“TO-MORROW’S CHILD”

Manawatu Times, Volume 64, Issue 102, 3 May 1939, Page 10

“TO-MORROW’S CHILD”

By Julie Anne Moore

Instalment 2.

Synopsis of Preceding Instalment: Valentine Clarke, who is to marry Robert Greeley, a young New England lawyer iu a month, goes from New Manchester to New York with her Aunt Mahala's housekeeper, Mrs. Warren, on a shopping trip. Val ; s father, Barrie Clarke, nad been killed in a Russian aeroplane crash two years earlier. Kate Hollister, daughter of Barrie's sister, is editor of a fashion magazine. Val 'phones Kate, who invites her to a party where she meets Hugh Malcolm, successful young playwright- Bret Gallishaw, a New Manchester boy who while doing newspaper work in New York wrote a best seller; .Leslie Crawford, Bret's half-brother, and Winifred Sperry, who are starring iu Hugh’s latest success, “End of Tears," and Guy Williams, who inherited millions and has a small part in the play. Although it had been understood Bret was to marry Kate, he and wealthy Evelyn Gariield are married when his novel becomes a movie hit. it is evident that there is hard feeling between Bret and Leslie, and that Leslie is very much upset when Winifred and Hugh are together. Leslie and Winifred are free to attend the evening party because the theatre was burned down and Kate, who had intending giving a party to celebrate the 78wecks' run of the play, advances it two weeks. When Kate announces that Leslie and Winifred are going to give a scene from the play, Guy asks Val to go Avith him to Pete's place, saying she is to see the play anyhow. Believing Pete's place is nearby, Val leaves with him. Val had naturally assumed that Pete's place was somewhere in the immediate neighbourhood of Kate's apartment. Twenty-live minutes after snuggling down in the ridiculously long roadster and they having only blurred impressions of such conspicuous points as Times Squaro and the Holland tunnel, she began to understand that Guy's trotting was done by twelve expensive cylinders and that Kate's warnings had not been uttered altogether in jest. “I suppose," Val said, when New York was only a dull glow in the sky behind them, “1 shouldn't risk another Hare of temper by being curious—but Pete’s place wouldn’t be in Miami by any chance 7" • 4 Don't be silly,'' he said, not looking at her. “We couldn't make Miami in tnis wreck to-night." And so Val knew that Pete's i)lace was not just around the corner, ana she thought of Robert and Aunt Mahala sleeping peacefully in New Manchester, and of Mrs. Warren probably lying awake in their hotel suite hearing and fearing every movement in the corridor outside her door, and of Kate probably making a thorough search of the apartment in the faint hope of iinding her. Unless, of course, the maid had told her and the chances were that she had. And that was that. Guy’s thoughts must have gone back to the apartment, too, for he said, 4 * That's a nice little game they 're play-

ing at Kate's." And Val said, ‘ ‘ That's right, you were going to tell me about it. You said the air was full of psychic condiets, or something like that." “You know wiiat I meant," Guy said. Val thought she could guess, remembering Leslie Crawford's frowning contemplation of Hugh and Winifred dperry so cosily chatting in the double chair; but she didn't say anything. “A nice little game," he ecnoed, “ —of cutthroat. You go in there as a stranger and you see lifteen or twenty decently behaved men and women and you think, ‘What a pleasant little party. They're all friends. They all like one another." “Yes," Val agreed, “that about sums up my impression—with one exception. I saw, or thought I saw, something in Leslie Crawford's eyes. He was looking across the room at Hugh Malcolm and Winifred Sperry." Val tried to keep her eyes away from the speedometer, but they kept jumping back for a quick check in spite of her. in the open stretches the needle was frequently on the high side of 80. 4 * All right,'' said Guy, 44 we 'll start there, it's as good a place as any. “Winifred and Leslie played together for four seasons and the publicity men have built them up as the ‘Sweethearts of Broadway.' Three years ago there was talk that they Avere secretly married—but there’s always talk about show people. But this much I know: .'Leslie is crazy about Winifred and Winifred is just as crazy about Hugh Malcolm.'' Val was suddenly remembering Hugh Malcolm's grey eyes plunged into her own and Hugh Malcolm's pleasant voice insisting ho was sorry she was not staying the winter in New York. She said quietly, “And 1 suppose Hugh's in love with Winifred. He couldn't very well help himself. She’s the only actress i ever saw who was really beautiful off the stage.'' “He's not, though. Hugh Malcolm — ’ ’ He broke oif abruptly as a huge truck loomed up ahead. Three cars Avere approaching from the oppo site direction. (Quickly he applied th« brakes, waited until the road was cleai and suddenly shot ahead again. 4 4 Hugh Malcolm,'' he began again “is in love with Hugh Malcolm ant no one else. You'll discover that fo: yourself if you know him long enough He's damnably conceited and the onl’ thing he cares about is his own succes, as a playwright. That’s why he’s givinj Winifred a rush. She's darned nea thirty but she can play nineteen to per fection, and in ease you don’t know it Hugh Malcolm's forte is the younge generation. Leslie's ambition runs t heavier parts, but he's teamed up wit; Winifred and he hasn't the nerve t break away.'' Once more Val was seeing Hugh Mai colm's face, close to her own, telling her he liked to be believed. Obviously 1 Guy did not like Hugh and it came tc

