The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1937-07-02

Hello, Dicky," she said, in a
hoarse sweet voice.
"Oh, is it you, Herrendeen?" Miss
Dickinson asked. 'Have a nice
vacation"
Marvellous. How's everything
gomez"
"Oh, beautifully. We missed you,
of course, but everything's gone
marvelously."
Two probationers came in with
trays. A boy put his head in the
door, said, "Miss Rockwood?" and
vanished. The hospital day had be-
gun. =.
"Vicky, tell me, do you like DR..
Hardisty?" Louise Mary Heating
asked interestedly, few days later.
very much," Vicky said abb
stractedly.
"Vicky, I'll bet you're in love
with him! They say every woman
he meets is in love with him." Miss
Heating bit into a chocolate; looked
at its filling thoughtfully. II oughtn't
to touch these" she said.
"I'l bet Vic hates to give up the
Keats kid" Helen Geer observed,
watching her. "You won't see DR..
Hardisty any more now after to-
night, Vic"
"Well, as matter of fact, WILL"
Vicky said, beginning to smear her
face with cold cream, after tying a
towel over her tawny hair. when
little Kate Keats goes home I go
with her. I've been there before,
you know, and Mrs. Keats asked me
yesterday to come back. Her
mother isn't very well, and if she
goes away with the doctor she al
ways leaves nurse with the chill
dren."
"And then will you see DR.. Har-
disty every day, Vic?"
"Not every day. But they're
great friends. A lot Of good it would
do me to fall in love with Quentin
Hardisty," Victoria went on practi-
cally. HE doesn't know exist"
The Keats home stood out on Pa
cific avenue with the long lines of
the Preside eucalyptus trees and
the Golden Gate below the drawing
rooms northeast windows, and a
sweeping view of the bay and the
mountains that framed the bay from
the upper floors:
Victoria liked the atmosphere of
the house; she said it reminded her
of a book.
Victoria, who had gone to them
from the hospital as Kate's nurse,
had been kept on after Kate's re-
covery because of Dumas scarlet
fever, and after that because of
the feeble age of Mrs. Chauncey
Clements, the children's English
grandmother. Gently, agreeably,
without any unpleasantness, Granny
was dying. Victoria had a small
room next to the old woman's lux
urious one on the first bedroom
floor, and the easy task Of watching
her dignified departure from life
in which she had behaved for eighty
years with admirable decorum.
Violet Keats was in her early for
ties; her husband perhaps ten years
older. She adored the small, blink
ing man with his fluffy gray mop
"as only an English gentlewoman
can adore a man." Vic told Cath
crime.
"We're dining alone, Victoria, you
and l." Mrs. Keats said one day.
in her crisp, brisk way. IT want to
talk to you'll"
It was when they were seated at
the little table downstairs an hour
later that she made first attack
upon Victoria's confidence. you're
so perfectly charming with the chill
dren that I shan't feel quite happy
until you're in fair way to have
few of your own," she said.
''Not II" Vic smiled, shaking her
head.
"You don't mean that. No girl
means that!"
"Most girls don't, dare say. But
I do. I've had a queer education
along those lines" Victoria added,
half to herself.
"You mean your mothers life?"
"Not only Mother. But all her
crowd, all women who make love,
passion, so important, who persuade
you, or almost persuade you, that
it is right to go wherever your heart
goes. It's all so artless.'
"You ought to set your cap for
Quentin, Vic. He's as completely
disillusioned as you are"
"Dr. Hardisty?"
Certainly he is. In his heart he
despises women. He thinks-Johnny
tells me that he thinks that they're
all alike-weak and selfish and
ready to break up anything or any,
body's life for little pleasure"
"Did he tell DR.. Keats that?"
"That's the impression he always
gives"
"That amazes me-" Victoria said,
because if ever any man had his
way with women it is DR.. Quentin
Hardisty!"
eyes, but it doesn't mean any,
thing, Vic" \
"You knew his first wife?"
every well. I'd left her-or
~akhar eba,J Lea 49, Jo,x,,foxxyy1