Evening star., 1941-09-28

didn't sound as wavering as her vocal chords
felt. Here we are i picked up MIR. Will
hanson"
so see. A good idea too, You can talk
to me. Mr. Williamson. while Mother enter
tains Marshall - she invited him."
Why, Nancy, you asked him yourself!'
Margaret was surprised. Il merely suggested
that he hadn't been here for long time,
that it would be nice to have him.
''Oh, sure, it was all right Let's skip it.
He'll be popping in any minute. Lucky you
got here first; that droop in the kitchen has
been having forty fits. something about a
sauce or salad dressing"
"IIl 20 out and make them," Margaret
said.
No wonder Eva May dislked Nancy;
she must have overheard few of the sluHing
names she called her. Nancy avoided the
kitchen as though it were contagious ward.
"I1l amuse Mr. Williamson while your :
gone" She gave her mother definite wink.
She had taken Price very well up to this
point Margaret admitted, on her way to the
hUlliCli. n AiOuASl Will q SeScNAy bSoo heSe
have come as a shock, after all those years.
The poor child hadn't even heard of Price
Williamson until he had come back to the city
early in the summer to settle his fathers
estate. He had gone out west about the time
she was born. He hadn't been back for years.
Even Margaret hadn't heard much about him,
except that he had married; that his wife had
lived only a short time.
Strange how easy it had been for them to
the way years could slip away in few short
months. Margaret began donning an evening
gown two or three times week as naturally
as though she had been doing it that often
for the last fifteen years.
There were few minor variations. One
large one: having Nancy around. Things
Nancy said, like: ''Muz. the boy friend
phoned." and: Darling, your dates here"
made Margaret feel ridiculous.
Marshall Cleigh had arrived when Mar
garet returned to the living room. He was
handsome boy, big blond, imperturbable.
He'd be good for Nancy. Margaret thought;
not too exciting; his feet on the ground.
She said: "How are you. Marshall?"
Cant complain" he answered. with his
usual economy of words.
IT WAS Nancy and Price who kept the con-
versational ball rolling during dinner and
afterwards. Margaret's head had suddenly
begun to ache. There was peculiar dryness
in her throat. She was about to 60 upstairs
to take an aspirin when Mrs Dunlap called
about the house She had found something
else, something smaller, more modem. That
was what they all said - even when you were
practically giving it away.
Then Margaret remembered something she
should have told Kimberly before she left the
office She phoned him at his house.
When she finally came back to the living
room, Nancy and Price were poring over
books of opera records, while Marshall
smoked glumly and glared at them from
across the room. Her responsibilities as hos
tess made Margaret suggest game of bridge,
to which Marshall agreed with alacrity Price
with polite amiability, and Nancy with re-
luctance. "Oh, all right I'll play" she said,
"if you'll promise it won't be lesson. Muz."
"Of course not, dear" What made Nancy
say things like that? The evening ended
somehow. Only one thing satisfactory about
it: there was no chance to be alone with Price.
That was The way she had planned it. He
had to leave for the west in less than week;