The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1901-10-19

Down of Canterham
liThere were four of the Broadley girls
+ tiGwendolen, Lucy Janet and The Worm
Hwho had been christened Alexandra).
GWendolen was twenty-four, had dreamy
eyes and mystic warnings, kept a; shelf
OF Coreili romances at the head OF her
bed and belonged to a club of spiritual
ellinlIles. There were twenty male, bacn-
elor members, and twenty unmarried
feminine ones. But as new subscribers
were constantly dropping in and old ones
as constantly dropping out and spiritual
~ welded souls Were continually clipping
with fresh afinities, the club was SUBJ
iect to upheaxals - -, 49,
aLucy, the second Broadley girl, was
Rthletic, a confirmed bicyclists and a cro-
auet maniac of the new school.
i3Janet had a mysterious complaint
which threatened to cut her Off in the
Hover of her youth. l say Threatened
because she had never been known to
have a days illness since her ninth year,
when she suffered from measles with
Fhocolat-nougat complications. However,
on some authority, the complaint was
there. Even Janet did not know it's exact
mature, but it was a valued possession
One gives lip things to q sister who may
be snatched from one before one knows
1t. Three had to do this and Janet would
not have parted with her melancholy
distinction for worlds. AT half-pasts g it
schoolroom fowl and the biggest orange.
AT nineteen and three-quarters 1t meant
the smartest hat the. lefthand seat in
dhe victoria facing the horses--Giwen-
dolen and Lucy being consigned to the
shelf of martyrdOm despite their senior
ity-and the best of everything that hap
pened to be going generally.
'Evw ybody must wun eW waGl(ls for
Janet" said the sixteen-year-old young
est Broadley, to whose personality had
become attached, in some unexplained
way, the hideous nickname under which
she figures in this story. IS. -.
1t was at the fag end. of a long and
tatiguing day spent in the observance
of Janets commands ''If you don't do
what she wants, she thweatens to bweak
a blood vessel. She never does bweak
one (The Worms RS were conspicu-
ous by their ABSENCE. but you don't
want to be made murdeWess--and SO
you do II. But one of these days l shall
stWike, and then!"--
The nod of The Worm was pregnant
with meaning ~ - ~
The Worm. I have said. had been
christened Alexandra, which perhaps
was felt to be too long and stately a
name for home consumption. She was
"a tall, slim creature, with a Shetland
pony S fOrelock, and tossing name CT
chestnut hair; very wide open gray blue
eyes, "a tip-tilted nose and freckles. Her
leCs grew longer every day, her eyes
sToundcr and her frocks shorter, de-
spite the efforts Of Simmons, the sew
ing maid, who consumed her existence
in letting down tucks and applying sup
Elementary hens. The Worms education.
(Which The Worm insisted had never
Eomnencede was now supposed to be
complete. Only the German professor
of music and the young Swiss lady from
whom The Worm imbibed instruction,
in the French and Italian languages re-
manned to be swept away. ..-
And then she must come out!'' said
Mrs. Broadley, looking appealingly upon
her family. 49,. -tr
"Oh, mother" cried Gwendolen. =
"Oh. rnother!' exclaimed Lucy Be- . "a
"Oh, mother! murmured Janet, clos
ing the finished second volume of the
last new Nude, and taking the third out
of Mrs. Broadley's unresisting hand
My loves, my pet. it must be done"
said the anxious mother. 1.-The child
grows taller every day: she has a per-
feet scorn for companions of her own
age, and spends her time in pursuits
which cannot but render her unfeminine
when she becomes a woman Your
father is delighted with her tandem
driving, and the way in which she lands
"a trout; but I cannot bable of these
things. TO me they are doubtful &C
accomplishments, in spite of all your faith
er says to the contrary. Though he IS
less pleased that she has been. bitten
with some theories about the sanitary
housing of the working classes, picked
up out of illustrated paper, because it
mas cost him GA in relaying the gar
dener's drains. When Escott could
produce member of the family who
had actually smelt them, there was no
sgetting out of it, OF course it is the
effervescence of an expanding nature,
and, therefore, if the child is to develop
alarmlesSly, she must be given room. L
cannot have an original uncomfortable
daughter on my hands, with spectacles
and cropped hair. perhaps, and sporting
pr socialistic tendencies. And, therefore,
dears''- ..%# ~
Therefore The Worm is, from hence
FORTH to accompany us OH social cam
paigns" said Gwendolen, resignedly.
land make it five in the brougham,'
Lucy added "where there are evening
frocks to cruchv
At wonder how father will like having
no hat, gown, glove and shoe four party.
going daughters" said Janet. Her smile
was wan and sanity, and Mrs. Broadle9
met it with foreboding. "As 1t is, we are
a terrible expense to him; aud when al
his tenants clamoring for lowered
rents it makes me feel quite i'll to thinl
of it, ~.
MY own!' exclaimed her startled mo
fher. you must not brood upon thest
things. 1t is not good for YOU
zone cannt always remember one
!. SELF said Janet. reaching for another
cushion for~her head. lone must some
times think of. others And it would have
been better for father, YOU know
would if Gwendolen and Lucy had beel
born boys They could have volunteers,
for South Africa and got commission
and Victoria crosses aud things, and re
lieved their family Of the burden c
their maintenance"
"a '.By getting shot with Mauser bullet
or poisoned with bad water! breathe
the mother. Thank heaven none OF m,
daughters were sonsn> she added piousl5
well, it is settled, 4 suppose, sac
Gwendolen, unamiably. The Worn
comes OUT"
''Alexandra must make her debut il
4 society," rejoined Alexandrais mother
& with some show of firmness. And as {
A beginning let me beg you. dears, to aban
y don the use of that hideous nickname
I cannot think how it ever came init
a use"
Il remember. 1t was when she wa.
thing, said Janet, ..and Reggy Stand
! dsh, who was then at Harrow spent tn
midsummer holidays with us. He chris
tened fler The 3Worm-and it has stuck
4 II will not have my child's prospect
in life 5eopardized by a somebody's vul
! garHy,' said the gentle Mrs Broadley
j bristling. And if when he again visit
= here. should he endeavor to revive Til,
n Ese of the term. I shall expect you t
a check him.
"A Master Reggy is with the Orang
"a Hussars in South Africa said Gwen
81 dolen. teasing the Persian kitten by dust
q sng its pert little face with the end OF 1T
ibushy tail. why should lie occur TO 70,
4 as a likely visitor? ~