“FAITHFUL”

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 179, 1 August 1938, Page 9

“FAITHFUL”

(By Margaret Gorman Nichols)

Synopsis of Preceding Instalments: Iris Wade, now 20, is secretary to Dr. Louis Tracy, prominent Baltimore physician. Her widowed stepmother, Selina, thinks only of tho girl's brunette beauty as a lure to marry her to a wealthy man, thus easing Belina’s life and enabling Iris' stepsister, Eve, to cultivate her really promising voire and her stepbrother Tommy to complete his education. Selina constantly goes into debt for Iris' wardrooe. Iris is inwardly rebellious as she is engaged to Joel Brooke, a bank teller, and has been seeing him secretly for two years sinco Selina treated him very brusquely. Mary North, n wealthy young widow, who is a patient of Dr. Tracy, invites Iris to a party to meet an unnamed man. Iris 1 taxi is in a smash-up and when she recovers consciousness she is in the apartment of Mark Christian, who witnessed the accident. It is Mark she was to have met at Mary's party and he recognises Iris from a photograph he saw at Mary's. Mark is socially prominent and wealthy. When her injury turns out to bo nothing more than a badly bumped head, they talk before he takes her home. She tells about Joel. She likes Mark but tells herself she must be truo to Joel who sulks because Iris can't marry as her earnings support iho homo. Iris overhears Annette Tracy accusing her husband of being in love with her. Mark goes to Tracy's office hoping to take Iris to dinner, but finds Joel there. Joel, jealous, makes a scene in a restaurant. Iris leaves, saying she won't see him again. Mark makes a dinner date by ’phone.

Tke stream of patients coming it gave Iris littlo time to remember last night or contcmplato this evening with Mark. Yet when the business day was drawing to a elose and the twilight colours were streaking the sky over tall buildings, she admitted to herself that sho was excited about this promised evening.

Iris, ever honest, planned nothing. Always things were to happen to her, both the high heights of happiness and tto pain of misery, unexpectedly. That Mark was the sought-after eligible young man he certainly was made no difference in her attitude toward him. Bhe was one of those unchangeable people, always the samo in greeting Louis' patients, at home with tho lowliest peddler who came to tho door, or drinking tea in Mary North's luxurious apartment. Mary said, “Iris is so concerned with tho comfort and happiness of other people she never thinks of herself. Therein lies her greatest charm." The long mirror in tho white dressing room where she went to put on her street clothes and to paint her mouth into a crimson flower, gave back the reflection of a girl too loyal and stubborn to admit that tne presence of Mark Christian, probably waiting for her now, caused strange new sensations to stir in her. It was to take much agony and many tears for her to realise that oa this first evening with Mark she was boating down, pressing down upon the very happiness toward which ehe had reached forth her hands all her life.

She would have been completely blind If she had not noticed the warm light that suddenly leaped in his eyes when she stepped into the outer office and advanced toward him, smiling. That warmth in his eyes was the only compliment Iris wanted. He said nothing, merely smiled at her, and they went out together. To-night the music was not feverish nor was the room crowded. Over a cocktail Iris fell silent, seemingly absorbed in the bright liquid in tho thin glass, now different was to-night from the turmoil and rush and Lhamo of last night! Mark's conversation was casual and gay. His eyes revealed unspoken compliments. In the cream-coloured room, to the strains of low music, burdens seemed to vanish. Somehow all that mattered was this evening with Mark, these few hours snatched from the hurry and conflict of her life.

tihe looked up. 4 *l don't think anyone has ever told me what your business i 3. Do you do nothing except play polo end follow the warm climate?"

“I practice law ia earnest," ho said, *‘in spite of the fact that most people will tell you 1 ifo nothing except play polo. Shall we dance, Iris?" He did not talk when he danced, as Joel did. He held her close and was silent so that in the future whenever Iris heard this particular song she was always to associate it with him. After dinner and after conversation that was amusing, he said, “Would you like to go for a ride? SSuppor clubs are for winter but not for the springtime." He parked the car on a high hill. The sky was clear streaked with patches of light and dark. Below in the valley a thick mist was rising upward.

