face lighted up
charmingly when he rose to greet her
from his seat in the parlor of the
nurses home; and later, when they
were dancing to the excellent music
in the hotel, he let out deep breath
and said, ut is good to be dancing
with you again. 1t makes me realize
what dancing ought to be-"
I'VE do get on well together" she
admitted.
Later, over their tea and cigarettes,
MAZDA sat rather silent while Gerald
discoursed idly of many things. She
liked the infections of his voice, the
long, spatulate fingers, almost like a
surgeons" she thought; she liked his
handsome, imperious nose and the
neat part in his crisp. dark hair.
The room was well filled now.
There were lovers obviously absorbed
in one another, youngsters of high
school age thrilled with the sophisti-
cation of dancing in the big hotel
here and there middle-aged man
being very gallant to some young
woman with hard eyes and too affec-
tionate manner, and in one corner a
large table of overdreSsed women and
bored young men. who were more ad-
dicted to cocktails than tea, it seemed.
They were a noisy, ill-bred lot. Mai
ha ond
Gerald danced near their table. She
turned her head fastidiously, when
to her surprise a too-plump woman
with the doll-like smoothneS of skin
and strained, tight look about the
eyes of one who has had her face
lifted, got up from the table and
seized her by the arm.
"Oh, Miss Connell," she gushed,
show fortunate I am to have a chance
to meet you at last! I'm sure Stanley
did not expect to see you here or we
should have arranged to have you
join our party Why, he positively
gasped in surprise when he SAID
There's my sister
All this time the woman had been
persistently tugging at her arm, and
as they were becoming conspicuous
standing on the dance floor, she al
lowed herself TO be guided toward
their table. She did not know whom
the old freak could be, but her first
hope, that she had been accosted by
mistake, vanished when she mentioned
Stanley's name. In another moment
Stanley himself was visible, sunk
down in his chair, and looking sulky
and miserable.
Mazda knew at once that he had
been drinking, and it seemed prob
able from his dissipated, unhealthy
look that he had been drinking toe
much for weeks. Remembering the
night Of Norine's party. she re.
preached herself because she had no
made more of an effort to keep il
touch with Stanley since then.
She had no assurance that it woulC
have done any good; on the contrary
Stanley had showed her many timei
that he resented interference. Sh
wished now that she had put he
pride in her pocket and tried to ge
close TO him; it was dreadful TO thinl
OF Stanley being intimate with cheap
noisy people.