The Ypsilanti Daily Press

Tomorrow
CHAPTER THIRTY

DENNIS - Dennis sitting there at the wheel of a sleek black roadster when she left the office - was nothing to her at all, but when Beth saw him get out of the car and come toward her, smiling, she knew that he'd been waiting for her, and something swooped up and down just once inside her breast.

And, womanlike, she knew exactly what she looked like without looking in a mirror: blue jersey dress, shabby polo coat, blue felt beret with a worn spot where she stuck it on with pins, clean but mended yellow cotton gloves, oxfords in need of a shine. Her hair would do but she wasn't sure of her lipstick and, likely as not, there was a spot of carbon paper smudge somewhere on nose or cheek. Saturday noons she never stopped to repair her appearance. Now she made a mental resolution never to leave the building without being prepared for anything.

She said, "Hello, Dennis," and he said, "How do you do it? Up night clubbing until 3 o'clock, a whole morning of work, and you look as fresh as . . . as . . ."

"A daisy, Dennis? I think that's the right word."

"Maybe," he said, "but I was trying to think of something prettier. I had thought of quite a number of things I was going to tell you last night, but . . ."

"Last night was wonderful. I adored the marionettes and the Gypsy singers. Did you like them? I thought you looked tired. I wasn't sure you were enjoying yourself, and I wanted you to."

Beth thought, "I'm keeping him here talking. He's probably going to see Slade."

She said, "I did. And Andrea loved it, too. Didn't we thank you?"

"You did, but I hope to be thanked another way. I hope you haven't a date for lunch, or one for the afternoon."

"I haven't," Beth said, without stopping to think he might think she was jumping at an invitation. The next moment she knew, from the pleasure in his sensitive face that he was thinking of nothing but how fortunate he was. "Good," he said boyishly, "because I want to show you a little of the country side and I thought you might like the food at a little place out on the Mt. Vernon Parkway."

"Shall I get in?"

He tucked a robe around her knees and said he'd put the top up on the car if she wished it.

"I love to feel the wind and it can't make me look any worse than I do."

He didn't say anything that he might have said, but he looked at her appraisingly and said he liked little hats like hers.

The ride was a lovely one and Beth found that their easy conversation came back as she thought it never would, and she sensed again that shared feeling of pleasure in each others company, whether they talked of themselves or the weather.

"I think winter is really coming," she said.

He considered it as if it were a weighty statement. "Right," he agreed. "It will be December first tomorrow."

"Not tomorrow, Dennis. Monday? I can't believe that Christmas will be here so soon."

"Will you be here Christmas?"

"I expect so. We've been invited to Pennington to spend the holiday with some friends, but I don't think we'll go." She didn't say that she had been dreading it because she would remember last Christmas and all her unhappiness, or that she had decided not to go anyway when Andrea was planning to go out to Hawaii. "Of course it will depend on Andrea. She's so disappointed that she couldn't go out to marry Jim. Dennis, do you think we'll have war in the Pacific soon?"

"Only God and the Japanese government would know that, Beth, but I think Ronald was wise not to let her go out."

"Will you tell her that?"

Dennis gave her a one-sided smile. "Maybe I'm not as good at telling Andrea what to do or think as you are."

Beth plunged. "Did you ever advise her about marrying, or not marrying Jim, Dennis?"

He took a long time answering and then he said, "I was not asked and, there was no reason why I should have been."

Both stared straight ahead at the road.

"Were you?"

She answered, "I was not asked and there was no reason why I should have been. I don't mean to be rude."

"I'm sure you don't. Would you be interested to know what I should have advised?"

"You know I would be."

"I should certainly have advised her to marry him, because they love each other."

"I feel the same way," she said in a low voice, and said nothing more until they came to the inn, but there were two ghosts riding with them. Andrea and Jim.

The inn was a wide-verandaed house set far back in the trees, and in the dining room a great fire blazed in a huge hearth, filling the room with warmth and light and the pleasant odor of burning hickory.

They lingered over a delicious lunch with which was served a light, fragrant wine. It was dusk before either of them realized that the afternoon was gone.

"What are you going to do tonight?" Dennis asked when he had nosed the car back toward Washington.

Beth thought of an evening with him and said, "I have a date with Andrea. We usually go to a movie on Saturday night."

She half expected him to say that he'd like to come along, but he said, "May I telephone later in the week? I'm flying back to Pennington Monday, but I expect to be back by Friday, or early next week, anyway."

"That would be nice."

A mile later he said, "Are you going to be at this cocktail soiree at Mrs. Seccombe's tomorrow?"

Beth brought her wandering thoughts back. She hadn't heard anything about Eunice Seccombe's having a cocktail party. In fact, she was sure she had heard Andrea say that Eunice was going to Alexandria for the week-end, but she said, "No."

"I wish you were. I don't care much for those things myself, but Andrea said . . . that is . . . I thought you both were . . . I'm to meet her there at five."

"Oh, fine," Beth said evenly. "It's nice for Andrea that you'll be here. A girl hates to go to parties alone, and poor lamb, pretty as she is, she doesn't have much chance to meet . . . escorts."

"I wish you were going to be there," he said again.

When she left him at the door, it was half-past-five and she saw that dinner was already under way in the dining room, Andrea sitting in her place, waiting for her.

She didn't want to go in and sit down opposite Andrea at that moment. Not until she got over her resentment that Andrea should do a thing like that to her. It wasn't that she expected to tag along everywhere with Andrea, but she might at least have mentioned that she was going to take Dennis to Eunice's party.

Composing herself, she went into the dining room.

"Where have you been all afternoon?" Andrea asked at once.

"Oh, Dennis was waiting for me when I came out of the office," Beth said casually, "and we drove out to the country for lunch."

Andrea put down her soup spoon quite deliberately. "You forgot to mention it last night, or didn't you think it was important enough to mention?"

"Maybe I didn't know he was going to be there, or maybe I did forget to mention it," Beth said smoothly. "The way you forgot to mention that Eunice was having a cocktail party tomorrow. Not that it's any of my business."

"Implying that it's none of my business if you have a lunch date with Dennis, darling? Well! Here we are again, fighting over a man."

"'Again'?" Beth asked icily.

(To Be Continued)