Henderson daily dispatch. (Henderson, N.C.) 1914-1995, 1936-09-26
CHAPTER 8

FROM WHERE she sat, katn-
leen looked across the terrace or
her fathers penthouse at AiiX and
Kim sitting side by side. their sim
lengths identicaty posed in deck
chairs and was struck by the
physical resemblance b w e n
them. They had the same soft
fair hair, the same play of express
sion on their high-bred features.
This girl who mad come into her
life so casually and this talented,
poetic cousin of hers might have
been brother and sister.
Then she thought: That was
why / was so attracted to AliX.
She remembered all her life
wanting to make things pleasant
for Kim who hadn't really needed
anyone to make things pleasant for
him. But he had the same wistful
quality that demanded it. The
quality AliX had.
She wanted them to be friends
and looking across at them she
could hear the murmur of their
voices and wondered what they
We're talking about
Kim was saying, Il never
thought of elves before having
honey-colored hair or wearing a
frock from a Fifth avenue shop"
Didn't you?" she asked gravely.
"Only very good elves do. It's a
special reward for being decorous,
for resisting the impulse to tweall
ears. or tickle toes or any of the
other things that self-respecting
elves know to be important"
do you imply that the only
good elves are those with inhibi-
tions ?"
AliX laughed and said, I'm sure
I don't know because I have no
inhibitionS. I am a see-er and a
nearer and seeing and hearing all
the things there are to see and
hear verywhere-here, at my
work, in the subway, wherever peo-
pie are gathered-these things are
too thrilling to leave time to delve
clown into the side of oneself where
Exhibitions begin"
Are you so terribly young,
then?" Kim asked. "And what do
you do when you aren't seeing and
hearing? And where did you come
from? Not New York;"
NO." she answered, trying to
answer his questions in order.
I'm terribly old-almost "a.
don't come from New York. 1 was
born and grew up in a little Iowa
town called Bairdsvale, where the
streets are wide and tree-shaded,
and where there are fields and
brooks and birds and kindly ami
mails to make the place seem big
ger when you are a child"
She didn't tell him any more; she
didn't need to. Kim knew her in
his poets heart and knew that the
elfin thing in her was only in her
grace and simplicity. There was
something deeper, more mature in
her and, realizing that, he won
dered if she would find the thing
she was seeking now, patient in
her seeing and hearing, and find it
without pain.
He wanted to talk to her about
it but he found himself telling her
about a trip he had taken to Mex
leo in search of Photographic ma
terial. He didn't know that she
was drawing him out and drinking
in all the things he had to tell her,
not because she wanted to flatter
him but because she wanted him
to be amused and felt herself in
adequate.
Again she folded her comfort
about her and, in the pleasant
lassitude, the word pictures he
drew f1oated in colorful procession
before her minds eye. And while
she savored them, some measure
of her appreciation was telling her
how his eager voice paid her
tribute.
Kim had wondered how long
AliX would be content in her de-
tachment toward things, how long
before she would cease to find
them absorbing, how long before
she would want to taste expert
ences, to be part of this scheme
of things which she reached out
for only in spirit.