Evening star., 1935-04-20
CHAPTER Xxx.

OPEN BREAK.
THERE came Aunt Sarah, call
ing him again, and Jane
headed straight for him. A
moment more and he would
be caught.
Abruptly he lodged behind a big
lilac bush and disappeared into the
night. Alone, until almost morning,
James waited in the woods. Who
took Jane home he neither knew nor
cared. And his aunt, warned by some
rare intuition, never mentioned his
absence to him.
James sent Leslie q great box Of
white roses next morning and went
that afternoon to see her.
He saw, instead. Mrs. Harris, who
said that Leslie was out and insisted
nervously upon apologizing for her
husbands behavior the evening be-
fore-to James profound and acute
embarrassment.
Leslie was out next day when
James called-and the next and the
next. When he happened to meet
her casually q week or two later he
found a different Leslie entirely, a
proud, cold. aloof little Leslie he
found 1t impossible to reason with or
comprehend.
At first he tried-tried desperate
ly-and probably would have been
trying yet If his self-confidence had
not suddenly forsaken him and a
sick gnawing doubt not whispered to
him that perhaps after all Leslie
never had cared for him in the least,
had. indeed. rather welcomed q
cftlnce to break of with him.
Sam Fletcher still went there and
Bud and Jack and half q dozen
others. She did not refuse to see
them or to answer their letters. And
certainly it wasn't his fault that her
father drank too much and made q
scene.
He, himself, had done nothing
not thing that he could think Of to
deserve such punishment, although
he searched his conscience hour after
hour. Surely. If Leslie liked him
even q little bit she would not treat
him so cruelty for nothing at all
except worShiping the ground she
walked on.
Leslie, meanwhile, after a week of
retirement, went everywhere she was
asked, laughed even more than usual
and never once mentioned James or
his party or made any excuses for
her father.
However. not even her mother
knew Of the scene she had gone
through that night at home after
Sam had gone when she faced q half
sober, half maudlin and thoroughly
repentant father and forced from
him bit by bit the reason that had
sent him to bring her home.
What was 1t, father? You've got
to tell me-" insisted Leslie, standing
over him and shaking him now and
again into wakefulness II won't 60
to bed or to sleep until you tell me
what 1t was
John Harris took refuge first in
haughtiness and finally in self-abase-
ALChb. 6Ot IL OuL o1 IlIldlly
that Dill Hawks had told him that
Mrs. Dill had heard that Miss Sarah
Stimson had told Miss Laura Thorn
ton who told Jennie Sears that in
her day young ladies were accustomed
to let the young men do the pur-
suing, but that nowadays it seemed
the other way round, and that she
III hi .f kxn H. 81
taken out because that flighty little
Leslie Harris was forever calling her
nephew on the phone and insisting
that he 60 to see her when he wanted
to stay at home.
Leslie remembered that she had
called James on the telephone once
or twice some weeks earlier and that
Miss Sarah had answered it each
time. "Oh," she said, oh" and her
color famed. is that all? Was
there anything else?" she demanded
almost fiercely. Did Miss Sarah
say anything else?"
According to Dill, it's common
knowledge that old Sarah Stim-
son thinks 1t would be unspeakably
degrading for Stimson to marry .
Harris. I've been bad father, Les
lie. very bad father, but I'd
rather see you dead than married
into q family that looks down on you
Why, If your grandmother-"
Yes? Tell me about my grand
mother" said Leslie quickly. That
evening was the first time In all her
life Leslie had heard her father men,
tion his mother.
John Harris rose and, aside from q
slight unsteadiness, seemed perfectly
sober.
Your grandmother was q GENTLE
woman" he said with more dignity
than Leslie had believed possible.
She has been in her grave many
years and 1t seems best under the
circumstances to leave her there in