Radio and television mirror (July-Dec 1942)

Goodbye Dearest Continued from page 34 We came back to the city, and the weeks slipped by, and it was our third anniversary. Johnny sent flowers in the afternoon, and at night he brought home a blue velvet jeweler's box for me to open while I stood within the warm circle of his arms. A star that lay deep in the soft gray-blue heart of a sapphire solitaire winked up at us. I had had a star sapphire before. It had been my engagement ring, and we had pawned it to pay the rent. "Johnny," I said. "Johnny, darling— " "Now I have bad news," he said, holding me closer. "Next week I have to go away for a few days. Life is going to seem like a little piece of the Sahara Desert without you. Will you miss me too?" "Miss you?" I sighed. "Every hour — every minute — I'll be waiting for you to come back." WE never had been separated before, and although Johnny expected to be gone only a few days they seemed, in prospect, like an eternity. I went to his office the afternoon he was to leave, bringing some handkerchiefs I had had monogrammed for him. It was an impressive office, not at all like the one he'd had such a short while ago, and he had a real secretary now, not just me, trying to be one. "Mr. Lane's busy," this efficient young woman said when I entered. "Mr. Rooney's with him. But I don't think they'll be much longer." "Rooney . . . Rooney . . ." The name marched through my brain, to leave an unpleasant trail. I was sure I'd heard it, or read it. And then, with a click, I remembered. Timothy J. Rooney was the contractor who had built an underpass at the edge of town. The underpass had caved in, and now Rooney was under indictment for criminal conspiracy to defraud the city by substituting cheaper materials than those called for in the specifications. But worse than that, to my mind, was the fact that the cave-in had occurred a scant minute after a bus full of school children had gone through the underpass. Only the grace of God had kept Timothy Rooney from being, to all intents and purposes, a murderer. "Is — my husband — defending Mr. Rooney at his trial?" I asked. "Oh yes, Mrs. Lane," the girl said brightly. "It comes up next week. But I'm sure Mr. Lane will win the case." "Yes," I thought. "I'm sure he will too." Aloud I said, dropping Johnny's going-away present on her desk, "Give this to Mr. Lane, please, and tell him — tell him I couldn't wait." All my half-formed doubts were crystallized now. It didn't matter that no one had actually been killed by that cheaply constructed underpass. Some day one of Matt Kennedy's friends would build an underpass, or a bridge, or a building, that would take human life — and Johnny might defend that criminal too, and win that case. And all the while he was taking dishonest money, as surely as if he himself were breaking the law. At the corner of the street, tucked between two tall buildings, was a little church. It was years since I had entered a church, but now I stumbled across the threshold, into the incensescented dusk. july, 1942 ti What I always like in a Girl! says John Wayne " "is that JOHN WAYNE new &(mi/i/exlm for t^mi. . . c/£wzi/aMe m (JffiGfM fACf PCHVDffi ALIX — the great fashion genius — works ±\ with Jergens to give your skin that new silken-skin finish. Little blemishes? Coarse pores? They can't show up so sadly, because Jergens Face Powder is velvetized in the making. It clings like a fragrant, natural bloom. As for the shades! Alix created all 5 shades for this exciting new powder. Her sensitive color-sense styled one shade to coax into view the color-loveliness natural to your type of skin. Have this arresting look of naturally beautifully -toned skin! Change to Jergens Face Powder now. FREE! ALL 5 ALIX-STYLED SHADES (Paste on a Penny Postcard Mail Now !) The Andrew Jergens Company, Box 1408, Cincinnati, Ohio (In Canada: Perth, Ont.) I want that new "Silken-Skin" look. Please send — free — all 5 thrilling shades in the new Jergens Face Powder. New Jergens Face Powder now on sale, $1.00abox; introductory sizes 25^ or 1(M. Name _ Street _ City_ . State. ♦JOHN WAYNE, STARRING IN "IN OLD CALIFORNIA," A REPUBLIC PRODUCTION 53