Carolina watchman. [volume] (Salisbury, N.C.) 1871-1937, 1935-01-18

IPOSS3 SOWdA0 d COIlSeI VaCOfV tina
med out of the room in which
they danced.
i've got to see you alone" Tony
murmured in her ear. This is tn
lueerest situation I've ever beer
mixed up in"
That" said Ellen, 'goes double
'Gcsh almighty!" said Tony. lust
that.
And
Il wonder why I came" Ellen
asked of him, very seriously.
Tony's hands were holding her.
So tightly that her wedding ring bit
into the two fingers next to it.
"Have they been giving you 4
buggy ride?" he asked Ellen. 81
heard that they looked you over
before dinner. Margie told me-"
"They tried to-" Ellen told him.
but l can take are of myself"
Sometimes" said Tony, 81 wish
you couldn't!"
"What wa the idea, anyway"
Ellen wanted to know. "This party.
mean. If it hadn't been for Sandy,
and for the way he precipitated me
into it, it would have all the ear
marks of being an announcement
for you and Jane of something or
other. l feel like a guilty secret"
you may be guilty." said Tony,
but your no secret not any
more. To tell you the truth, Elem
|he admitted, II don't quite get the
hang of this thing, myself. Believe
it or not-when the party came up
that night, it was just sheer devil
ishness on James part. Irealizied it
at the time; it took me off my feet
tor a moment. She'd said nothing
about any party to me, before. She
Just said it to get your goat. I'm
not even sure it's her birthday, to-
night never can remember dates.
wouldn't have told you this if
Sandy hadn't made her come
through in a big way. When he did
l was tickled to death. 1t gave me
a chance to be with you again. I
told a dozen lies-white ones
about how my friends would feel
and yours"
! So that was that! Ellen all along
had suspected, from Tony's bewild-
erment on the night of, the i'm
PromPtu meetings. that there had
been something odd in back of the
birthday party arrangements.
Il don't get jane" she said f.
nally. whats she playing for,
Tony? Not hat it's very sane to
ask know what she's playing for.
It's you"
There was a seriousness back of
Tony's casual sounding speech.
Zane and l." he said, knocked
around together for years. I sup
pose she'd gotten to sort of taking
me for granted. After all, we
weren't responsible when we met,
you and L. We shook all of the
worlds plans into a cooked hat
Ellen spoke resentfully.
"That," she said "makes me feel
like a spare tire. If you want an an
nulment any time, you and Jane
YOU'D drop me as easily as
that?" said Tony. "You mean it,"
Ellen wanted to say that she
didn't mean it; that she wouldn't
give him up, not for fifty James.
But instead she made her mouth in
to a straight line and lowered her
lashes so that Tony couldn't look
into her eyes.
"I'd let you go as easily as I'd
let go of this" she told him. She
opened her fingers and the huge
chiffon handkerchief that she was
carrying fluttered, like a dead but
terfly, to the conservatory floor.
"I'd-"
eyes, you would" said Tony
gruffly. All at once he had gath
Tered her so tightly into his arms
that her body felt bruised against
the hardness of his body. "I'm sick
and tired of this stuff" said Tony,
tits time for a showdown. We're
not fencing, you and I we're
married. It's time we behaved like
human beings, or"
He stopped. For there was a
rustic of skirts (skirts do rustic,
this year) and a voice spoke.
"Oh-but Pm intruding!" said
a voice. eft always seems as if
choose the wrong time for my en-
frances, doesn't it?"
Of course, it was Janet could
MT be anybody else. She stood in
the doorway of the conservatory
the light was behind her. They
lco11ldn,t see the outline of her face