The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1943-10-28
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der, in the wholly incredible fash
ion of girls of her age, if any man
ever was going to make her heart
jump by just looking at hirn-and
then it had jumped. It had never
been quite even in it's beat since
then, not when Jim was around.
He had been around since that
afternoon, for on his way out he
had stopped, in his strangely shy
and yet bold way, and said, 'Do
you ever take pity on strangers?
And, if you do, will you go to a
movie with me tonight and talk
to me, and let me talk to you?
I've been here a month and
know no one,"
1t had begun the way it should
with friendship, and had grown
with companionship into into?
Beth, remembering all the things
since, whispered to herself, Eyes
I'm sure
This trip away this week. He
hadn't told her where he was go
ing, or Why, but her heart told hel
much, and her imagination. 1t was
for new job, a better one, a
more pay than he got in the city
engineering department. A jot
with a salary on which he coull
support wife.
He was thinking about wife
One by one little things came ou
of her memory. The things he'c
asked her about the cost of keep
ing up the apartment she shared
with Andrea. The night he took
her around to see the new develop
ment on the heights and asked he1
it she liked the little Cape Coo
cottages.
She closed her eyes, wondering
how he would say it at this long
last. She was glad that he was the
kind of a man who would wait to
say the things he had held back
because she knew so well he would
not be the kind of man to ask a
girl to live less comfortably thar
she was living with Andrew, anc
too honorable to speak his love
until he could ask her to marry
him.
1t would surprise Andrea, fol-
she had been careful not to lei
Andrea know. And that sometimes
had been difficult, for now, during
this past year, when Jim and An
drea had got over their first &C
tive dislike for each other, she
had tried to make their meetings
threesomes, wanting the two PEG
pie she loved best to like eacf
other.
The letters to be filed. She mus
think of that, and not of the eve
ming ahead, but her thoughts
pushed on and they went beyond
the evening into the future. A flu
ture that was no longer certain
1t was as if there were a curtain
ahead. Some day, and she won
dered with a little shiver what i
would disclose in the way of {
changing world, that curtain would
rise on America.
Once upon time a girl would
know what the years ahead coule
hold for her A Cape Cod cottage
A little Jim and a little Beth
schools for her children, holiday!
for family, advancement in bust
ness, the quiet long years ahead
Beth's head came up proudly
and she thought, 1 will not b.
afraid of anything if l have jim
for a moment. All my life 1 viii
be fortified, prepared to meet any
thing.
And then the telephone rang
and it was Jim.
"Bethie, I've tremendous news!
"Good?" she asked.
IT hope you'll think so. I don
want to tell you on the telephone. ,
NO." she said. II don't wan
you to. Will you come for dinner?'
"You bet!" He hesitated mo
ment-and Beth loved him for i
and said, "Will A n d be
home?"
Eyes, Jim. but maybe ;"
That's all right, pet. Andrea's
got to hear it, too"
Yes, Beth thought, she must be
the first to hear it, but her hear
did a flip-flop because she still
was not sure that Andrea really
liked Jim.
For a moment she forgot hel
own wild anticipation and a clouc
settled on her serene brow. She
was worried ABOUT Andrea, as An
drea was probably worried abou
her, and she sighed, wondering i:
girls ever approved of each 9th
er's beauX.
And then she thought of Dennis
Archer-and wished that he hao