her then that for an outsider Guy seemed to know a great deal and she wondered where he fit into the older and more sophisticated group in Kate's apartment. Guy interrupted her line of thought by saying. ‘ 4 Then there’s your own charming cousin and Bret Gallishaw, who, practically speaking, deserted her at the altar. I suppose you know Bret and Leslie Crawford are stepbrothers and hate each other like —" Val said suddenly, “I’d rather not discuss Kate, if you don’t mind." He shrugged. After a time he said, “I can't ligure you, Val. You're young enough to be belong to my age, but you don't. You're all tied up with a lot of old-fashioned ideas abot loyalty 1 and convention and respect for authority whether its demands on you are reasonable or not. You'll never be happy until you get rid of some of those inhibitions." She looked at him steadily. 4 4 Funny,'' she said quietly, 4 4 but I had a notion I was quite happy. Inhibitions 1 and all." “You don't know what happiness ■ “All right, you Avin." 44 For the love of mike!" he said, : irritably. 4 4 Can't you fight ?'' Val pulled the robe tighter about ; her knees. “Not Avith you," she told him. “I’m no match for omniscience and i don't care for people who do their own thinking and mine, too.'' He looked doAvn at her, scowling, let ! his green eyes swing back to the straight stretch of . highway ahead. “Well, if you want the truth, you're not my ideal, either. I don't care for people who do their own thinking and mine, too.'' ’ He looked down at her, scowling, let his green eyes swing back to the straight stretch of highway anead. : “Well, if you want the truth, you're not my ideal, either. I don't care for , your type. ’ ’ She started to answer, caught herself, settled back with lips compressed. The sixteen cylinders trotted along ’ quietly. The speedometer needle showed that they were going to Pete's place at the rate of eighty-five miles an hour. Pete Gaboriau's Salle a Manger was something less than sixteen miles from the Philadelphia City Hall and was ’ something more than its name implied. The dance hall and the adjoining original dining room covered not quite three l acres of ground and composed the least interesting and least profitable of the several Gaboriau enterprises operating under the one roof. On the second floor ' was a central lobby from Avhich one might enter, with the proper creden- ' tials, any one of tAvelve large window- * less rooms where wheels turned and dice rolled and cards were dealt and played beneath brilliant, low-hanging, 7 green-shaded lights. To the uninformed visitor Pete's ‘ place consisted of these two floors, but Pete’s quaintly labelled “Kennel * Club"—a large oval track with surrounding seating accommodation for i some eleven hundred persons—was fifty ' feet beloAV ground level. There, from ten to one nightly, sleek, steel-muscled