It was the time and place for confidences even for Iris who was so reticent about her difficulties. With Mark beside her, smoking, his profile carved and strong, she began to talk, clearly and in a low voice. She told him everything of her early life, the small Iris groomed and patterned for a rich husband, about Eve's magical voice, lost to tho world, about Tommy, and then finally about Joel. “I had to tell you this," said Iris. “1 haa to make yon understand things about me you might misunderstand." I “And in the end," he asked, “to whom are you going to be true—to your J self or to your family?" Her eyes met his in the panel of moonlight that penetrated the car. 4 ‘That x don't know. Don't judge Joel harshly. One can't be gay and tuougutful when one is wretched. I—l’m tho inly person who’s ever taken an interest in him. His parents died Wx.cn ho vas very young and he was passed from <ne relative to another who didn't want hm." “Have you forgiven him for last’ j 'I suppose I must forgive him for Lrtng me too much/' she answered

Instalment 4.

I soberly. *‘ Do you see ? This evening ’ with you has been wonderful becaus* you have all the material things to make it wonderful. Joel and I have to dino in cheap restaurants. We have to ride on crowded street cars. I’m uying so hard to mako myself understood. It’s all so mixed up." He took her cool hand and smiled at her. *‘ Iris, my dear, you can't be true to a dozen things." “But what I'm trying to say, Mark, is that I shall not see you again." “You can’t mean that."

“I do. I think if —if it were anyono except you, I—l might do what mother wants me to do. But I can’t—with you. I've told you all this because I wanted you to know that I’m dressed to meet men with money—for Eve's sake, for Tommy’s sake, for mother’s sake. Now you understand. It—it's ugly, Mark." “Truth is never ugly. You're trembling. Come closer, Iris." He put his arm around her and hold her close. A protective gesture only, she thought. “If I ask for nothing but just to see you," ho said, “you can't refuso that. I don’t want to love a girl who is engaged to another man. Nor do I want to bo married for what I’ve been lucky enough to inherit. We shall bo friends, Iris, but nothing more." He did not say how much ho loved her, how slowly the day had passed for uim, and how much her closeness brought desiro leaping to hold her closer still and kiss her. He did not say as he thought, “Your Joel whom you defend is a weakling—not oecause he’s poor but because he keep you bound to a promise you mado two years ago. Two years mako a great deal of difference in tho growth of a woman. Tho woman does not love whom the child loves. Joel is still the adolescent boy, brooding over his poverty and doing nothing to advance himself while you, Iris, havo become a woman."

He said to her, “There is too much love that isn't love but attraction be ‘ tween men and women and not enough friendship." “It has been my experience," she said a little sadly, ‘ 1 that men want to receive but never give." Give I He thought, “He could give her everything in the world for herself ;and her family!" Grimly, ho thought, j“Not yet. I won’t buy her. I’ll never ask ask her to marry mo until she sees Joel a 3 ho really is. If she married mo for money, she'd always think she sacrificed herself for her family." | ‘‘l’ve never told anyono so much about myself, Mark." | Ho laughed. “And if you hadn’t, did you suppose I would have brought you out her© iu the collegiate manner, made love to you, and then lost your address? A man," said Mark, “having kissed you, my dear Iris, might forget your address and even your name but I doubt he'd ever forget you. I’m not going to kiss you," he continued, smilting at her. “I'm going to take you I home. Of course, if at any time you'd 1 like to be kissed, then I shall be glad to accommodate you." 1 | ‘You're making fun of me, Mark." I “We shall see."

j She was glad when she had said goodnight to him and had gone to her room that Selina did not appear and question her. Iris's head rang with unasked questions. All her ilfe she had felt so utterly alone in every undertaking and decision; alone, all her life, she had knocked vainly against a closed door Not so to-night—for Mark became in j Iris’s mind not only a man of rugged 'good looks but a well of wisdom and a i tower of strength. She did not stand alone any longer. And at her dressing table, her face pale and happy between the small amber lamps, she hummed a low melody of the song that brought him to vividly to mind.

| The gay mood continued all the next morning. Louis, unknown to her, often smiled at her and thanked a kind goddess for the slippery street and taxi smash that had brought Iris and Mark together. The gay mood continued—until late that afternoon she head Joel’i pleading voice over the telephone, asking her to see him to-night. (To be continued.)