The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1939-01-06
CHAPTER xIv-Continued

town; and Linda of course came
with him. That night at home. her
father, watching her, discovering
her increasing distress, spoke doubt
fully.
81 know how you love Phil, Lin"
he said. "Your mother and under
stand. But-we hate to see your
life broken by it. If he feels he
must be with his mother"
"I'l watt" she said.
He shook his head. "That isn't
fair" he urged. "Not fair to your
self-or to us, Lin. We've been SYM
pathetic, but-we want you to be
happy, some day. Please"
sid rather be unhappy, loving
Phil, even if I never can have him."
eft isn't even fair to Phil" he
insisted; and Linda cried, her self
control for moment cracking:
ooh, be still! What do I care
what's fair? There's no fairness in
it, anyway. Fair? Was it fair for
this to happen to Phil? To all Of
them? Is it fair to me that I can't
have him now?"
And then, suddenly contrite, see
ing his sorrow, she was in his arms,
weeping. "Oh father, father, what
am / going to dor"
He held her close. "There, Lin!"
he told her "Sorry. I didn't mean
to make it harder. Whatever you
do, we're standing by"
$50 am l." she whispered. $50
am I. But I'm awful sick of it. It's
so long, long, long"
Yet with Phil in the office next
morning she managed as always to
be steady, reassuring, calm. While
he dictated, his eyes rested inatten-
lively on her head, bowed above her
notebook; but his thoughts were on
his dictation, till as the last letter
was done he stopped in mid
sentence, staring at the hair above
her brow.
She looked up inquiringly, and he
finished the letter; but when she
had gone to her typewriter and. he
was alone, he was troubled and full
of a deep, protective concern. Un-
mistakably, in the dark masses of
Linda's hair, there were threads Of
gray.
He thought, incredulously, that
she was no older than Barbara
Twenty-one? Twenty-Five? She had
been, through these months, so COM
posed that it had not occurred to
him to think of her as suffering,
weary and torn and tired from CIV
ing herself without stint so long.
She must rest, he decided, must
give up the work here; and he con-
sidered how to tell her SO. When a
little after noon, in her car, they
started for York again, he began
to make an opening for this sug-
gestion.
"You know, Lin" he said, you've
carried me through all this. I don't
know what I'd have done without
you to talk to. It has helped lot,
just-worrying out loud to you."
If there was bitterness in her
smile he did not see it. "Of course"
she said. t'That's what I'm here
for, isn't it, Phil? At least I can do
that much for you"
He said, half-smiling: "You keep
me going, and I keep mother going.
That's what it amounts to-"
Her glance flashed toward him
almost angrily. "You enjoy feeling
that you re-indispensable to her,
don't your" Her tone was a chal-
lenge.
"I-suppose so," he admitted. cat
least it's job to do"
IF she told you you were just a
nuisance, you'd probably be angry,
or hurt"
'Yes, probably"
'sYou know she said resentful-
ly,. 81 think that's often the way.
We hang on and hang on, telling our
selves we're important, when as a
matter of fact we're just-boring
people. I'm not at all sure that
we couldn't help more by taking
care of ourselves, letting other peo-
pie 60 their own road"
He smiled. "You can't mean I've
bothered mother?"
''Well, no one can learn to walk
till they get rid of their crutch,
Phil" Her tone was gentle now, yet
she said: you've been her crutch.
It's about time she learned to walk
alone"
81 couldn't leave her, Lindal"
ooh, ! suppose not" she assented
briefly. They were at the moment
stalled in traffic. When now the
green light released them, she
meshed the gears with a clashing
vehemence that was somehow elo-
quent, and let in the clutch so sharp
ly that the car leaped jerkily ahead.
He said, trying to laugh:
''WhoaI Trying to break our
necks?"
Sorry But she did not sound
sorry; and she spoke in sharp de-
cision. sPhil. you'd better tell Miss
Randall to find you new stenogra-
pher. I'll stay till she gets some
one; but then I'm through"