The Washington times., 1937-03-18

Ing a seml-lmbeclle wife!
feeling about him or Keith or my
self yet. Still too dazed. Prin-
cipally in my more lucid inter
walls, I've thought about you, and
the possible repercussions of this
upon your sensitivity. Which
ought to prove something or
other.
My hope is, though, that you
are by now so deeply and so hap
PLY committed to Gilbert, that
all our disturbances are no more
than small inconsequential sounds
In the far distance.
With love, my dear,
Your Felicia"
F4ippant, defiant, oddly apollo
getlc, that letter was. with kind
of fear between its lines in that
style Of which the discursivenesS
was so lightly explained.
LAS for my looks-I keep hop
ing. Until they unWrap my face
from its various layers of tissue,
! sha'n't know E" And
"As to what happens now, I
haven't the least notion .. Keith
apparently has not recuperated
sufficiently to get to a telephone"
Yes, there was fear in those
sentences; and the determination
not to admit fear was there too.
Suddenly, Denise felt her heart
turn over, How mistaken she had
been! No matter what Felicia
did, she would still be important
to her, because of all the years
before when she was an adored
older sister who could do no
wrong, years when her arrogance
had been Just part of her charm,
like her clear very white skin.
CHAPTER XXI
Denise got up with her knees
shaking and started to dress, to
go sightseeing with Gilbert.
So those two had not meant to
be furtive. to deceive Eustace; and
she could still admire them
though, it was clear, her admira-
ton meant very little to them.
Curiously she could begin to esCi-
mate we'll enough the motives that
had led them to embark on that
weekend. 1t would have been
spring, or that almost-spring Of
April in New York, when ones
heart grows innn9tinnt
They would have grown bored
with winter spent in their usual
occupations. Felicia would have
had tiresome visits with her Phila-
delphia people. Keith would have
had one of his moods of eXaspera-
ton with his father. They would
have come to rely on each other,
as people who could laugh to-
gether at all the stodgy respectable
dull people they knew, whose lives
went on and on monotonously-
as, the years before. Keith had
sometimes laughed with her. n
that spring when they felt care
free and young together. that
spring that seemed so long ago.
One of them would have sug-
gested weekend ito settle
things" The other would have
jumped at the idea. and helped
with arranging details.
She thought: Nothing will be
settled for either of them ever
really. They're that sort. 1t
makes them much more glamor-
Gus than people like me, who do
the predlctable. The only Won
der, I suppose, is that something
like this has not happened to
them, long before"
She made herself finish dress
ing with attention, as though the
effect she might produce was i'm
portant. A black silk frock with
wide ruffles of white at throat and
wrist. her silver fox cape, for the
day was cool-a small black straw
hat from Paris. She remembered.
as she picked up the cape. the one
Felicia had that was like it. and
wished she'd chosen some other
costume Why she wished that,
she couldn't tell, except that re-
nembered phrases of that letter
began to hurt her. acutely. They
seemed so patronizing, as if she
were q child who must be con.