Worcester Democrat and the ledger-enterprise. (Pocomoke City, Md.) 1921-1953, 1938-05-13

slender lovely child With look OF
straightness, of honesty, about her.
He put his arms round her. He kissed
her more violently that he had meant
But he couldn't help it!
When she struggled a little in his
arms, he let her go Immediately.
1t appeared she was not to be his,
precisely.
She said: "You mean formal mar
riage, don't you, Gilbert"
She'd never heard him laugh before.
Why, he had very pleasant laugh!
He looked down at her flushed cheeks.
81 didn't mean that, Denise; but
if that's the way you want it, all
right"
She felt impossibly young.
She heard her fathers voice at the
front door, heard her mother, on her
way downstairs. They came into the
drawing-room.
Gilbert said Immediately: "Mr. Rem
dale, Denise has said she'll marry
me. I hope you think-think it's all
right.
He was as hesitant as boy, Denise
thought, and she had always Tin the
very little thought she'd ever given
him) considered him so completely
adult.
How very pleased her father and
mother were! How gently her mother
kissed her! And her father said SOL
EMMY: 81 can only hope you will be as
happy, Denise as your mother and 1
have always BEEN"
("They wouldn't be pleased if they
knew it was only for year. They
would be incredibly shocked!")
Sara Rendale said delightedly: eve
must telephone Felicia, straightway."
Denise said she would telephone,
becaus she wanted to escape sight of
their delighted trusting faces.
That telephone conversation, Keith
knew very we'll, was himself at his
worst. He regretted it through two
days, sincerely, but could not decide
the manner of his apology. Denise's
last words, that she would marry
Gilbert Windon, he did not take with
particular seriousness, judging that
she had said them because he had
fIcked her pride. But he did consider
in those days, for the first time in the
year he had admired" Denise, the
implications of that admiration, and
recognized that it was deeper than
he had guessed. And yet, he did not
want to marry. Marriage was SIM
ply not in his present scheme of life.
At breakfast on the second morning
opposite his father, around whom that
present scheme of life had to revolve,
Sheldie, Senior, broke the silence from
behind the single newspaper which
he afforded by saying: "How often
do you wish l were dead, Keith?"
1t was not as surprising an open
ing of breakfast-table conservation
as it would sound to one who did not
know the elder Sheldie. 1t did not
even cause the house-man to lift his
eyes from pouring coffee.
But Keith sighed. What in the
newspaper had produced one Of his
fathers furious moods this time, he
could not tell. Probably the announ-
cement of some new Democratic pol
icy! However it was a little weary
ing so early in the morning.
He waited for the house-man to
leave the room. Then he said quiet
ly: 81 sometimes do wonder why you
so much dislike me-"
His father put down the newspaper
and looked him up and down. Since
Keith had been six years old, that
look had made him feel shriveled!
81 dislike you because you're soft,
like your mother
Keith smiled. GAS I've said before,
YOU should have married a female
lion-tamer. She'd have been the only
sort of woman hard enough for your
TASTE"
His fathers eyebrows, which were
still black though his thick hair had
been white as long as Keith remem-
bered it, drew together. Keith was
reminded, not for the first time, of
very old grizzly bear he'd seen once,
in a zoo-an animal that famed the
air with great paws that had lost
their strength, and roared from a
mouth nearly toothless. Odd that ne
remembered that pathetic hulk so Of
ten, and that the remembrance always
made him vince. Literally, it had no
relevance. His father, the doctor said
was strong as an OK still, in spite OF
his govt; and his teeth were in excel
O..