The Wilmington morning star., 1941-01-10
CHAPTER T~WENTY-SEVEN
WRITTEN FOR AND RELEASED BY
CENTRAL PRESS ASSOCIATION

FIdu COCllL6o W GOI1 DSAO&S
spoke. II don't think you are
Kit, you're in love with vance,
Kit opened her mouth to deny 1t
Blu. her face crumbled silently and
the quick lump that came in her
throat burst with a flood of tears.
She threw herself face downward
into the pillows. Her sobs mingled
with her voice that was hurt and
angry:
II hate him! I hate Vance
Healey! He was kind to me. ne
got me my chance and now Ill
v be free of him as long as
I live! 1 know l W him some
thing. That's the trouble! He
doesn't owe me anything so l."
'T'm sorry, Kit. That's the same
old line 1 always say to you, but
it's true"
1t was Vance's voice. He stood
at the door of her bedroom.
Kit sat up and blew her nose.
She looked at him steadily from
eyes that began to blaze, drying
the tears that had been spilling out
of them.
Fran said, Hes been here rest
ing all afternoon"
"Resting?" Because her mouth
was distorted, Kits voice had an
edge of contempt.
go on, say it, Kit. I deserve
it."
Tell her, Vance. She'll under
stand" Fran urged him.
There isn't anything to tell. Kit
knows"
Maybe Kit knows, but maybe
she'll never understand" Kit said.
Il guess you wouldn't" Vance
answered. Il guess you wouldn't
know what that reunion did to me.
Seeing the fellows l used to know
as ~carefree boys grown into men
who have made something OF them
selves. Big-wigs. I was going to be
a big-wig once. Sometimes a
couple of drinks makes you feel
like someone you aren't"
Kit didn't look at him; she got
up and walked past him saying.
I'D better get dressed. Tell Jerry
I won't be long"
Her hand was at the door when
Vance said, Exit"
Eyes, Vance?"
will you try to forget it this
one time?"
She nodded slowly,
Thanks"
Thanks for the memory" she
said in a small voice brushed with
bitterness. She opened the door and
closed it back of her.
There were eight on the Fosters
cruise party. There were the Eos
tiers, Jerry and Kit, and the pole
playing twins, Hank and Dor
Penny, and two girls from Geor'
gia. "Marylou Jackson and Anna
belle Cockrell, our southern
bellies" Foster said, introducing
them to Kit.
The southern bellies. Kit smiled
dryly, remembering the days when
she and Fran had been billed as
such. The hungry, drab days when
DOMINIC the cretonne and cambria
costumes meant food for another
week. She remembered the long
subway trips to Brooklyn, to the
Bronx, to distant points on Long
Island. She remembered the drafty
dressing rooms, the inadequate
stages, the rank smells Of til e
small halls, the off-key music, and
the hopelessness in their hearts.
She remembered it all clearly but,
for all that, it was but a half year
past, it seemed dreamlike, part OF
another life.
Could it have been but a scant
six months ago? Lying on silken
sheets in the stateroom she shared
with the slumbering Marylou,
lrlled by the gentle throb of en-
gines beneath her, Kit marveled at
all that had happened to her.
Happily she turned the pages in
her memory, reviewing the events
that had carried her from a hum
BILE room in Sullivan street to the
luxury of the present moment.
The procession of cenes were
like photographs that she had ex-
amined hastily-there was more in
them than she had seen when they
were new. There were shadows as
we'll as lights. Kit was uncomfort-
ably aware of them. The things
that Fran had blurted out when she
was angry. Things she had said
about Kits owing more to Jerry
than she knew. The h~alf-spoken Ut
terances of Jimmie Ferris and
Vance. The conversations broken
off when she came into the room
where they we're with Fran.
Jerry's reluctance to discuss her
performances with her, his pecu-
liar insistence on changing the SUBJ
iect when she had tried to learn
who had wanted to drop her con-
tract, and why they had wanted to.
She knew then that there had
been a conspiracy among her
friends to protect her from some
thing. What was it?
Perhaps she hadn't made good
as she thought she had. 1t was a
rather dreadful thought, but know
ing would be better than feeling as
she did at the moment. She must
know the meaning of, the sudden
silences, the broken sentences. She
must know.
She slept.