The Waterbury Democrat., 1937-10-30
CHAPTER x

Jill hadn't been herself since the day the angry young man had come to her home, Mrs. Wentworth decided. But what was one angry young man with a city full of young men all ready to be agreeable?
 She thought 1t might be @ very good time to mention Milo's devo- ton, and discovered she was wrong.
 T could never marry a man who wore a bright band about his hat and posed with his perfect profile toward you," Jill said.
 "Really, Jilll I don't see how you can say such things"
 The girl was impossible. Milo Montanne could have any of the girls in Jills crowd, Mrs. Vent worth was sure. But he wanted only Jill, with an intensity in- herited from Spanish ancestors. And although Jill persistently ig- nored him, Milo was always around, ready for more sights.
 She was completely indifferent, also, to Hancock Robertson, Gle Parham, William Whitman II, and Q number of other men in love with her, or ready to be in love at the slightest encouraging sign
 "she's looking a wreck, for some reason,," Mrs. Wentworth told Barry one day. She'll end up by being an old maid"
 T guess she has a right to be one, if she wants to-" Barry re- torted.
 Barry, Mrs. wentworth thought, with Q flash of intuition, was ale ways ready to discuss Jill's affairs
 "When -" Mrs. Wentworth ven- tured, realizing she was on forbid den ground, "when is Sylvia plan ming to announce her engagementP"
 Ask Sylvia" Barry said, knot- ting his tie viciously.
 T thought you said there was an understanding" Mrs. Went- worth persisted.
 eff you insist on knowing, the understanding seems to be going haywire. suspect your big, blond stepson, Jack, is the reason, Though he makes the grand ges- ture of brotherly affection by stay ing away from her"
 SThen, why do you think he Is to blame2"
 "You talk like a not very bright child" Barry said contemptuously. "flere's something for you to think about. don't much care - there are Q dozen girls who are better company. And I know of one who makes Sylvia look like a piece or very pale cheese2"
 "Who?"
 "Oh, skip 1t. Don't worry, I'll probably bring you Sylvia Sutton on Q silver platter served with all her pedigree and social prestige"
 Mrs, Wentworth felt better. Evi- dently, Barry was still planning to marry Sylvia. But who was this other girl? If her plans didn't carry through for Larry's brilliant mar riage, 1t would be a terrible disap- pointment. Then, there was the problem O. Jill. It didn't matter whether Jill married brilliantly or not, just so she married.
 She was sure she had more things to worry her than most mothers, with this "three-in-one" family, as Jill had once dubbed the household. Then there was her husbands attitude toward her own son. While he loved Jack and Jill. children of his first wife, as though they were his own, she was sure her own son, Barry, received only a mild form of devotion. He was becoming increasingly hard on Barry about money matters. Ana Barry was retaliating with increas" ing ugliness.
 What if anything happened to her? Where would Barry be then? If Barry had only taken his education seriously, like Jack, who had walked into @ fine job after finishing at Boston Tech.
 Jill passed her stepmother with some letters in her hand. Jill, thought Mrs. Wentworth, always ,xaoaoaa fn he at home around mail