JERRY'S GIRL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21117, 26 February 1932, Page 16

JERRY'S GIRL.

BY NORMA CRAIG.

" A gentleman to see you, Miss Manning." Lois Manning was sitting at her draughting-board making the preliminary sketch for a new house. She did not look np when the office girl made the announcement". " Who is it, Miss Earle ?'-' she asked impatiently. " I don't know. He wouldn't give his Came." " Funny! Ask him to come in, please." 'A young man disturbingly good to look upon stood for a moment in the doorway and watched the architect' at her .work. Then he spoke. And at the sound of his voice she dropped her pencil and swung round abruptly in her chair. She half rose, staye'd poised for second, and then sat down again as il ! suddenly weakened by a shock. The discarded pencil, which had been sweeping down the desk in a series of erratic curves, dropped to the floor with a wooden clatter. The roise of it roused Lois. Speech came to l.er in two huskily uttered words. "Jerry! You!" Jerry Cox laughed pleasantly. •" Of course. None other. No need to look so appallingly dumbfounded." " But—but Jerry! I—l thought' you .ivere —dead! " Dead! Great guns! No wonder you look sort of petrified. Think I'm a! ghost, c h Vfi He went close to her and extended an linn. " Feel," he ordered, bunching the muscles, " Not much of a ghost about that, is there?" Lois poked the extended muscle warily. She looked up into his eyes and saw them brimming with laughter. " Is there ?" he challenged. She relaxed and sat back, smiling. "No, I should say thero wasn't. I'm awfully glad you're real." "/But what made you think 19 was dead, Lois ?" " Bob Milne came back from Canada aix months ago. He said you'd been killed there in a mine disaster." Jerry scratched tho back of his head thoughtfully. " Queer how rumours get about, isn't it?" Lois had been looking at him with growing wonder. Four years had wrought surprising changes. He was no linger just a beautiful reincarnation of a young Greek god. He had developed into a .vigorous, bronzed, splendid-looking man. And there was a new vitality about him, a new keenness which had been lacking in the boy. Something seemed to have come to life in him. His eyes were vivid, challenging. His lips had a new firmness. Even his chin seemed to have grown squarer. The old, child-like dimple had grown into a rugged-looking cleft. Lois looked for the old, soft effeminacy, and found nothing but' convincing masculinity. " Aren't you even going to ask me to Bit down ?" Jerry questioned wistfully. " Why of course. Just dump that roll of plans on to the floor and pull the chair up here. I want to hear about everything." " That's a tall order. But are you sure I'm not wasting your time? Yon looked terrifically busy when I came in." /" Oh, that job will have to wait." Jerry pulled up the chair and sat down near Lois at her desk. He glanced at the pencil sketch on the board. " That's a jolly little place." " Yes. It's for a young couple. Their first home. I haven't enjoyed a job so much for a long time." Jerry leaned forward and looked intently at Lois. " Still determined to stick to this Architectural business?" he asked. " Of course. Nothing could alter that. I'm just beginning to get on my professional feet. People seemed to mistrust a woman architect at first, but I won a competition for a small brick house, and since then—well, I've been quite busy." ' " I see. I thought perhaps—" " Jerry, I do hope you haven't come back to renew the old conquest. It's still as hopeless as ever. I haven't changed a .bit." " ThaFs all right. I can see you haven't." His tone was sober, but his eyes sparkled strangely as if they were looking inwards upon some cherished secret. . "How long havo you been back?" Lois asked him. " Ten days." Ten days! She experienced a slight shock. Back ten days, and only now coming to see her? Things certainly had changed. Jerry had always been so consistently loyal. He had broken many an engagement, back in the" old days, in order that he might bo with her when » he thought she needed him. He had been her devoted slave; had taken rebuffs with a queer hurt silence and just gone on worshipping and serving. The snows of Canada must - certainly have cooled his ardour. Well, she had never wanted his love. It had been too immature a thing. She had no right to feel cheated now. . But woman-like, she did. Jerry was talking, quickly, easily. His voice swept round her like a thin wreath of sound. Suddenly ho stopped and only the hum of the traffic outside, and the tap, tapping of Miss Earle's typewriter in the outer office disturbed the new stillness in the room. "What is it?" Jerry asked. "Have I been boring you ?" Lois roused herself with an effort. •" iNo, no. Of course not. Go on." But Jerry shook his head. " Not to-day. I want to talk business [rith you now." "Business! What sort of business?" " I want you to design a house for me." She looked at him with widening eyes. " A —a house! For you!" " Yes. Why not ? I'm going to be married." Again Lois experienced a sharp sense of shock. Something seemed to turn over within her brain, leaving a strange new trail of pain. " I'm telling you this in confidence," Jerry said. "My girl is not with me vet, but I want the house to be ready when she come 3. It is to be a surprise for her. Will you help to make it as delightful a one as possible? Will you Lois?" His eyea were searching hers earnestly, but only by swiftly nodding her head could sho reply to him. She could not trust herself to speak, owing to that strange now pain. " For an hour they discussed facts and figures; an hour wherein Lois forced the architect in her above the new call of her womanhood; tho womanhood wliiclT she had persistently denied herself, but which was eventually to prove stronger than her will. After Jerry had left the office sho .Went back to her work, but found it impossible to concentrate. The sketch of the little house lay before her, untouched.

A NEW ZEALAND STORY.

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Through its lightly pencilled windows Jerry's face kept peeping out at her. "Not the old Jerry with the longing, boyish eyes, and pale, Greek-chiselled face, but the new Jerry—Jerry the man, with his virility and his poise. "Oh bother!" she said, pushing away the drawing and rising from her chair, '* This is just being—ridiculous." She took down her hat from its peg and pulled it on over her short' dark hair. The blue felt was the colour of -her eyes, the scarlet medallion the colour of her lips. She too was very good to look'upon. " I'm going out to the Panmure job," she said to Miss Earle as she went hurrying through the office. Next day she commenced work on the plans for Jerry's house. During the night she had argued herself into a state of indifference towards everything beside her work. But the fact that it had been a struggle was disturbingly significant.

