The Wilmington morning star., 1947-05-05

shoulder as she put the a II
I gear.
She was almost at Pages house
when she remembered the iHciden
of the bouquet. Her foot jammee
down on the brake; her appalled,
laugh topped short. "Oh grief
She'd been sorry, that night, the
minute she had done it, but nat
urally, during her honeymoon, she
had not dwelt on any remorse. Ane
Page must have forgiven it, fol
she had seemed eager enough tt
join her. 1t wouldn't be sporting
she decided, starting her cal
again, to say anything in apology
now, to bring to the mind Of either
of them that the ones winning hae
been the others losing.
Page Winston looked~ at her
wrist watch with some impa'
tience. It was nearly nire; Rufus
has said he would stop for her al
half-past-eight.
He'd explain his hardness with
out any apology, she knew. He
had, on other occasions. Usually il
was some story coming in late al
the city room which had delayed
him.
That Kent persona" queried
Mrs. Winston from a chair at the
end of the living room. She put it
crisply. She did not approve OF
this new man. No one knew any,
thing about him except that he
had been a friend Of Bills in col
lege, which fact die not necessarily
put him in Pages class. Mrs. Win
ston had reminded Page of that
quite frequently. She'd drawn to
Pages attention the careless way
he dressed-indeed, his clothes
looked as though he had slept IN
them. She considered his uncere-
monious way of coming to the
house at any hour very odd. He
should telephone first to know that
Page wanted to see him.
But Page had found that agree.
ably exciting.
The first time, a few evenings
after the wedding, she had been
embarrassed at seeing him again,
remembering the way she had let
him know her feeling for Bill. But
he had not spoken of Bill or Of
Diane or of the wedding. He had
suggested she 90 along with him
to the play at Greenwood. They'd
sat at a small table and listened
to a rollicking comedy performed
on an open air stage by a semi
professional cast. She'd liked his
quick laughter, the light mood it
put him in. Another evening they'd
gone to a concert and she had
liked his way of listening. They'd
met several times for dinner,
Rufus coming from the newspaper
building. At n time She had
had to wait almost an hour for
him and he'd told her of the tax
office scandal that had broken just
as he was ready to leave his office.
Jackson, the City Treasurer. had
confessed to stealing from the city
funds for years. II had to write
a column or il. There'n be more
I'm going to do my darnest to
rouse the citizens Of this town TO
what's going or under their
noses"
Page had felt something Of mis-
fervor even though until that mo-
ment she'd been only vaguely
aware that the city had funds and
a treasurer: she forgot her annoy
nee al waiting, she did not mind
the typewriter ink on his cuffs.
For Rufus offered her escape
from the after-tak of the wedding,
and wherever she went, escape
from her brooding on the things
she and Bill had shared together.
For, as though Bill had died.
memories Of them kept coming
into her mind. Skating, winter
afternoons, in the park, with Bill.
Walking to the park. Bill kneeling
to put on her skates, always so
careful that the straps were ad-
justed comfortably. There'd been
a bench in a little circle of pine
trees at the edge of the lake and
they'd liked to sit on it and talk
and watch the other skaters.
Bills letters from Harvard, that
year she was at the school in
Greenwich where she had first met
Diane. They'd come with such
regularity that Diane had leased
her about them. It's a boy | know