Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1895-03-14
A WELL-GROOMED WOMAN.

A WELLGROOMED WOMAN.
"H'm!"
Mr.. Fenton put down his evening
paper and regarded his wife with a
sigh. She sat ON the other side of the
table, mending her way through a pile
of stockings mountain high; a plump,
little WOman of 40, none too trig in
figure, decidedly ruffied as to hair, but
with a merry twinkle in her blue eyes
and motherliness expressed in every
line of her comfortable person.
"Well?" said she, looking I'D. feeling
with sinking at the heart that some
new complication had come up in the
financial situation, and that she was
about to be treated to views of bi-
metalliSm. adding to the feminine
mind. But no. Her lord and master
had been led into a very different
train of Thought.
ITS nearly fifteen years that we
have been married, Mary" lie unused,
remembering as lie spoke that in all
that time he had hardly ever before
scrutjQized her with such a critical
gaze.
"Tel 1T not in Gath!'' she laughed.
I'm growing Old, but let us keep it a
secret in the family as long as we
can"
Yes, YOU have cnanged-we have
both changed. What q vain little
chatterbOX you used to bei'
"'VOX ct praeterna nihil' expressed
mo i'm those IorC Now GSoaJ,, -
praeterea nihil' would be more like it."
cried Mrs. Fenton gay!y, with a flour
ish Of her darning needle at the work
basket. and as for vanity! Bless my
heart! | should like TO know when I
have had time to be vain!'
II ann afraid you are getting a little
careless, my dear her husband OBJ
served, congratulatirg himself on hav-
ing so easily led up to the discussion
ne wanted. sometimes it has struck
me that YOU were almost untidy. and
that's a sad mistake for a woman. If
she has the air of being we'll groomed.
she possesses a very great charm"
Mr.. Fenton wore prodigious WhiskerS,
Dundreary-likn, and they hid a blush
which rose to his face at the conscious
ness that he was quoting the newS-
paper article verbatim ct literatim.
But his wife had no such protection.
and the rich color visibly dyed her
very brow. To be called untidy is a
cruel stab from ones better half. but
she restrained the Indignation on her
lips and tried to ask quite calmly:
"WhOm should you call a particularly
we'll groomed woman, now? or
course, | suppose there are 800 of them
in the four hundred, but among orr
noighbors? 1t would help me to find
Il model, you know"
There had been moments in their
welded career when Mr.. Fenton had
felt that the workings of a feminine
intellect were quite beyond him. and
this was another of them. At what
was Mary driving? 1t was impossible
to suspect her of jealousy, for from
that faint her sweet nature was ahsO-
lutely free. SO. rather in the dark, he
replied heIplesSly:
"Um-ah. Well. Mrs. Van Dusen.
now. She always See.rS to NE what
you would term we'll groomed-a fine
hSdlF VI Il No'lAii anu ulESScS plISutN
Well"
Mrs Van DuSeh spends $1,000 a
year for dress where I spend. perhaps,
$3.50. She buys her f-ure from an ex-
pensive corset maker, but it is useless
to mention that to a man. She has no
children, three servants. and nothing
to think of but fixing herself up. I am
no complaining. James, dear. You re-
IN amber you brought up the subject
Yourself. but when you compare me
with Robert Van Dusen's wife yor
should consider the difference in our
circumstances. I have many. many
cares and my days are full to the
brim."
The rough head bent over the hole
which was being filled with careful
lattice-work of black yarn. and the
needle went in and out steadily. II
the members eyes were dim. nobody
noticed it.
"But it takes very little time to keer
ones self in neatness and order. Just
hear this, now. my dear. A very good
article, very sensible, too"
The eloquence of Cicero. the rounded
periods of a Junius would not have
moved Mary Fenton at that moment
1t took all her wits to keep down the
bitterness in her heart. Without wait
ing for encouragement, her husband
read ON:
1.-The who has an air o.
being well groomed has a very grea.
charm for all men, CHe skipped thi:
sentence. Why expose the writer to
charge of plagiarism0 Really. ladies
you should at least try the experiment
and may we'll devote a little time eacl
day to the cultivation of exquisite per