Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-05-04

And there came. too soon. a morning when
Lucy hung slowfoot on her doubtful way up
stairs, reached. thus hestant. the first landing.
took the last flight a rush, skinned the
passage to Linnie's bedroom door
She had her fingers on the knob when panic
overlook her. Pulling back the hand of enter
prise she grasped instead lock Of her hair.
and stood back against the wall, hitting at that
falling bronze and rubbing the sole of
sneaker against the ankle of the other leg
Thus posed in her dress of checked Bingham
in a pinafore design she looked for all her
height and beauty very little girl.
Staring at that closed door, she was re-
mcmbering the time when. very little girl
indeed she had had to stand on uptoe to
reach the knob. Every inch of that door, every
nail and board and crack and stain, she knew
as a bird knows its nesting branch, cub the
entrance to its mothers cave
And how many different things in per-
sons life thought Lucy. unconsciously re-
futing DIR. Henry Treyne's diagnosis as to her
healthy animals immunity to thought. a
door can be: entrance into safety and peace,
an avenue for escape, barrier between
minds and hearts.
This door. thought Lucy lovely wistful
hcsitant. used to be the gate to heaven when
my mother was alive, the entrance to comfort
and reinsurance before father married again
But now, it scaros me. l don't know what's
behind IT,
Voices Quick pattcring feminine voices:
Linnie and Jackie at their condolences Were
they her friends or her enemies? How did
they feel toward her? If only, once and for
all, she could reassure them as to her COM
plcte docility be certain of their acceptance
Of herself, For there was a threat of conflict
in the house Sensitive to it. before anyone
else could be. Lucy stood already in the shadow
that runs ahead of storm.
DEHIND a veil Of bright fricndliness the
- household only month after Ralphs re-
turn with his bride. was divided against itself
And because of the first rift in that veil. Lucy
had come this morning as far as the enigmatc
door, to make her offering, her prompt and
sufficient sacrifice for sin
But she had not really been TO blame. A
prcking in her eyes and throat set her TO
swallowing and blinking It was not her fault
that John and Eric and Mary and Sally and
the cook should be such fanatic worshipers
Their minds were full Of Old Wives Tales the
wicked stepmother, the cruel stepsister of
Cinderella, Graciosa, Snow White and the
Witch
What had happened this morning al break
fast time was Just the first visible evidence
of state of mind. or of heart which Lucy
had recognized from the very instant when
hali IN sorrow, half IN Joy she had told these
ettcient friends and idolatcrs of hers that there
was 10 be new mistress in the house.
Then. old Sally had taken her Beauty"
into her arms and wept Lucy had hoped that
the feeling would gradually change or at least
that Linnie would never become aware of it,
This mornings incident had destroyed at once
that reassuring hope.
II was the mail II was Jackie's mail. No
girl really Lucy told herself. rueful and hui
morous should have a mail like that. like
movie stars. not at such a sensitive and
critical moment. at any rate. in her mothers
life. in the life of her stepsister. Not when
that stepsister gets practically no mail at all
except an advertisement or or a queer note
like the unexpected one from Henry Treyne.
This now rather though it had been
lollipop Lucy drew out of the pocket of her
"pinafore" II had come that morning. She
had been reading il. II had kept her. IN fact
for an instant from the realization Of dramatic
small events
Dear Lucy Grange" the odd young man
had written. Lucy decided II wasn't fresh for
HIM not to use the Miss. He wants to show