"ANN STEPS OUT"

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 December 1938, Page 10

"ANN STEPS OUT"

PUBLISHED BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT.

COPYRIGHT,

MARGARET GORMAN NICHOLS.

By

CHAPTER XXIV. .—Continued. She looked out over the water, digging her riding crop, in the sand. She looked terribly young, he thought. And she thinks she is so right, but she is only trying to patch together again an ideal that has crumbled. She is picking up the pieces of her little idol of Doug, but they won’t stay together. They’ll crumble all about her again., “I can stand anything if you don’t mind, too much,” she said. Mind! Could he ever tell, her howmuch he loathed seeing her do this mad thing! And yet with that fierce loyalty she had for people she loved, she would wait for Doug, ignoring the gossip and criticism about her. “I won’t oppose you,” was all he said. Her mind was firmly made up when she reached the city. Faithful though she was, there was fear in her, too. Nick would not oppose her, but she knew that he did not approve. Was it, after all, only a blind illusion that made her believe Doug?

Yesterday she had had to gel away -—away to Nick and the peace of the island. Things had become clearer. She had lain last night listening to the rustle of the leaves blended with the rushing water and thought, “I love him. We love each other, Doug and I. We always have, and that is all that matters.”

She rushed in the house remembering that she had promised to meet Gary at the Hintons swimming pool that afternoon. She was late now.

Some instinct hade her turn when she had one foot on. the steps. Her brown hand gripped the bannister and she stopped very still. Yesterday, sitting in the same chair, had been Doug. Today, Gail, smoking furiously,' waited. Ann came toward her. There was no preface, there was no need. And there was little embarrassment about either of them. The thing was too obvious. Ann walked in the room, closed the French doors and stood there, slim and straignt, her eyes clear. “You know why I came,” said Gail, looking darkly lovely. “Yes,” said Ann. “There’s no use to pretend. .Honesty is so much better. Doug was here yesterday. He told me that you had separated.” / “That fie wants to marry you?”

“Yes.” “Gail’s crimson lips curved in a cynical smile.

“I don’t blame you, Ann. It couldn’t have worked anyway. I wasn’t ready to settle down to bridge and security. There’s a wild streak in me that rebels at security. But I tried. I tried. Doug was the-same. Even if he hadn't had you on his mind, it couldn’t have lasted.” “He had me on.his mind?”

“After you married John Hamill. He kept talking about you and the money you came into. Couldn’t get it off his mind. He kept saying, ‘l’ll bet Ann looks swell now. She’s worth several million.’ I’m not trying to hurt; I’m only trying to warn.” “Against him?” “Yes. I don’t hate him. I don't feel any anger toward him. I just don’t feel anything at all. I didn’t love him enough to put up with his faults. It all happened so quickly—l woke up to find myself married to a boy ( who didn’t want to grow up and who made love to every pretty face he saw. We’re spoiled children, you see, and each was a new toy for the other. We got tired; there was nothing to hold us together.” Ann looked down at her hands. “It’s nothing to me,” said Gail, “what you do.” “He’s loved me a long time.” “No. He’s only loved you since you’ve been Ann Hamill. He’s in love only with what you represent—luxury and money. I never needed him, but that he failed me.” “I’ve known him a long time,” Ann defended stubbornly. “I know his faults and weaknesses.” She looked up at the dark girl. “Some women love men in spite of them, you know.” “You love him,’ don’t you?” “It's the one thing I've never been able to run away from. I tried . . but I couldn’t. I can’t get over things. They last with me.” Gail smiled. “I’m going to Reno in a few days. Six weeks there, you know, and I'm off to Europe again, a free woman. I'm going to join my father there. Perhaps I’ll never seen Doug again. That’s why I want to apologise for taking him away from you in the beginning. It was just a lark.” Gail extended a slim hand. Ann took it. “No hard feelings," said Gail. “I like you. I like to see people who are nothing get to be somebody. Good luck to you Ann. I hope it turns out better with you'than it did with me.” Gail pulled on her gloves. "I admire your courage,” she said, “but people are going to say that you took something I threw over.” "You mean that you left Doug?”

