The guardian., 1941-06-14
The Lonely Shack
By ALICE DUANE
Mcclure Syndicate-WNU Service.)

MS apartment, instead or following
his usual custom of using his own
latchkey. Already he felt a man
apart.
ooh, Kenneth" Celia rose and
slowly came across the room to
meet him. 81 didn't hear you.
You're early, aren't you?"
eyes" He spoke shortly. 'T-
saw the DOCTOR
"oh," said Celia. eyes. Tell
me-"
'Well-it's-I'm through. The
doctor says I've got to give up"
His voice was quiet. Dead, Celia
thought, yearningly. But she only
said, "I'm sorry, Kenneth"
''Pl go to the shack in the noun
tains," he said You'll stay on
here, of course. The money is all
right, you know. That needn't
worry you. You're a clever man.
ager. And fortunately, Kenn's at
boarding school anyway"
''But Kenneth" Celia's voice was
thin, cold. 81 can't get through
she thought passionately. "We've
got so far apart, we can't reach each
other"
"I'n leave in a week." Kenneth
went on. "Blanton will be in charge
of things-he'n keep you posted"
Celia WINGED. Kenneth carefully
kept his eyes turned away from her.
But Blanton didn't matter, thought
Celia YEARLY. Blanton was Ken
neth's law partner. Clever. Charm
ing. Good looking. But he didn't
matter, really. Only Kenneth mat
tered. Yet now, at the crisis of
their lives together Bob Blanton
stood between them. Kenneth's
monotone went on: ''The doctor
says I may come back-in-in well,
in few years. Maybe not, too.
But that's all right. It's too bad,
for you-tied to wreck" For the
first time his glance met hers.
If, thought Celia, he had only
been natural. If he had only come
to her, really come to her with this
trouble, all their petty misunder-
standings, all the futility of the last
few months, could have been over
come. But she couldn't-she
couldn't throw herself against the
strange, hard wall of his reserve.
Perhaps she had been foolish at that
Christmas party. She had been
flattered, perhaps, by Bob Blanton's
attention. But she had done moth
ing wrong, nothing even indiscreet.
And her reaction against Kenneth's
cold acceptance of a different status
between them had been a strange,
hurt lack of feeling.
A week later Kenneth, on the train
for the nearest station to his noun
tain shack, looked at his watch and
found that he was due in fifteen min
utes.
AS the slow, local train puffed up
ward toward his destination, Ken
meth felt the peace that the noun
tains always brought to him. But
mingled with it was feeling of in
tense loneliness. All other visits to
the little shack had been happy ones.
Never before had he gone there alone.
But he would get along well
enough. A mountain woman nearby
would look over the shack. And he
was so tired, now, that he probably
over-stressed the loneliness he felt.
He would get over that. 1t would
be no Worse-no worse being actual
ly separated from Celia-than their
life for the last six months had been.
What had happened? Nothing.
Celia and Blanton at that house
party during the holidays-there'd
been nothing to that. Just mo-
ment of foolish anger, jealousy on
his part. But he had never really
doubted Celia's love and loyalty.
Nevertheless, there was that wall
Celia had built between them-a
wall of resentment, of coldness.
Well, perhaps it was better that he
should be away from her-should
give her chance to find her old
life, her old self-to find happiness
where she would
Sam Peabody met Kenneth at the
mountain station and in his rickety
car took him up the rough noun
tain roads toward the shack. The
matter had been arranged by letter
and it was Sans wife who had
promised to look after Kenneth's
housekeeping.
Sam let him out at the end of the
path that led through spruce and
pine up to the little shack, and as he
saw lights cleaning in the windows
and smoke spiraling upward
through the blue dusk, he thought
the place not so lonely, after all.
He trudged slowly across the
boards of the wide porch. He was
tired Too tired.
"Celia!" he cried as he pushed
open the door. There, before the
blazing log fire, she stood. In a
pink muslin dress, with white at
wrist and throat. Celia smiling at
him, through tear-hazed eyes.
"Celia!"
"Well, you foolish Ken," she re-
peated hours later. He sat relaxed
and rested in the big chair before
the fire. They had had supper, and
while Celia cleared things up he
LaI Iao~J how eforxy VN1orn. 4t,o,, o,.n.