Evening star., 1936-05-20
RI;:0CWM*29S%2}' n
&N&Wa%kATHLEEN NORRIS ~

/ the warm kitchen. Tam. tired by the
| long, full day. was almost Immediately
asleep.
Voices. She started up from a
very abysm Inconsistencies to the
fearful realization of voices. Some
one outside saying "S-s-h-h!"
Where was she? What was this?
Tam sat up in the dark, her heart
laundering With a sudden lesson
ing of warm weight on her feet the
cat leaped to the floor. There was
utter silence everywhere, except the
tick of dying ashes in the stove and
the faraway sound of the sea.
Nothing.
Nothing, It had been her imagina-
ton. But her heart would not stop
its suffocating quick beat, nor her
muscles obey her fiuttered reason
when her mind told her she must SIM
ply lie down quietly again, and draw
the blankets over her shoulders, and
go back to sleep. Intsead she sat in
motionless terror; fright creeping like
cold water up her spine, her mouth
filled with salt water. The sound of
a motor engine was coming nearer.
1t would pass. 1t would go away
again.
A slow fan of light went over the
ceiling; outside the kitchen door the
motor stopped. There was a fearful
interval of silence. Then a voice
shouting:
| TAM"
Life came back into her veins. In
the dark she Sprang from her blankets,
sobbing, calling back madly in an
swer:
"Oh, George George, George!"
! Somehow, IN the black cold and dark
she was across the kitchen floor. and
! fumbling at the lock, and then the
sky and the wheeling stars showed in
the opened doorway, above the dim
/ silhouette of the farm buildings. and
| the lights of motor car cut a tunnel
of light through them. and a figure
was there, coming at her; arms were
warm and strong about her. and
Georges cold hard face was against
her warm one. and she was crying,
crying bitterly, with her arm about
his neck
Tam, you poor darling, you poor
little idiot! My sweetheart-my
darling sweetheart!'
He was half leading, half carrying
her back into the kitchen; there was
only black darkness there, and laugh
ing and crying she groped for a light.
and the dim squirt of match sent
the shadows reeling. and showed the
tumbled blankets and the cat again
settled peaceably in warmth and COM
fort. Tam found candle and set it
on the sink; turned and was in
Georges's arms again.
you've escaped! You got away;
You found mel" she breathed. And
then, with shaky laughter. oh,
George, what place to come to, and
SO cold, and you're freezing!"
Il don't care!" he mumbled, lips at
her hair. And Tamara clung to him
hungrily. her wet cheek against his,
and echoed his words dreamily. in ut
most content:
mo. and I don't care Tomorrow
We'll run away-weu 60 somewhere
where they can't ever find you! But
/ don't care about anything else now
except that you're back!"
Just to look at him was enough; she
could look at him forever George.
! George with her again, nothing else
mattered. He and she blessedly. ex-
/ quisitely alone in this cold-bound,
Winter-bound little farm house, with
/ the swapping frost Of Christmas eve
lying on the bare fields outside and
the wind whining high up between the
roof and the stars, and the sea roar.
ing on the rocks-rushing smoothly
in, breaking into foam and spray,
dragging its way out again.
! But somehow she felt weak and
tired. and whenever she started to
talk she started to cry and to laugh,
too. 1t was enough to watch George
| bringing in wood, dragging things
about, carrying a candle down cellar
to do something mysterious to the
electricity, driving shadows before
him, tramping about with a hearten-
ing noise that seemed to make the
house the safest, sanest, coziest place
in all the world
Every few minutes he stopped what
he was doing and came to kneel down
beside her and kiss her. Tam would
put up hand to stroke his hair, smile
at him shakily, but she could not speak
without tears.
frightened you, did -"
1T was silly. But I'd been nervous,
anyway"