The Skyland post. [volume] (West Jefferson, N.C.) 193?-1988, 1943-07-22
SEASONED
If "D~~avN
u DOROTHY CAAFIElD =. FEATURES

| come on from Boston to join her.
They were to visit some of their
fathers over-the mountain kins-
folk. Aunt Lavinia had asked the
girls to spend the evening before
they left at the principals house
and had stayed downstairs till
they arrived, warming her knees
before the fire.
Timothy had waited in the hall
corner for the callers, his day-old
New York newspaper in his hand,
but at the sound of the knocker
on the front door he had flung
his paper to the floor.
"Come on in here by the fire,
Della" called Aunt Lavinia.
Timothy fastened to draw near
him a chair for Susan. do you
know, positively hate to 60 "a
way-even for a week! I've had
such a wonderful winter-you
can't imagine what you've done
for me-"
From the room beyond them,
'SuSan!" called Aunt Lavinia i'm
periously. "Come here minute"
She went when Aunt Lavinia
called-What else could anyone
do? But, sheltered from other
eyes in the angle of the hall cor
ner, she gave Timothy, with
struggling shoulders and fond
smiling grimace, the assurance
she left him unwillingly, that
here with him was where she
fain would be.
Glowing and confident. limo
thy held up his newspaper to hide
the brOadnesS of his answering
smile - and felt chilling inner
wind blowing, as from Arctic ice
fields. He saw that he was a ia
tuOus fool to assume that the
frankly loving ardor in the gray
eyes meant that Susan was a WO-
man opening her heart to the man
with whom she was falling in
| love.
Although his pulse was still
hammering in the after effects of
shock. his face was composed en-
Ough to make it safe for him to
lay down the shield Of his news
paper, light a cigarette and sit
listening to the dialogue in the
next room, once in a while glarc-
ing up at the mirror It showed a
reflected Della. absorbed in a
book, and Aunt Lavinia sitting
Weightily before the fire. her
skirts folded back to expose her
krohby Wool-stockinged knees to
the heat. occasionally answering
over her shoulder a question ask
ed by Susan. who was wandering
here and there in the room.
The girl he saw in the mirror,
| turned to one side, lifted her
head and glanced at a faded pro-
| tOgraph in an oval frame. limo
thy had forgotten that photograph
hung there. He started. Good
heavens! Suppose she asked about
| that. What a way for her to
learn-how could he not have
told her himself long ago about
Ellie-the little there was to tell?
If she asked now, what careless
Wounding bluntness might Aunt
Lavinia put into her answer,
which he could not spring to cor
rect, separated from Susan as he
was by those alien presences in
the room.
Light, casual, airy, the young
voice asked. who's the invalid
looking girl in the oval frame?"
That's Ellie. She was an in
valid. She was Timothy's wife. -
| Wild scarlet flooded the girls
face-a burning reflection of it
instantly on that of the man who
watched her.
His wife ?" Susan's
startled voice faltered self-con-
sciously over the word, was
struck into silence by it. She put
a hand up to her flaming cheek,
and hung her head.
Timothy was at the door. He
flung it open. Till he could see
her alone till he could tell
her
The sword thrust of the zero
night made him reach mechani-
cally for coat, cap.
Aunt Lavinia was saying, ellie
was a connection on his fathers
side. An orphan, she was, brought
up by one of the clerical cousins.
Very frail in health. I myself al
ways thought that the Hulmes
didn't :"
| Io~r