The Washington times., 1937-03-26

| Inc SHADOWS OF GIle CIldlk Cll41o
were lengthening across the blue
water. She must go up to the
house, dress, be ready to welcome
Keith to her husbands house. She
repeated to herself: MY hus-
bands house" And suddenly she
was ashamed. Gilbert had treated
/ her rather too we'll for her to think
of treating him as careleSSly as
as she might now.
Her pink mouth stiffened. Even
Gilbert had said, you have no
hardness in you," meaning no
strength, only his phrasing We
slightly more polite. Well, they
should all see.
She walked up to the house
through the level sunlight on the
downs, and found her parents in
the garden, looking worried, as If
modernity was too much for them.
When she kissed them both, her
mother said: Denise, you're a
comfort"
All, she might not always be
a comfort! Was it worth it, after
all, to hurt people, to be ruthless
in following ones own desires?
How could she tell she who had
always been so easily diverted
from hers?
She dressed slowly and heard
voices in the garden, before she
was finished. Felicias voice,
high, sweet, eager. And Keith's
-Keith's! She thought she had
forgotten his voice! But hearing
it, she knew that she would never
forget it, that if she heard it sud-
denly in fifty years, when she was
old as that dowager she and Gill
bert saw in Kew Gardens, sh e
would know it.
The voices stopped. She sup
posed he and Felicia had gone
up to dress. She put on a black
lace frock-a dress about which
her mother had said, "Just lit
tie old for you. my dear" and
Felicia: beautifully sophisticated.
It's the only thing I ever saw you
wear that made you look sure of
yourself, Denise"
Then she sat quiet in the win
dowseat of her room. The slow,
soft English twilight lay over the
downs and the sea beyond. The
last muted notes of birds were
small, clear punctuationS of the
silence in the air scented of wan
ing summer and of the sea.
A landscape, an air incredibly
peaceful! How many besides her
self in the three hundred years
since that house was built to face
that serene vista, must have re-
garded it with their own exigen-
cies so strong, so immediate, that
this strip of earth and shore was
meaningless. So many people.
who had fought for what they
wanted, had won it or lost it, and
been done with it at last. S he
shivered. All, one had only
short time in the sunlight, to
snatch at all the lovely things!
She went down the staircase,
making an entrance that she had
calculated days before, but did
not remember now that she had
planned it. For Keith was smil-
ing up at her, as he had used to
smile. ..
What had they done to him?
He was white; he was Scared;
he looked as if he had suffered
so. No. he was not quite the light
hearted young man who used to
take her dancing. She thought:
HE came close to dying. He
might have died, and we should
never have seen each other again."
Her mothers eyes were on her.
Lightly she said: well, Keith,
nice to have you here. I meant
to be dressed to welcome you on
arrival, of course but it was such
lovely lazy day"
He said: "DeniSe-Denise all
grown up" She knew from her
fathers expression that he consid-
cred that too personal a tone Of
voice.
Felicia linked her arm in Keith's.
Shall we go outside? The British
dusk is wholly admirable, like the
British character; but not as for
midable!"
Keith went outside with her. De-
Mise and her parents followed
them. Keith turned his head to
look back at Denise.
She thought: Nothing matters,
except that we find each other
again! He was too young last year
to be certain; I was too young to
be clever"
Her fathers voice interrupted.
you look very pretty tonight, my
dear. I wish Gilbert could see
you"
She made herself smile. She was
very glad Gilbert could not see her!
He was all right; he had been good
to them all; she was grateful. But
she and Keith were once citizens
of a carefree world in which a
smile, a tone of voice, was magic,
where there were no problems. and
ones heart was never empty, never
troubled. A world that existed
again when he looked at her with
his eyes smiling just as they used
to, though the smile of his lips was
Ito be cOntinued)