Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1942-07-10

A Young Wife Awak-
ems From Romantic
Dream and Finds
Real Love
m TWO PARTs-PART ONE

could be so exhausting She wondered
how the housemaid and the parlor-
maid could have gone about looking
so pleasant when probably their feet
had ached as hers did now. But after
all there had been three servants.
Now she was cook, housemaid, and
parlor-maid, all in one. To be sure
Mrs. Tribet came for a few hours
each week to help her out. BY that
time the disorder had usually reached
climax. II Joe had been fussy or
fault-finding she couldn't have borne
1t. But Joe was SO easy going, so kind.
One after another the servants had
gone into war work. When the parlor-
maid had left, the other two had taken
on her work without complaint. When
housemaid had gone the way of parlor-
maid, Jane herself had filled the
breach to the best of her powers and
the cook had been trump But final
ly the cook had left for a munitions
factory and, with housework added to
her own war work, Jane felt driven
indeed.
1t was not as though the house were
flat or even modern house with all
sorts of conveniences. The house was
200 years old. 1t had an old-fashioned
built-in range and the passage from
kitchen to larder had an uneven stone
floor. Everything she worked with
seemed long distance from every
thing else and the small loaded case
ments let in little light. But what a
lovely old house it was! Joe's family
had lived there for generations and,
now that she knew every corner Of It
SO well, she had a new feeling Of
possession in it. she cared more for
1t every day. Now she knew all the
ms and outs of its rambling rooms
and, though she often ragged against
its inconvenience, she would not have
had 1t otherwise.
This rest was blissful She would
give herself up to it with all her might,
get ready for her work with the
evacuee mothers and children in the
village this afternoon. She lay relaxed,
gazing up at the round white clouds
that moved so serenely across the
misty blue Of the August sky.
They were perfect little clouds, she
thought, white and fleecy and we'll
fed little clouds that looked as though
it would take a good deal to ruffle
them. They threw their shadows tran
GULLY across the rise of the moor be-
yond the hedge. Rusty, the retriever
puppy, had discovered her knitting
bag and had pushed his inquisitive
nose inside. With one eye on her, he
took out her ball of wool and began
to walk off with it. He waved his
tail as though to draw her attention
from the mischief his other end was
up to.
Rusty" she called. Naughty boy!
Bring 1t here"
He halted, his back to her.
She spoke sternly. Bring it here,
sir!"
He turned deliberately and came to
her. She took the ball Of wool from
his mouth. Goodness, he had got slob-
Der on it! But he looked so sweet she
could not be cross with him. She
stroked the silken dome of his head.
He was losing his baby teeth. She
noticed one now very loose-almost
on his lip. She caught him by the
scruff and. taking the tiny tooth be-
tween finger and thumb, nipped 1t out.
He gave a squeak of pain and look
of outrage at her. She patted him
and he forgot it. She lay back on the
cushion. She wished she had got rug
to make the bench softer. Still it was
nice just as it was. The air was lovely
and the sky had become more brightly
blue. For some reason the thought of
Sicily came into her mind, the remem-
brance of her winter there, four years
ago. Four years was long while. yet
that visit was SO clear to her it seemed
like yesterday. It was clearer than
much of the troubled time which had
since gone by.
1t was no new thing for her mind
to return to it. The remembrance OF it
came happily to her, yet with kind
of pain, like the remembrance of GER
tain songs. She had had her first real
love affair there. Certainly it had been
brief. Yet it had left something be-
hind that she could not forget.
She had lost herself among the in
tricate little streets of Taormina. She
was on her way to tea with an Ameri-
can friend, resident there. She had
asked the way of slim, fair young
man who had replied in excellent
English, though with foreign accent.
His face had lighted with pleasure as
he looked at her out of his clear blue
eyes and told her he was himself go
ing to tea at that same villa. They had
walked there together.
How quickly their friendship had
progressed! They had spent hours
each day together. He was having only
a few weeks holiday but they made
the most of it. They studied italian
together. They climbed the mountain
paths together. He had picked ane-
mones for her, and asphodel. They
had gone down the fishermen's path
to the sea and. because the sun was
hot, Karl had hired a carriage drawn
by funny looking horse with white
plume on its head, for the return. She
often went over these incidents in her
mind.
Sometimes she lived over again the
night when they had gone to see the
Greek theater by moonlight. From the
walls of the lovely ruin they had
looked down on the lights Of the
town. Etna had risen like shining
crystal tent against the moonlit sky.
Karl had told her how exquisitively
her beauty fitted the scene. There had
been q long silence between them.
Then he had put his arms about her
and kissed her. She had felt rather q
frightening 10y within herself. That
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