Radio Mirror: The Magazine of Radio Romances (Jan-June 1943)

much more so than on the many evenings I had spent alone while Jim was out at some meeting. I tried to read, but I couldn't keep my mind on the story in the magazine I picked up. At last, bored and restless, I went to bed, to sleep fitfully. Just before dawn I heard Kane's footsteps, strangely light for so big a man, come through the house and go softly past my door and upstairs. It was as if I had been waiting for them, for immediately afterwards I slipped into a comforting slumber. The next day, Friday, I got Dickie off to school and gave the house a thorough cleaning. I felt as if I wanted to be busy — very busy, to make myself forget that soon Kane would come down and once again we'd be experiencing the false, disturbingly lovely intimacy of the night before. And suddenly I stopped dusting, the cloth dangling from a slack hand. I had remembered that on Friday nights Kane did not work. Mechanically, I again began running the dust-cloth over the mantelpiece. I thought, "This is crazy! What am I thinking of? Kane will probably go downtown right after supper, just as he usually does on his nights off . . . And suppose he doesn't? What of it? ... I could decide to take Dickie to a movie . . ." IN the mirror over the table I saw my own face. It was so drawn and white it frightened me. Because I knew I did not want Kane to go downtown, and neither did I want to take Dickie to a movie if Kane decided to stay home. That evening, after supper, he might almost have been repeating words he'd read in my mind when he said, "You don't mind, do you, if I stick around the house tonight? It's pretty raw and mean outdoors — " "Of course not," I said as lightly as I could. "You can build a fire in the living room if you want to." "Not a bad idea," he agreed, and went to do it, accompanied by Dickie, while I cleared the table. "I think I'll stay up an hour or so later than usual," Dickie announced with careful casualness when they returned. "I don't feel very sleepy." Above Dickie's head, Kane was grinning in appreciation of my son's roundabout method of getting permission to stay up. I glanced down at the round, too-innocent face and couldn't help smiling too. "All right," I said almost thankfully. "Since it's Friday night. I'll tell you what — we'll pop some corn after a while." But there came a time when, after all the corn had been popped and eaten, Dickie's head began to droop and I had to take him, protesting stoutly that he wasn't sleepy at all, to bed. When I returned, Kane was in the big armchair in front of the fireplace, long legs stretched out to the blaze. He didn't look up. "Get the boy to bed?" he asked. "Yes," I said, "but not asleep yet." Kane chuckled. "He's a swell little kid . . . You know what I've been sitting here thinking?" "No— what?" "That Jim's a pretty lucky guy. The only thing is — " and with a swift, smooth movement he was on his feet beside me — "I don't think he knows just how lucky." I said nervously, "Maybe he just doesn't show it." Get out, get out! a voice inside me was warning. Go to your room, close the door. Almost APRIL. 1943 Face flattery on the double-quick Clamour AWiO.L. Could be — if your complexion has that beclouded, drab look that comes when tiny, dry, dead skin cells roughen and coarsen its texture— when tight-sticking dirt particles dull its pretty freshness. <z7&e IzAiinute jHadk Help recoup that missing glamour with the 1-Minute Mask, exciting new way to use Pond's Vanishing Cream. Mask your face with the cool,, pearlywhite cream— throat, chin, cheeks, forehead— all but eyes. Tissue off after one minute — and look at what's happened ! (^tcunour "come 6acA, Under the 1-Minute Mask your complexion is given a "re-styling"! The "keratolytic" action of Pond's Vanishing Cream gently loosens those dry skin cells, dissolves specks of grime. Your skin looks and feels softer, silkier, brighter. Takes make-up with beguiling smoothness —holds it fast! Mrs. Geraldine Spreckels— "I'm really excited about this new way of using Pond's Vanishing Cream as a Minute Mask. It leaves my skin so fresh and feeling so soft." ow IT'S A 1-MINUTE MASK! Use Pond's Vanishing Cream 3 or 4 times a week this dramatic new 1-Minute Mask way to give your face a quick glamour pick-up! You'll adore it! ; IT'S A POWDER BASE! Smooth on a thin film of Pond's Vanishing Cream as a protective foundation before every make-up! Not "oozy," not drying. Holds powder hours on end! 71