Gail laughed. “Of course I did. Oh, he probably told you that he left me. It wasn't that. I made up my mind in Paris that we could never got along. I let him go.” She went out and drove away.' Ann went to her room, called Gary’s home and told the butler that wouldn’t be at the pool today. And she knew when the phone rang several minutes later that it was Gary calling her. “I won't talk to him,” she said to Susan. She was standing by the window looking out over the green lawns of Guilford when Jean came in.

"What happened to you last night?" she asked. “Down al Nick’s? I saw him at the office today and he looked rather low." Ann turned around and faced her younger sister. “I've something to tell you. Doug and Gail are going to bo divorced. Doug and I . . .” Jean took a step forward. “Ann, you can’t. You can’t. It isn’t sincere with him. There isn't a sincere thing about him. Oh, he’s handsome but . . .” Ann turned away. “Nick said I had to prepare myself for criticism. You.” she lifted her eyes, "you did a mad thing, but Dick Nelson didn't love you less for it. Perhaps I can straighten Doug out.” She lifted her hand. “I don’t care what anyone says. It isn't over with me. I don’t think it will ever be over.” “I never thought that you, of all people, could be decievcd like that. You're wrong about him, Ann. He likes your money—the perfect thing you've made of yourself with John’s money. It isn’t you." CHAPTER XXV.

Several days passed. Doug called several times.

“I can't see you," Ann told him. "People will talk. We'll have to wait.” “But I want to see you,” he said. “I'm bored ...” “We'll have to wait," she said with finality. Nick had gone to New York on business. Mr and Mrs Dryden were due heme from the Panama Canal trip in ten days. Gossip' centred about Gail; the slightest rumour was built up into an elaborate story. Gail had left for Reno and her father had sailed foy Cannes. Ann was sitting on the side of the Hinton swimming pool one day, swinging a tanned leg in the water. “Ann,” said Gary, “there’s a lot of talk about you and Doug. I don’t like it. Mother has heard things.” Ann swung around and met his eyes. “Gail told me she had decided already in Paris to divorce him. It had nothing to do with me.” “I've thought,” he said earnestly, “that you and I . . .” He paused . . . “You see, mother’s very proud. She wouldn’t want the girl I married to be involved in a scandal.”

He drew away from her, searching her face. “Haven’t you heard? Gail is suing Doug for divorce and naming you as co-respondent.” She stalled at him a moment in blank bewilderment. Was that Gail’s final thrust, her final humiliating gesture? Ann saw her name and photograph splurged across the front pages of the newspapers .... . "I can’t believe it,” she said. “She told me . ~ .”

“Where are you going?” “I’m going—l’m going to get in touch with Doug and find out if it’s true.” . ‘When she got home, Jean was there. She had come home from the office early with a headache. Before Ann could say anything, she looked up from the chaise longue and said, “Nick came back today. He brought a woman back with him —a beautiful woman. You should see her, Ann.” Ann felt that her little world was crumbling. “Who is the woman?” she asked.

“Angela West,” Jean said. “He brught her to the office before going down to Gibson Island and introduced her to me. You should see her —tall and dark, and the most beautiful hair and eyes I’ve ever seen.” Ann lowered her head. Why was it that Nick’s bringing a strange, beautiful woman to the island gave her a curious little hurt? Somehow, though their relationship had been only platonic, they had seemed to belong so entirely together—she and Nick. Was he turning away from her? Everybody else could turn away, but not Nick —not Nick!

"It’s funny, isn't it?” she asked, forgetting momentarily the thing that had brought her rushing home. “I’m jealous of her.”. She laughed. “I’m jealous of Nick! I’ve no right to feel this way but I’ve never known him to be even mildly interested in any woman. He’s known a great many of them, but he always seems so indifferent, so casual.” “And so much above them,” defended Jean stoutly.

