Promises Read Online Free PDF Page A

in the barbecue pit, and near the picnic table a pair of squirrels foraged for crumbs from the anniversary cake, while under the table the dogs lay sleeping off their dinner. From the farthest edge of the yard, past the garden where tomato plants throve and peas had climbed halfway up the poles, came the cheerful click of croquet balls. Nina, home for vacation, was having a game with Adam and the children.
    Margaret, surveying this intimate little world, searching as usual for just the right word to describe it, could find nothing more apt than
cozy.
    “Adam looks well,” remarked Cousin Louise, “not a minute older than on your wedding day.”
    It was true. His sandy hair was as thick as it had been, his slight stoop was no more pronounced than ithad been fifteen years ago, and in Margaret’s mind the word for him was still
elegant.
    “How about Margaret?” asked Cousin Gilbert. “Margaret will never grow old.”
    He and Louise bore out the rather silly saying that long-married couples begin to resemble each other; they were both comfortably padded, with florid cheeks and friendly temperaments, talkative, and kindly.
    “Margaret will have her beauty when she is eighty,” observed Fred Davis, with his pale blue eyes going grave and thoughtful.
    “Oh, I shall be covered with freckles by then,” said Margaret, regarding the sprinkle on her white arms. “So far, thank goodness and thanks to big hats, my face has been spared.”
    She was feeling a pure, light calmness. This was one of those blessed moments in which all the strands of life seem to come properly together, to fit and weave. Fifteen years! Now, looking up at the old roof that sheltered them all, herself and Adam with Megan, Julie, and Danny, she made the impossible wish: that life might always be as it was this minute.
    “Do you by any chance want to part with this puppy?” asked Fred, who had taken the mongrel pup on his lap and was stroking its head.
    “I think I have some people who’ll give it a home. Why? You don’t want a dog, do you?”
    “You know, I think I do. The house has developed echoes since I lost Denise last year. At first I was glad that she hadn’t left children to grow up without a mother, but now I wish she had.” And as if to himself he repeated, “The house has echoes. My own footsteps are too loud.”
    There were sounds of sympathy from Louise. And Margaret said, “I’ll find a dog for you. Ever since I made that contact with the pound the time I found the sick collie abandoned on the road, they’ve kept calling me, two or three times a month, to find homes. So far I’ve been lucky. I’m sure a nice, man-sized dog will be turning up.”
    “No, this one suits me fine, if I may have it. He’s small enough to ride along wherever I go and to sit in the office with me.”
    The little animal and the tall, powerful man were incongruous, although Fred’s hands and his mild eyes were very gentle. There was something touching about him since he had become a widower. He was only five years older than Adam, but he looked older than that. His firm, square face could take on a wistful look. He had always been something of a neighborhood older brother to the boy Adam, and was now one of the few people whose informal visits were at all welcome to Adam.
    “He’s lonesome,” she had remarked more than once. “He really needs to be married again.”
    And Adam in joking mood replied, “He’s waiting for you.” And she in joking mood answered, “Why? Are you planning to divorce me, or to kill yourself? Which is it?”
    “He’s yours,” she said now. “His name is Jimmy, unless you want to change it.”
    “Jimmy will do.” And again the pale eyes regarded Margaret with that thoughtful, grave expression.
    “I must ask Adam how he marinates the meat,” Louise said briskly, changing the mood. “I was looking atyour spice shelf before. You have things that I never heard of.”
    Margaret smiled. “Whenever we travel, we go