The Washington times., 1935-11-30

| happened. 1naC 5 your SCOry,
darling, and you're going to stick
to it,"
Don't you," demanded Kipp,
turning to her sharply, believe
it?"
Ann shrugged. Gas a matter of
fact, I do. But wasn't the reason
that nothing did happen be-
cause you thought it shouldn't?
Not because you didn't want it
to?"
Kipp sat down abruptly. He
was suddenly deadly tired. He
sat slouched forward in his chair,
his head supported on his
clenched fists. He said "I don't
know. could lie to you, of
course, but I'm damned If 7 will"
He said then, lifting his head,
staring at her almost angrily:
We'll, why don't you say it,
Ann? I know what you're think
ing you're thinking that I'm
pretty low-down. But as a mat
ter of fact I behaved fairly de-
Gently under the circum-
stances"
Ann said slowly: "Under the
circumstances I suppose you did.
I'm just wondering how it could
have happened to us so soon.
Are you still in love with her or
anything?"
Lord, no! I never was. She
was just someone I played around
with for a little while she
was never important to me. There
were several others so far as that
goes
Ann said: Lets not go into
that. We agreed once, I believe,
to not have any post-mortems."
Kipp said: "All right. But get
this straight, Ann. I couldn't be
In love with Francine or any
other woman because I happen
to be quite lot in love with you.
You know that"
yes" said Ann. "At least, I
was quite sure you were. That's
why I can't understand about to-
night"
Kipp walked the length Of the
room. Twice. He saw Ann sitting
there in that old blue bathrobe of
his. her eyes looking carefully
beyond him. He wanted to pick
her up and hide her face against
his shoulder so that she wouldn't
see how his eyes would look when
he had her there again, safe in
his arms. he wanted to say all
sorts Of crazy, tender, incoherent
things to her.
And all he said was: Listen,
Ann, I've told you how it hap
pened. we had too many cock
tails and we we're alone too long
and she wanted it to happen. g.
none of which is any reason at
all, suppose. -"
Ann smiled at him again. That
same still, slightly mocking smile,
so bereft Of anything warm or liv-
ing. She spoke, and her voice was
light and beautifully even. She
said: Don't be so tragic about it,
Kipp. You'll probably kiss lots Of
women from time to time. You
probably won't stop with kissing
them and ultimately I shall un-
doubtedly be too much concerned
with my own small adventures
even to have the bad taste to
croSS-examine you like this"
And it was then, in the very
moment Of denying it, that Kipp
realized how much, how terribly
much, he had hurt her, and he
thought desperately: Some way
I've got to make her understand
about this. or it will finish
everything for u.s.
But all he did was to say, in a
ridiculously matter-of-fact voice:
Don't you think you'd better go
to bed now? You're catching cold. !"
When he followed her into the
bedroom a few minutes later, the
room was dark and Ann was cry
ing. Noiselessly. He didn't know
how he knew she was crying but
he knew she was. He went over
to the bed and put his arms
around her and held her, tense
and unyielding, against his
shoulder. He said: "Now see here,
Ann, we've got to get this straight
between us, You're making alto
gether too much Of it. And if you
aren't careful, you're going to let
something that is unimportant
and trivial spoil something that
is real and valuable"
Ito Be Continued