“He’s-head and shoulders above every man I know,” said,Ann. "I am jealous. He’d laugh if he’d hear me say it. I’m jealous because some other woman is down on the island with him, sitting with him, watching him smoke, feeling his brown eyes on her. It’s silly of me, but that’s how I feel. It’s absurd of me to think that Nick, good looking as he is, can’t fall in love.” She turned about and ran her fingers in a desperate little gesture through her short hair. , “I heard something today that nearly took me off my feet. “She faced her sister. “I heard that Gail is naming me as co-respondent.” “Co-respondent? She has no grounds “I know. And she told me she had decided before they left Paris to divorce him. All that ugly publicitymother and father will never get over it.” She went to the telephone. “I’m going to call Doug. Maybe he can tell me." Doug brightened at the sound of Ann's voice. “Oh, darling, I’ve been thinking . . .” “Doug, I'rn frantic. Something 1 heard today—ls Gail naming me as corespondent?” "No!” he almost shouted. “Who. told you that?” “I heard it at the pool.” “It isn’t true. Her grounds are incompatibility. Did you think, Ann . .” “I don’t know what, to think.” There was new despair in her voice. Gossip met her everywhere she turned. Now Nick. Was she losing him to some other woman? "Don’t worry,” said Doug. “It will come out ail right. I’m tired of staying at the apartment. Ann. I want to see you.” “I can’t see you," she said. “I —1 don’t want to see anyone." She replaced the phone and Jean saw there were tears in her eyes. “You’re mixed up, aren’t you?" asked Jean. “I’m mixed up,” said Ann, “and 1 don’t know what to believe. All my life I’ve tried to do the right and decent thing. But people misunderstand. Doug\is lonely and deserted. Gail is in Reno. He needs me,” she said. “I’ve always been there when he needed me. That’s the way I am, Jean.” Jean looked at her soberly. Faithful though Ann was to that old ideal, would she realise before it was too late that it was a lost ideal? Ann was having breakfast the following morning when Nick telephoned. “There is some one here I want you to meet.” lie said. “Angela West. She was fed up witli the heat of New York and I persuaded her to come down here for a while and help a bachelor forget his loneliness. I want you to come down, Ann. She's a marvelous person.” It had to be done, of course. “I’ll be down this morning,” she said. Two hours later she parked her car in the driveway. Nick opened the door. "This is Ann.” ho said Io the woman in tiie room. Angela West was tail and dark and graceful. There was about every movement of her Die easy, flowing grace of an actress. She had smooth black hair, waved closely to her head, brown eyes set wide apart, a finely chiselled nose, and rather large mouth. She was the sort of woman who did everythingwith unconscious, unstudied perfection. Her voice was a low drawl. She was just having her coffee when Ann arrived.

“Hello, dear,” she greeted Aim. “Nick has told rne so much about you. He

calls you his protege. “Angela smiled at Nick, a cool though intimate smile. “You have excellent taste in selecting proteges. I think she’s charming.” "I'm afraid Nick has prejudiced you in my favour.” Ann said. Angela drank her black coffee with obvious enjoyment. "I love Nick's island. New York was frightfully warm, and my decreasing bank account would not stand the strain of a trip. Nick told me to come down here, meet you, be ornamental and greet him every evening. When a man wants to be greeted every evening, it’s one of two things. “What?” asked Ann. feeling very young, very inexperienced beside this! woman. “Loneliness or he is in love with another woman.” Nick laughed. "I've been trying to . get Angelo to take me seriously for years, but she always laughs at me.” Nick wanted Angela to be serious. ! Ann understood now. Angela was the reason Nick went to New York so often. And she could not blame him! Angela got up. She wore a flowing coral negligee. “I really must dress. Nick and I got so absorbed in our conversation at breakfast it had to be finished and my dressing was neglected.” . (To be Continued.)