greyhounds pursued electric rabbits to 1 the audible delight of men and women 1 Avho apparently preferred parting with their money here to seeing it sliding aAvay under mahogany and ebony rakes ' on the second floor. Short, fat, immaculately attired in » dinner jacket and white vest, Pete Ga--1 boriau was standing under the arch 3 separating the dining room from the L dance hall, fingering his waxed moustache, congratuling himself upon a sear son that promised to be the most pro- ’ fitable of his career, a season relatively > free of raids. Two ... in two months. 3 Splendid! In other years . . . too many to count. k A young couple came out of the dining room, stood behind the genial proprietor, making no sound. They were 3 about the same age, nineteen or tAventy 1 at most. The boy was tall and dark 1 with black hair and long blue eyes. The 3 girl's golden hair was bobbed and push--5 ed back as if blown by the Avind and • her flower-like skin was as soft and s pink as an infant's; but the most striking of her interesting and quite lovely k features Avas her blue eyes Avhich ap- • parently had been unable to agree ber tween blue and brown and had decided 1 on both. Her left eye was a clear, li--3 quid blue and her right eye Avas a not--3 very-dark but unmistakable brown. Suddenly the girl gtood on tiptoe and pressed her slim hands to Pete Gabo- : riau's eyes. • “Ah," Pete said, smiling broadly; 1 “it is Miss Came Yon. No one else would do it.'' 1 She relased him, pulled him around, r laughing. “No one else would dare, t you mean. I'm not afraid of you, Peter t old horse. You're just another male 6 to me.'' u Pete nodded, genially. “Yes, Miss 1 y Cameron. You are always right." He y extended his fat hands, palms up: 1 ‘ “Meester Williams has not come yet? Perhaps—" grinning. 1- “Noav don't start that drivel," the a girl said sharply. 4 4 There's no other 5e girl. And Avhat if there were—what's Avrong with Cran here?" She caught ie the boy's arm, pulled him nearer, n “You're nuts about me, aren't you, sweetness?" n, The boy looked at Pete, smiling, id “She turns me doAvn for the Twenty'll' Tkree-Million-Dollar Boy and I’m still h. supposed to be nuts about her." ly She jerked his arm, roughly. “But ss you are. You know you are. I couldn't ig live if I thought I didn’t have you for a-i a spare, Cran." !r- Pete's fat stomach shook Avith laughit, ter. Abruptly, as his eyes moved toer Avard the entrance, the upheaval ceased, to He touched the girl's arm, pointed: th 44 L00k, Miss Cameron . . . See, I to was right. It Avas another lady—and so lovely a lady. Perhaps you will need il- your * spare ’ yet..." ig * y, Val had never seen such a large place Lo iu her life, nor so many people dancing.

“I hope you knOAV your way around," she said, and almost unconsciously slipped her arm through Guy's. “It wouldn't be any trick at all to get lost in this place." 4 4 And what you see is only a small part of the story," Guy said, his green eyes searching the faces of the dancers. “There's not another place like Pete’s in the world ... I wonder —" Suddenly he was pulling her forward. 4 4 There they are,' ’ he said, dropping his voice. 4 4 Take things as they come. Val. This isn't New Manchester nor Kate's apartment. Anything goes but murder and snootiness."

She didn't know whom he meant, but she Avaited and iu a moment Louise Cameron was clinging to Guy, kissing him shamelessly, ignoring the girl beside him as if sho had not existed.

Val had an almost overpowering impulse to put her fingers in the girl’s golden hair and jerk her away. Instead she looked at the rather nice looking boy and presently returned his friendly smile.

Guy freed himself at last, went through tfte formality of introductions . . , “ Louise Cameron—Leeze to you . , . Crandal Scott ... Val Clarke xrom up New England way . . ." To each Val said, 44 How do you," but Leeze Cameron only glared at her. xhen Leeze was dragging Guy on to the dance floor and Cran was saying, You probably Avant to brush up after that ride. The ladies' parlour is on the left—the one with the curtained arch. That's right." Val thought, “Thank heaven for one sane human being in the Avorld." She said, “I'll be right back," and smiled ner gratitude. He was Availing where she had left him. “Y T ou tAvo certainly took your time getting here," he said, not unpleasantly. “What happened?" She met his blue gaze, Avonderingly. “You knew Ave were coming?" “I kneAv Guy was coming. He Avas to be here not later than eleven-thirty. Leeze Avas wild." He crooked his arm, glanced at his watch. 4 4 One forty-five. Well, as no one has ever said before, the night’s young . . . Been here before?' ' “Never," Val said, but she was thinking, 44 1 suppose I ought to call Kate and tell her where I am—though she probably knows Guy Avell enough to guess." She said, “Shall Ave dance now?" He danced Avell, Avith his cheek against her hair, talking little until quietly: “I had a premonition this was going to be a big night for me.'' And after a moment: “Just so we’ll know where we are—is there anything betAveen you and Guy?" And when she looked up, smiling, and shook her head: 4 4 SAvell . . . That's perfectly swell, Val ..." (To be Continued.)