The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1937-04-09
CHAPTER IX-Continued


joking him out of the doldrums. my
disposition is soured from shaking
up lemon phosphates. Let's go for
a ride or something? / have a date
with Herb but I'll fix it. You fade
away and I'll meet you. I'll tell
him my grandmother is sink
ing again."
But Dolly was diverting only for
a time. Sooner or later Jim's
thoughts returned to Cecily. Dolly
was part of those circling thoughts
only because she knew, or pretended
to know, something about Clyde.
Jim could not trick her into telling
him. He doubted whether what she
knew was important. He suspected
that she used those vague hints to
hold his interest.
She wanted to hold his interest.
He was sure of that. He began to
have an uneasy suspicion that Dol
1y was thinking of him too much,
falling little in love with him.
Small things made him aware of
her increasing interest, sudden I'M
natural reticence, moments of 81
lence, an expression, question.
''How long will you be here,
.Jim?"
81 don't know"
Leaving soon?" A sharply in
drawn breath. Hands with nails
painted raspberry red pleating her
apron, twisting a button, drumming
a silent tune on the fountain, ia
BILE, the door of the secondhand
roadster.
81 don't know that either. Look
here! Why, Dolly? Haven't I an
swered that question before?"
Nothing" A toss of her golden
head, blue eyes glinting and yet
with shyness in their depths. ''Noth-
ing. I was just wondering when I'd
have a free evening. Rudy Vallee
wants a date"
Jim realized, then, that he had
spent with Dolly a part of seven
evenings in row, part of every
evening since Jeremy Clyde had
come to "Meadowbrook." The dis
covery surprised him. His visits to
the drugstore, to the small frame
house with the sagging porch, had
been casual, never pre-arranged,
just something that happened,
way of getting through the mild
September evenings, brilliant with
starlight, nostalgia with summers
lingering farewell. Obviously, seven
evenings in a row meant something
special to Dolly. Jim made an
other resolve.
''Wire Rudy" he said lightly,
smilingly, "I'm signing off after to-
night"
"Why?" A startled expression
flared, for a moment, in her eyes.
GIVE been drifting he said.
Drinking too many orangeades.
I've got to get to work"
Homework"
"R e ding" Jim explained.
"There's so much that don't know
about horses. I have a room full
of Breeders Gazettes that I've got
to absorb"
Perhaps his suspicious. had been
without foundation, Jim thought,
with a feeling of relief. Dolly
seemed gay enough. He liked her.
She appealed to his synpathies. He
inferred from bits of information
she had given him, that she had
pretty thin time of it at home.
She criticized her father and her
step-mother indulgently, as though
they were children. She was loyal
to her brothers and sisters, proud
of them, not discriminating against
the "steps."
''You think I can sing! You ought
to hear Joey. He can MARBLE rings
around Morton Downey or Lanny
Ross. Joey would be a big-timer
if he could get a break. Joey Quinn.
That would be good radio name,
wouldn't it? Sort of cute and Irish"
Dolly's family, in Dolly's anec-
dotes and observations, amused and
interested Jim. Actually, they
were a commonplace assortment,
Dolly was the smart one. Dolly
had personality and spunk and en-
dearing charm. 'The family was
a dragging anchor, a milestone
around her neck.
She had talked to him, too, of
Herbert, the sandy young man in
the drugstore.
"Herb wants me to marry him."
she had said, quite casually one
evening as they sat in a lunpy
couch hammock on the porch of the
small frame house. "His uncle has
a drugstore in a town with a funny
name up near Scranton somewhere.
Herbs going into business with
him."
"Are you going to marry him,
Dolly?"
Sometime, maybe. I'm keeping
Herb for rainy day. He's smart
and steady, but not much fun. He's
swell to me, though, and treat
him like dirt"
"You ought to be ashamed of
yourself"
II am. Honestly, jim. ! guess
Os.efl,f - n~,1s.