Red Lodge daily news combined with Carbon County news., 1935-04-24
CHAPTER VII-continued

ana so downstairs TO the ued
familiar plates and lights, the peac
tapioca and the blackberry puncl
the eager conversation that wa
punctuated with laughter and SUI
plemented by the books they alway
dragged in somehow, for referenc
or support.
"Wonderful to have it cold again !!
Edith said.
Wonderful !" Gail echoed. But
was not the autumn GOODNESS tha
made her heart sing and float like {
Skylark. The secret was Away!
with her, and when she forgot DicL
for second, it was delicious sud
denly to remember him again. Cal
had never had any feeling like this
in her life before; she had never
known that there was such a feel
ing.
Dick" she thought. Dick.
Dick. Dick. Dick"
And at the realization that he
might quite naturally come into
the dining room. and sit here Wis
IDLY under the rasping gaslight, she
felt actually faint with ecstasy.
"You don't like Van as we'll as
you did," Edith guessed shrewdly
in the days that followed.
"NO-but still l like him." Gail
answered defensively.
They were in Ariers room, and
Ariel lying on her bed reading old
magazines, on the Sunday after
noon following the accident. Out
wardly, everything was as usual,
but Gail was conscious of changes
in the air. She had been asked by
Van to dinner up at the Chips
the night before, and had declined.
The thrilling prospect of shabby,
quiet Dick Stebbins' company at
the Lawrence house had made any
thing the Murchisons did or did not
do unimportant.
Gail, in a cautious undertone as
they washed the breakfast dishes,
had reported to Edith that Ariel
had called Van Murchison on the
telephone at about ten.
II think from what she said at
the telephone-she talked very
low," she had resumed, Il think
that he wanted her to go off some
where to lunch with him."
"The Chipps'?"
Il couldn't tell"
"Gail, if l thought you didn't
care, I'd pray about it," Edith had
said passiOnately. wouldn't it be
wOnderful!'' p
Il got a little fun out of it," Gail
had analyzed the situation musing-
ly. II mean, loved the excite
ment and knowing persons like the
Chipps. But l never got-anything,
really, out of Van."
Abigail Lawrence, he adored
you!"
mo, no-he liked me. I amused
him. We were like two boys.
Really we were," Gail had persist
ed as Edith began a significant
smile. "He never put his finger tip
on me-he doesn't make love! Or
at least he didn't to me-" she had
finished, thinking aloud, feeling for
words
Upstairs in Ariel's room, they re-
verted to the subject.
Il like Van," Gail said. But /
think he's terribly giddy."
On "What would you want him to be,
a priest?' Ariel demanded unsym.
pathetically.
Don't you have the feeling he's
always laughing at everything.
Ariel?"
"No," Ariel answered stubbornly,
II don't"
"Oh, do" Gail said patiently.
Il want to go away, Edith and
GAIL" Ariel presently said quietly.
Phil can make a fuss if he wants
10. Or he can help me. / don't
much care. But I'm going away
from Clippersville."
They looked at her sorrowfully,
She had said this many times be-
fore; she had been saying it in
Iced since her fourteenth sum-
ner.
But this was serious. Ariel had
refused to return to school after
he accident. Phil had talked to
Mrs. Tripp, the principal. Mrs.
rripp had put the case plainly to
Phil. Ariel Lawrence had been 60
ng too fast and too far for some
ime. A good boarding school, at
This had frightened Gail and
Phil. They had not mentioned it to
he others, least of all, Ariel. They
lad no money for boarding school,
wen supposing that Ariel would 20.
But very probably Ariel would I
ebel. She seemed older, harder,
older, in these few days. The
vents of the past week had seemed \
o embitter her, to accentuate her t
amiliar impatience with Clippers
lille and life in it.
Poor little butterfly, caught in the i
rap of poverty, pettiness, shabbi- a
less, and general small-town ugli-
ess! Arial was only one Of a thou i