The Skyland post. [volume] (West Jefferson, N.C.) 193?-1988, 1946-03-07

Self-control, her pride, and man.
aged to say CURLY, I'm sorry
can't
Don't act like a sappy school
girl" he said shortly. ''There
are things we have to talk about"
He all but marched her out of
the office and down the street to
Nick's place.
Tracy put his hands on the ia
BILE, his fingers laced together
with the air of one clearing the
decks for action and said brus-
quely, ''Of course, I realize that
have no right to say anything
at all"
'I'm so glad you do realize
that" she flashed.
''Be quiet!''' he ordered sharp
ly, his green eyes angry. "You
and l both know you're not in
love with Lyn Frazier '''>S
"Why you" she gasped and
was silent beneath his look.
"You have some crazy notion
that marrying him is the solu-
ton to some problem that in
wolves you and me-but, Of
course, that's perfectly idiotic"
he finished as though she had
not spoken.
She stared at him, wide-eyed,
her mouth a little open in COM
plete establishment. "A problem
that involves-you and me?" she
repeated, incredulously.
Tracy said grimly, Certainly
you know, of course, that love
you-and, cockeyed as it seems,
I believe that you-love me-"
She sat very still, her hands
locked tightly in her lap, and
she could not have spoken if her
very life had depended on it. She
could only sit taut and still and
look at him, and not know that
her very heart, with all its shin
ing secret, was revealed in her
eyes.
He looked at her for a long
moment and she saw reflected iii
his eyes something of what
shown in her own. And then he
looked down at the fork that his
fingers were twisting this way
and that, his knuckles white with
the strain and said through his
teeth, ''That's what makes it so
-damnable that I can't ask you
to marry me-"
She sat at the table, taut,
hands locked tightly in her lap.
The electrifying shock of Ira
cy's being in love with her, of
just having said so, was coursing
through her body.
But then she remembered what
else he had said; that he couldn't
marry her.
Ann drew deep breath and
spoke the last words in the world
that she had meant to say, "Why
can't you, darling?"
Because of LISA, darling, of
course" he finally stated heavi-
ly.
Ann set her teeth hard for a
moment, and then she asked, not
trying to keep the bewildered
hurt out of her voice, whats
LISA got to do with it,"
Tracy hesitated, obviously try
ing to find a way to frame what
he wanted to say, and then he
put it BADLY, 'I'm-under obi
cations to LISA
! Ann asked quietly, what sort
of obligations, Tracy? Are you
her lover?"
Lord mol" he answered so ex-
plosively, so simply that she
could not doubt him. TITS not
like that, at ALL. You see, darl-
ing, LISA and I worked together
on a paper up north. She had
good job; a better job than mine.
She's brilliant, but-well, let's
say she's a trifle erratic. She
gets bored when things 60
smoothly; and when she is bored,
she walks off the job and finds
another one. I was a cub report
er, she was a feature writer, and
a good one. We were friends
pals. There was no nonsense
about our being in love; we had
a lot of fun together; we batted
around New York, poking our
noses into all sorts of crazy plac-
es that we thought it might be
amusing to know about. And
them picked myself a typhoid
germ, one that was really, some
thing! It was pretty bad, be-
cause I had no family, no rela-
tives to rally round and offer a
glass of cold water or soothing
hand on the revered brow or any
B GETTING UP NlcHN