MORNING SERIAL

SALLY! He saw himself at the fairground.

“May I see you home?” He remembered her smile, her nervous little laugh.

“I—I don’t know, really.” Then the first walk in the park. The silence in the darkness of Lovers’ Lane where he had held her in his arms.

“I love you, Ieuan.” Her words brought a fresh spasm of pain to his heart.

The love and happiness they had known — What of it now? What was there left to live for? Nothing — nothing! The only two who had given him joy had been taken away from him. Frank to his grave on the lonely hill, Sally to the grey, forbidding sanatorium whose very name made people shudder with fear.

He walked aimlessly home along the dimly lighted streets, his mind overwhelmed with the tragedy. At the corner of the lane a neighbour hailed him, but he gave no answer. The back-lane door dragged open on its hinges. He stumbled up the stone-flagged garden path, overwrought, and anxious only to reach the privacy of his bedroom.

As he drew near the kitchen he heard his father and mother quarrelling. He stopped, his body rigid with apprehension.

“It’s that girl, Dick. Spending far too much of his time he is with her. He’s out with her tonight again. As sure as my name’s Millie Morgan, he’ll be having her in trouble one of these days.”

His mother’s voice shrilled in his ears. He clenched his teeth. God! would it never end, this ceaseless nagging?

“When I spoke to him about her, what did he say? You know, Dick-you- know what he said. I’ll never forget that day, not as long as I live.”

“Yes, yes, I know what he said, Millie.” The father’s voice replied impatiently. “I’ve heard all that before. The girl is a decent sort, Millie, or Ieuan wouldn’t go with her. After all, he’s getting to be a young man now. You take things too seriously, Millie, worrying yourself over a slip of a girl. Who knows that Ieuan won’t forget her? She’s the first girl he’s ever met, and I don’t suppose anything will ever come of it.

“He’ll meet plenty more before he’s through.”