The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1943-02-18


radio and then I'm going 10 sleep.
Good night" Cherry said, with
a parting second attempt at a pleas
ant smile.
She walked to her own room,
slipped into bed and lay with mar
rowed eyes and a bitten lower lip,
pondering. Thought, long denied,
came with rush, and she was
drowned in the bitterness of it.
Other girls had mothers and fa-
theirs and homes. And she had--she
had only the drab background of
Saint Dorothea's and this humiliat-
ing revelation tonight
Slow tears began to creep down
Cherry's cheeks; presently she be-
gan to sob heavily. She cried her.
self to sleep.
One morning Cherry found herself
free at noon, and determined to take
one of the long walks she loved.
She was some blocks away
from home when a low-slung,
open, disreputable car drew up
close to her on the curb and
voice said, "Jump in.''
The world wheeled about her for
a few dizzy seconds, for it was Kelly
Coates who had spoken; he was
driving the car and beside him sat
Fran Marshbanks smothered in soft
fox skins, with a daring red hat
topped on her dark hair.
II want Mrs. Marshbanks to come
over and have lunch with me-" the
man explained it honestly with his
wide, flashing smile, land she won't
come unless you do"
''Are you free from those old
ogres for while?" Fran asked in
her careless, fascinating, hoarse
voice.
"I'm free until half past four"
Cherry did not want to go and yet
was wild with eagerness to go. The
thought that he was in love with
Fran made being in Kelly's compa-
ny exquisitely painful to her, but
she had hungered to see these per-
sons again, to be one of them, to
know what was going on, and this
golden opportunity would not come
twice.
I'D love to-" she said, smiling
as she climbed in and wedged her.
self snubly beside Fran. The mo-
ment she did it she regretted it,
wondering through what faulty of
complacence she had accepted the
invitation to play a third in their
affair. Why had they asked her? she
wondered.
MRS. Marshbanks," Kelly said,
"once went to q movie in which a
girl visited an artist in his studio,
and everything went wrong for fifty
years afterward. Was that it,
Franz"
Something like that" said
Fran's exquisite voice lazily.
$50 she didn't want to come home
and lunch with me-" Kelly went on.
Perhaps ! know my own weak
ness" Fran contributed idly.
They crossed the bridge and on
the eastern shore moved along a
wide, smooth highway for a few
miles, turned left and mounted an
earth road that wound up the hill.
Scattered cottages, hidden among
oaks and eucalyptus, faced the road
here and there. Kelly's place was
at the head of a small tree-lined can
yon, and consisted of a cottage OF
perhaps three rooms, large white
barn, various sheds and fences that
suggested that the place had once
been a small farm. There was ar
arbor covered with young grape
vines, sheltering long table and
two benches, young berry bushes
just in leaf, languishing little gar.
den whose neglected rose and ge.
ranium bushes were choked with
last seasons dried grass and some
apple and apricot trees getting
ready to bloom.
Cherry was under the spell o1
the peace of Kelly Coates place
its simplicity, its beauty almost be.
fore she had gotten out of the car
she had never dreamed of anything
so informal, so comfortable, so com
plete.
They were all hungry; they fel
upon preparations for luncheon to-
gether. All this went on in the
small kitchen, for bleak wind hac
blown up from the south and it was
too chilly and overcast out of doors
for the arbor to be the dining room
much to Kelly's disappointment.
They were very much in love, Kel
Iy and Fran; Cherry could see that
Or at least Kelly was. Perhaps
Fran was only pretending; Cherry
could not be sure, but this was evi
IDENTIFY a game of which she knew
every move.