Jerry had bought' a section. It was a site Lois had long coveted for herself. She loved the wide uninterrupted view of tho Waitemata Harbour and Hauraki Gulf, and the fresh salty breath that seemed to come straight out of the vast pulsing heart of the Pacific. It hurt her a little that Jerry should have purchased this site. He knew how much she loved it and desired it, and how she had always had a secret ambition to build a house and live there. Now, another girl was coming over that blue line of water to take it from her. Something secret and precious had been shattered. She must find something to take \ts place. But a new restlessness was upon ner. She longed to see the house started so that she could throw herself into the work of watching it grow and materialise. There is joy always for the artist who sees the child of the brain develop to its full and satisfying maturity. Jerry these davs was like a small boy with a cherished secret. He was restlessly gay, spending his time between wandering ecstatically over the section, and hovering about the offico where Lois was skilfully working on the plans. Once only had she suggested that Jerry's girl should be allowed to have some say in the planning of her own home, but Jerry had been so emphatic about keeping it a secret that she had dropped the subject and never attempted to re-open it. A new companionship on a different basis had developed between them. The house was a wonderful joint interest. As it grew under the builder's hands they were caught up together in a gay enthusiasm. Lois seemed to have entered upon a new phase of life which was partly agony and partly joy. She no longer could argue herself into her old indifference. Jerry's love, now that it. had so evidently passed from her, was the one thing above all others she desired. What an ironical world! And Jerry ? Jerry was an enigma. He seemed to be living two lives. One within and one without. To Lois, watchand longing, there seemed to be no communicating channel between the two. But there was no doubt about his being inordinately happy. She wondered a great deal about the girl who was capable of bringing out new strength and manliness in him, for it was evidently round thoughts of her that his inner life revolved. But Jerry was tantalisingly uncommunicative and Lois was too sensitive to question. Then the day came when everything was finished. Jerry and Lois had arranged to make the final inspection together. How tho house satisfied them both! Built of beautifully chosen bricks, andwith fine proportions, it stood against the sloping hill, a real house of heart's delight. The artist in Lois responded to it and was glad, with that deep gladness which comes of something accomplished; something that is good. But the new woman in her ached with uncontrollable anguish. Tho house stood for everything which, too late, she had discovered she wanted, and wanted poignantly. She moved from room to room in a strange tense silence while Jerry poured generous words of praise into her ears. He was more than satisfied with what she had done. Ho was calling it a masterpiece. and she struggled to answer him naturally. " I'm so glad you like it, Jerry. I hope—she—will like it, too." " Oh, I'm not afraid of that," he said, laughing confidently, " she'll love every inch of it." " By tho way," he said, turning and facing her suddenly, " she'll be in Auckland on Sunday afternoon. I'm going to bring her to see this place and I want vou to be here to witness for yourself how much she will like it. She'll appreciate all that you have done." Lois quivered as if she had been struck. "No no, I can't do that. I can't. You mustn't ask me, Jerry. It would be —terrible." "Why, Lois!" " I mean, I can't possibly be here, not possibly." " Lois, please don't disappoint me. I've promised myself that you should be. I'll be terribly hurt if you don't come. I want you to meet my girl. You've done so much for me already, surely you could do just this one little thing more?" His voice was wonderfully soft and pleading. Lois' heart inevitably responded. She would do this last service for him if it cost her tho sharpest anguish. Sunday was a day of warm sunshine and sweet winds. From the windows of the new house, Lois could see the harbour lying like a flawless jewel at the. foot of the cliffs. Her heart throbbed with the pain of beautv-sense. She had been the first to arrive at the house and was roaming restlessly about from room to room, anticipating nothing but unhappiness and bitterness. She stood in the kitchen among the gleaming fittinge, loo|king round at- the blue and white tiled walls. A fresh, bright, efficient workshop it seemed. She opened and shut a few drawers and bins, mechanically. " Oh, Jerry, Jerry," she whispered drearily, " I hope, I do hope she will make you happy." A sob rose in her throat anr} tears ru&hed unbidden into her oyes. She turned and went blindly from tho room. In the hall she ran into someone, who was standing at the foot of the stairway, someone who turned quickly and took her into his arms. " Why, Lois, sweetheart," Jerry was whispering. " Why, girl, you're crying!" His arms tightened about her and his lips uttered words which fell like soft healing rain upon the barren places of her heart. For a while she gave herself lip to tho dear sweetness of it, and then, suddenly remembering, she tried to thrust him from her. " Jerry, don't, please," she whispered urgently. "Where is—she?" Lois looked round the hall but saw no one besides Jerry. " Didn't she come ?" " Of course she came." There.was a strange bright look in Jerry's eyes. " Then where ?" " Hero in my arms, dear heart. Don't you understand ?" " But—but Jerry!" " There was never any other girl for me, Lois," he told her tenderly. " Then—then that girl you were engaged to ?" "Just a mythical person, darling! Wasn't I glad you didn't ask her name. But then 1 bargained on you not asking many questions." " And this house ?" Lois was not going to take the full glory of her happiness until she was sure. " Built for vou dear, if you caro to live in it—with me." "If I care! Oh Jerry!" After a while she pushed hiin gently away and, holding his bands, looked into his happy, triumphant eyes. " What would you have done if I'd refused ?" she asked mischievously. " The Lord knows! I didn't stop to think about that part of it. It just didn't bear thinking about at all." Through the waiting, listening house, rang the high, glad sound of love's own laughter..