The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1934-06-08

HOAAo, W 0WlCZerlaQ0 even. But De1Ore /
she could go anywhere the swift crisis
In her fathers affairs that made her
own troubles seem as nothing And
lastly her own determination to stay
somewhere within reach should her
father need her.
There's only n thing to remember
now Hanlon spoke gently. "You
must get well. And you mustn't worry!
worry will only hurt you. Fortunately
you've got a favorable You may
never be strong enough to go back to-
70 all that. But you can get well. This
sickness isn't nearly as bad as people
on the outside like to think. Rest does
the trick. Rest and this air and the
routine. Stay in bed when they tell
you to! Take your exercises faithful
~! Remember you're going to get
well. And don't worry!"
He reached for his water glass and
drained it.
"Whew! That was a pep talk, wasn't
IT, Yea, team! Harvard's ball on the
live yard line! -. Now let's get out
OF here. We've played hooky long
enough"
Outside, seated in the car, he said al
most gruffly: Better button that jacket
across your chest. There'u be a wind
going back!"
Yes, DOCTOR"
Somehow it wa the first time she
called him that. They looked at
each other and laughed in unison. Han
Ion started the motor with a loud roar
In the weeks that followed Valerie
o Mark Hanlon's advice with a
l~lteralness all the more remarkable in
one who had almost forgotten what the
words self-discipline meant. Rest in
the afternoons. Rest after supper.
Lights out by ten at the latest! Even
her mornings, when not taking her pre-
scrlbed exercise, she spent reclining on
her chair on the sleeping porch.
Reading, or writing the few letters that
demanded to be written. Her father,
OF course-how positively morbid he
sounded!-Bruce Daniell-fortunately
he did not write often; and the surpris-
lngly few friends whose interest had
survived her departure from their
midst.
That dull oppressive feeling in her
chest cam less and less frequently now.
Her temperature stayed normal. Only
a certain tiredness hung on. The thick
ly wooded mountains and the lush
green valleys beckoned; and the roads
curving away in the warm sunlight
were a constant temptation to restless
ness. But other than an occasional
short drive in the evening or a movie
in the village with Hanlon, Valerie clos
ed her imagination to the allures of
the countryside and concentrated on
the job of healing her lungs.
Valerie was forced, as was almost
every n else at Baldwin, to live large
ly, and with varying intensity, in the
present, for her, Mark Hanlon played
an increasingly important part. She
had not quite made up her mind about
him. Indeed, there was no good reason
why she should make up her mind
about him and at least one-Bruce!-
why she shouldn't be thinking of him at
all. And yet, Notwithstanding this,
there had been moments when she
could easily have fancied herself in love
with him. Absurd, of course! But then
so much that was absurd and impossible
had come to pass.
What was it the fluffy little divorce,
Mrs. Edwards, had said: MY DEAR
with a knowing smile not lost on VAL
erie, these Baldwin romances simply
can't be trusted! Everything is so out Of
perspective here. Illness. Mutual
sympathy. All slightly unreal. Then
one goes back to the city. Baldwin and
people we've known there fade out of
ones picture! I know. This is my
second trip!"
Well, she, Valerie, would go back to
whatever remained of her life some
day-with Bruce, no doubt, if he want
ed a wife with tuberculosis!
Something, incidentally, that re-
manned to be seen. Hanlon would fol-
low the clarion call of his ambitions
to Boston or wherever it "a he SEEM
ed SO set on going. Indeed he was ever
now threatening to do just that. Had
MT he said only yesterday:
There was a letter today. That job
will be ready in the fall. DR.. Klein
Is urging me to stay here. B~acteriology
But I can't see that somehow. Hiding
ones light in a lab in the sticks!"
After Valerie had gone her way, Hon.
Ion thought: "Am I really falling, as
Hewlett and the others seem to think?'
AtIracted, ne most certainly was. But
love? Small business he had thinking
about that now And a bankers daugh-
ter! Aren't you getting out of your
depth there, old man?" he asked him.
self grimly, Even if the banker Is
bankrupt-and worse!" He thought Of
the Hanlons. Well, if he ever hanged
1t would be the first in the fam
lily! Massachusetts, for generations, un-
til Marks own grandfather had decid-
ed to discover the west . But bank
ers! -. Still, a fine mess they'd led
the country into!
August gave way to September, and
September melted gloriously into O.
tober; and still the world was a riot Of
scarlet and gold and deep dark reds
Only somehow, some n had neglected
to tell the frs and the pines that aut-