The Skyland post. [volume] (West Jefferson, N.C.) 193?-1988, 1944-01-20
CHAPTER Nv

under way. Roast duck, green
peas, asparagus and mixed
salad. Ice cream for, dessert.
And I'll have candles and flow
ers for my good linens-that's
the sort of thing men miss when
they're on board ship. At least,
I don't believe they have table
cloths, do your"
Easter, the second Sunday in
April, poured out unstinted SUM-
shine, but perversly supplied a
chill wind that discouraged light
weight finery. Women wore
their mink coats and depended
on gay lowered hats to accent
the spring motif. Sarah Daffo-
dill, who rejoiced annually when
the forsythia bloomed at the foot
of the garden, had planned to
spend the day working in the
yard. It was really a respectable
sized plot, and Sarah raised her
own plants in a cold frame she
had constructed herself.
The telephone called her from
her gardening little after eleven
o'clock and she was standing in
the hall, writing a note for the
bulletin board she kept tackled
above the mailboxes, when the
Thames came downstairs, dressed
for the street. "We're going to
take a long walk before dinner"
Candace looked as bright-eyed as
a chipmonk in her brown skirt
and jacket, a brown calotte top
ping her pretty hair.
Sarah said she envied them.
tive just had a massage from an
old friend, an invitation I feel I
should not decline. She's seven
ty-five and she has a nice old
boy friend. His cold has i'm
proved, so he's taking us out to
dinner. I'd rather stay at home
and garden, but Abigail pities my
solitary state. It makes her so
happy to save me from a lonely
day with painful MEMBERSHIPS
sure my memories are painful %
Sarah laughed infectiously. "Abi-
gail loves to do unto others and
it's my fate to be done unto"
She always left word on the
bulletin board, when she expect
ed to be absent any length of
time, she told them.
AS the Thames turned to the
door, Sarah mentioned the sail
ors who were to be guests of the
Fittses. care they likely to turn
up, do you think, before Mrs.
Fits and her husband are home
from church? Shall I leave a note
for them to wait in the hall?"
"Oh-why they're not coming!"
Candace said.
''Not coming?"
ANDY met Mr.. Fits when he
went out to get the papers this
morning. He said Mrs. Fits had
called the dinner off last night.
They're going to a reception for
some English officers, given by
the Daughters of the British En-
pire this afternoon" AS Mr.. Fits
had outlined the program to An
dy, Candace continued, he and
his wife would dine in one of the
downtown restaurants after
church and then go on to the re-
ception, held in a fashionable
suburban woman's club. I'm
not sure, but I think the British
Ambassador is to be there. Or
else it's the daughter of an earl,
of something"
Andrew Thane said levelly,
SIS Mrs. Fits an Englishwoman?"
"She was born,' Sarah answer
ed, Gin Kansas City, of pioneer
stock"
If it had not been for anxiety
about the fate of the roast they
had entrusted to their thermo-
stat-controlled oven, the Thames
might have walked till shutdown.
AS it was, they returned home
about two o'clock in a warm
glow from the brisk exercise and
with appetites that discounted
their extra hearty breakfast.
Candace had not removed her
jacket when their door bell buzz
zed.
'T'll bet that drugstore guy is
bringing the ice cream, after I
told him wanted to call for it.
Andy in the kitchen was filling
the teakettle.
Candace opened the door. Four
serious tanned faces confronted
her, four pairs of anxious eyes
met hers. All were in sailor uni
forms. "Er-Miss, would you
know where a lady named Mrs.
Fits is?" The tallest of the
group, weather-beaten man
perhaps in his early thirties,
swung his cap nervously in one