The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1938-04-02
LOVE LAUGHS
A. TILE DOCTOR
~ :, m,oDr cowAN STONE Copyright 1881 NsA Service. les
oNe cso,rishs, 1923, NsA Service. lac.

necessary. | had a patient once
who was sure she had something
growing inside of her. She insist
ed she'd had it for years. | was
sure after ! examined her that
che didn't have any growth--or
much of anything else wrong. FL
nally it leaked out that when she
was a child, she'd swallowed i
peach seed, and some fool had
told her it would grow. She hadn't
been conscious of recalling the in
cident for years; but somewhere
in that mysterious region we call
the subcOnsciOuS, the idea Of
Growth had persisted. As soon as
She realized what was behind her
SYMPTOMS, thei pain stopped. &.
Pains" he finished, arching, one
eyebrow at her, "are tricky
things. They even hang around
sometimes long after the real
trouble is healed. You've got
to have more than a pain before
it's wise to operate"
AZ wonder" Constance stood
very still, remembering a great
many aspects of her feeling to-
ward Derek for the past weeks.
A few months ago, Derek had
been 10 her a radiant young god
who could do. no wrong. Now
was there really nothing left but
fpain?"" -,
table and stood. looking down ut
her for u moment gravely, as II
he were going TO say something
more. Then he smiled a wry little
smile, shook his head, and turned
away. - Y : :,
that's the first time for weeks
that he's really looked at me as
if he saw me. -:
She watched him 90 down the
corridor with 4 sense of loneliness
she was at q loss stO account FOR.
But somehow the brief talk had
rested and Steadied her. as she
had sometimes been Steadled by
a walk in a bracing wind.
He is something like a fresh
wind, she thought. He ruffles you
up q bit sometimes; but when ne
gets behind and pushes, he GER
tainly helps.
Eight weeks had passed. and
still George Thoivald continued
TO ask for Constance; and his IA
Their and sister appeared TO take
it for. granted that she would not
leave so long as he needed her.
. 1t had all been easier after
those first weeks. Derek was abb
sorbed in the portrait to the eX-
clusion of all other interests-as
he always was in his work when 1t
was going well. And the portrait
was going well now.
Constance was glad. Since the
success of that portrait was the
thing Derek seemed to want most,
she wanted him to have that.
Hildegarde'S attitude toward him
seemed to have changed. Instead
of treating him as she had seemed
TO at first, with Just the degree of
hOspitable solicitude she might
have accorded to any chance
guests, she began to spend hours
with him in the studio even when
she was not posing for him. Some
times she sang to him while he
worked, accompanying herself on
the piano she had had moved TO
the studio for him-the strange,
barbaric songs she loved so much.
Sometimes she sat reading, pref
erably one of the books on travel
of which she seemed always to
have new one; and recently a
scientific treatise on the coSmic
ray-which she laughingly declar-
led would be swell if she could I'M
! derStand single word of it. And
sometimes she just lounged, say
ing little, rs was her way, musing,
oil watching Derek with Il lazy,
speculative amusement.
/ After the first eight weeks,
George Thorvald's recovery began
| to be as rapid as it had been slow