Love Out of Reach

Florence Allen and Catherine Carter were never serious about Nicholas Lind. They say so to Jonathan Quinn years afterwards, that the coldness had been put on to get a reaction out of him. Quinn took the two of them in as children after a plane crash orphaned them. He is a captain with a badge given for bringing a full plane down safely, and by the time the two women are grown both of them want to marry him. Nicholas Lind is a trainee pilot at the same airline. Florence and Catherine are caught behaving improperly with Nicholas on board a flight. Quinn covers for them and gives up the badge to keep the two of them clear of it, and they go on with Nicholas anyway. The first officer's post goes to him. He starts staying the night at Quinn's home, and the two women are affectionate with him in front of Quinn and stop caring what Quinn makes of it. Quinn puts together a birthday for them and they do not turn up, being out with Nicholas instead. He applies to the space agency and goes. He comes back three years later with Madeline Lake, an executive at the company who had wanted him before he left. Florence and Catherine bring him their explanation and he turns it down. Nicholas brings the two of them to Quinn's wedding to make a scene. What comes out there is that Nicholas ran Quinn off the road years earlier to clear his way with the two women, and Madeline has collected the evidence for it.