Beauty for Ashes Read Online Free PDF

off? You could at least take us over and get us settled in some nice, pleasant central place where we could take little trips off here and there, and then you could come back if you had to for a while. I thought we’d be able to get off by next week if you could. Of course there’ll be a few more clothes to buy since we must all go into black at least for a while.”
    Gloria looked up most unexpectedly and spoke. She had done very little speaking for the last few days. “I’m not going into mourning, Mother,” she said, “and I’m not going to Europe! The rest of you can go if you want to, but I’m not going!”
    “Why, Gloria, what on earth do you mean? Of course you’ll have to go into mourning! And why should you say you won’t go? You don’t realize what you’ll be up against if you try to stay here. Everybody in the town will be watching you and pitying you, and you can’t turn around but it will be in the paper. You’ve got to let this thing die down and be forgotten before you can comfortably live here.”
    “It doesn’t matter!” said Gloria indifferently. “I’m not going to Europe!”
    “But don’t you realize what you will be doing to your sister if you insist on staying here? Of course we couldn’t think of going off and leaving you behind as you suggest. How would that look? And poor Vanna would be as much tied down as you would. She would be under the shadow of your sorrow, don’t you see?”
    “Why couldn’t you and Vanna go to the seashore as you had intended?” said Gloria, giving her mother a pleading look.
    “And you stay here? What would people think of us for leaving you all alone?”
    “I could go somewhere but not to any places like that!” said the girl determinedly.
    Then her father spoke. “Where would you like to go, child?”
    Gloria lifted sorrowful eyes to his face. “I—hadn’t thought!” she said listlessly.
    “Hm! I guess you hadn’t!” sniffed her mother. “That’s just it! You hadn’t thought! You’re not used to thinking for yourself. I’ve always done it for you, and you’re not fit to begin planning for yourself now, I’m sure, not in this crisis.”
    “Wait a minute, Mother,” said her husband interrupting. “Daughter, tell me, what was your idea? What do you think you would like?”
    Gloria looked out the long french window down the terrace to the banks of blue and purple and rose and white hyacinths. Then her eyes brightened wistfully. “I’d like it if you and I could get in the car together and go somewhere riding for a while, away somewhere in a quiet place where most people don’t go. I’d like to go where there’s quiet—and woods and no crowds or social duties.”
    “We’ll do it!” said her father earnestly. “When can you be ready to start?”
    “Charles!” said his wife reprovingly. “Why will you encourage her in her crazy ideas? You know she’s not fit to decide now.”
    But Gloria’s eyes were on her father. “Oh,
today!”
she said eagerly. “I could get ready in an hour or so!”
    “Gloria!” said her mother. “You couldn’t possibly go anywhere today. You haven’t but two black dresses, and your things are not in order for a journey.”
    “I don’t need many things, and I don’t want any more new ones!” said the girl. “I’ve been doing nothing for the last year but buying clothes and trying them on and having them fitted, and this is one thing I don’t have to dress for. I’m only going to take along simple old things that I know I’ll be comfortable in, and I’m not going to take a single black dress along! It won’t take long to pack!”
    “Run along then and pack, Glory!” said her father. “I’ll phone down to the office and make arrangements to leave. We’ll start off somewhere around noon. Get the cook to put up some sandwiches for us, and we’ll eat them by the roadside.”
    “Charles! How plebeian!” exclaimed his wife. “Have you forgotten that every newspaper in this