Evening star., 1940-03-24

the fashion conscious women OF three contl-
nents And had Audrey Reynolds known or
anticipated these facts, it would not have
made the slightest difference in her point OF
view. The little dress would still have been
black outfit" worn by woman as old as
her mother; a woman who had been holding
highly ridiculous conversation with the man
who had taken out Audrey Reynolds tonsis.
Even while her mother was eyeing her in some
evaporation, Marcia Meadows was fading
from Audrey mind.
She was thinking of more devastating
things to say about Tubby. The Tubby affair
had not been settled, and it was really i'm
portant.
The next day, after the rehearsal of Little
or Nothing, she was quick to accept Iubbys
suggestion that they quench their thirst at
Crosbys soda fountain As matter of fact,
Tubby's heavy witticisms were irritating her
even more than usual and she could not really
enioy her chocolate ice cream soda as she
should have done But principle was at
stake. As, pensively, she pulled the frothy
liquid through the two hygienic straws, she
thought of another good one for Gene. All
my life" she heard herself saying, in highly
conclusive way, u intend to have friends OF
either sex. The point is, don't intend to have
my whole entire life completely warped by
any unreasonable ideas on your part!'
These words, later repeated aloud, were
quite as effective as she had thought they
would be. But they were not 50 conclusive.
She and Gene were seated on the front
steps of the Reynolds veranda. She had
brought the chocolate ice cream soda into the
conversation quite deliberately - test case
if ever there was one and like most test cases,
shortly to be swollen out of all semblance to
its normal place in the scheme of things
Completely warped" she said again.
Completely and entirely warped by yo"1
ridiculous attitude!"
"Oh, sure" Gene said, "Im just nothing
but an old life warper, that's all am! And
naturally I'm not supposed to have any
opinions of my own - oh, no, OF course not!
But why stop at mere date in joint like
Crosby's? Why not nab this guy for the June
dance or something? What's mere choc late
ice cream soda? Why all these friendships
you're going to have the rest of your life -
you better get busy. First thing you know
, You'll be all warped the way you said. What's
a mere -
''Oh, you listen to me, Gene Walton! You
listen to mel!
''Okay, babe" he said.
That's pretty juvenile" she told him.
And it's pretty unnecessary, what's
morer
They stared at each other, their eyes very
bright, their young faces flushed. The queer
thing was that neither of them was actually
very much concerned with Tubby Hastings
or even with the principle involving Audrey
Reynolds warped life. They really liked each
other very much, and they liked going places
together, and they were agreeably aware of
their happy and enviabe position as the two
most popular young people in Medville. But
it seemed necessary to emphasize and
strengthen this beatitude by an occasional
stretch of misery, of uncertainty and doubt
IF I'm so juvenile" Gene said coldly, Il
guess better not be boring you any more.
One thing, though, I'm glad you gave it to
me straight I'm glad of that all right! Now
know where stand. anyhow and that's
one good thing!"
pleasurable little shiver - a really terrible
temper. He turned around and strode down
the front walk to his car. He got in and