The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1939-12-07

herself.
81 couldn't Sleep" she told him,
after that scene with father"
Hector came and seated himself
on the bench beside her. 1T was
rather bad, wasn't it," he said
heavily. ssBut think I warned you
that your father would be difficult,
though had not foreseen-quite
this, I confess"
what am l to do?" she asked
him.
"You will know. that yourself
better than ] can tell you," he re-
piled.
Autumn plucked a blossom from
low-hanging branch and held it to
her lips. II love father" she said
simply, land | love everything I
have come home to. I don't want to
leave it."
Hector was silent for a moment.
Then, as though he were talking to
some third person who was present
beside them, he said, Autumn is
in love with Geoffrey's son."
She Strengthened herself involun-
tarily against the weird sensation
that had come over her.
rs it so evident as that, Hector?"
she said.
''The past is repeating ITSELF" he
said, "My eyes are not too old to
see that"
"It is the past that has come be-
tween us, Hector-between Bruce
and me-" she said.
Hector leaned forward and patted
the back of one hand against the
palm of the other. ''I shall have
something to say about that, my
dear, when the time comes that I
must"
Autumn stared at the ghostly blur
of a heavily lowered white rose
bush. IF you had told me all you
knew-when first came home," she
said, 1--WE might have been spared
much of what happened tonight"
Hector drew a deep and unhappy
breath. "You forget, my child, that
there is such thing as loyalty still
left in the lives of some of u.s." he
said. eff I did not tell you every
thing knew, it was because I could
not tell it,
"It doesn't matter, after ALL" she
said. "It is too late now"
ION the contrary" he replied, 'it
is still too soon."
Autumn shifted impatiently. "How
long must you hold your silence,
them" she asked him.
until / can hold it no longer"
he replied.
A slight wind stirred in the tree
above them, and shower of white
petals fell on the grass at their feet.
On the following morning, when
Linda telephoned to the Landor
place with the intention of paying
Bruce a visit during the day, the
foreman, Andrew Gilly, informed
her that Bruce had gone to Van
couver on business and would not
be back until the end of the week.
$50 that will be that!" Linda OBJ
served, stretching herself on the
couch in the sunlit drawing room
and opening a volume of French
verse which she had brought down
from Autumn's room.
The announcement that Bruce had
gone to Vancouver filed Autumn
with an unaccountable loneliness
and impatience that annoyed her as
she thought of it. She knew now
that throughout the weeks of their
estrangement, the mere fact that
he was always there, just few
miles from her, had been a COM
fort to her, and that in the depth of
her consciousness she had never
really relinquished the hope that
somehow, somewhere, they would
come together again.
Autumn sat at the piano and
played softly while Linda read. JAR
Wis had left the house Immediately
after breakfast, deep in the soli-
tude of one of his unapproachable
moods. Hector had returned to
town, and the girls had been alone
| ever since.
Suddenly Linda tossed her book
across the floor. ''What a fine old
maid I'm getting to bel" she ex-
| claimed
"What's the matter now, Linz"
| Autumn asked, turning from the pi-
| ano.
''It's bad sign when a girl be-
gins to live vicariously in erotic po-
etry," she said.
| "At least, it saves one lot of
trouble" Autumn remarked.
.'And leaves you where you start
ed. There's little satisfaction in
trouble, at any rate. 1t has the
spice of variety in it, if nothing else.
| I'm dying of nothing to do. Autumn
You can at least work up a good
fight in your own family now and
them
Autumn stared moodily at the
floor I'm not particularly proud
of that" she said. 1T was rather
mess-the whole affair-innocent
/ as it was"
In her preoccupation with the new
evidence she had had of her fa-
| ther's strange fixation, she was
scarcely aware of what she said.
But Linda must be given no mixing
| of the shadow that lay over her
| mind
I'D love a mess" Linda COM
mented dreamily, so long as |
| could bava Rr1,ra Tanror tn cham