The Washington times., 1936-10-20
CHAPTER II

Sucn a Silly young 1901, ana IN love
with Tom.
CHAPTER II
AL her goings and comings had
been dramatic.
The year that she came home,
with a trained nurse and three
year-old Dorathea, the year that
Tom went overseas, and little
Jean was born.
Poor old David, how he'd wor-
SHIPPED her all that time.
And now she was coming home
again, after fifteen years, widowed.
Or can you say widowed when
your husband is still living? Any
way, alone, except for the girls.
Speculatively, but with a little
pride, Evelyn's gaze rested on the
two who occupied the compart-
ment with her. It was hard to
realize sometimes that they were
so big.
Dorathea, thinking herself grown
up at eighteen Not saying much,
but full Of thoughts.
What kind of thoughts?
EVelyn'S panSy-purple eyes that
had been soft and dreamy a mo.
ment ago were bright and little
hard now. Why didn't the girls
really talk to her, tell her things,
the way she and her sisters had
talked to mama? They'd told
mama everything-that is, almost
everything. But these two! For
all she knew, Dorathea had had a
dozen heart affairs already. She
was too pretty not to have had
any, and it was a bad sign that
she never spoke of them.
Evelyn looked at her elder
daughter resentfully. She'd always
been a difficult child, Dorathea.
Spoilt. That came of being too
pretty. There had been a time
when she'd regretted that both
girls didn't look like her, but, after
all, one was enough. Little Jan
wouldn't ever be a beauty-she
was all Keith and no Failey-but
no doubt she'd have a career or
something. While Dorathea-
Dorathea, so like her mother
that it was a little ridiculous, had
sat curled up in her corner for
hours, watching neat little towns,
titled soil, orchards just bursting
into pink and white bloom, whiz
past her window.
Now she turned to watch
through the open door of their
compartment the porter struggling
back and forth with suitcaSes.
Passengers were going forward to
be brushed. The train lurched
around curves, the scream OF the
locomotive whistle came back loud
and shrill.
Were almost there!"
The girls eyes, large and dark
like her mothers, were blazing
with excitement. Two brilliant
spots of color burned in her
cheeks. She had risen and was
pulling on her hat, trying to get
the full effect in the narrow strip
of Pullman mirror.
"Just think, I was only 3, just
a baby in a pink broadclotn coat
and q frilled bonnet. They prob
ably won't know US, will they.
mom?"
ooh, yes, they'll know you, be-
cause you look like mother" Jan
said judiciously. But, Of course,
they won't know me, because l
was only a baby and all babies
look alike. Though I dare say
they've remembered our pictures
and"
"Never mind" Evelyn cut in,
irritably. Get ready We've al
most no time at all, and every
things all over the place. Dora
THEA, will you get away from that
mirror?"
With hands that were beginning
to shake, Evelyn adjusted and re-
adjusted the hat that had seemed
so smart and tlatteriug when she
left New York. She saw now that
It was a mistake. 1t made ner
look old. Or perhaps it was the
tr.p--four solid days on train!
Anyway, she certainly needed a
facial, and reSt-lotS Of rest.
Would David. would David
think. would he inStinctively
look first at Dorathea? They were
so much alike. It would be so
easy. Fifteen years. and people
forget. They don't expect you to
change, but, Of course, you do. But
they do, too. David himself
would have changed. Shed been
thinking of him, tall and thin and
brown, as he used to be. His fair
hair brushed back from his broad
brow, his funny little moustache
they'd all laughed at above his
laughing mouth, his even white
teeth. Almost a boy!
When, as a matter OF fact, he'd