The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-05-11
8444
CHAPTER xxI.-coNTINUED
The Diversion of Young MuIti.MlIIlon-

4 . j.. II I. i [. i
CHAPTER xxI.-coNTlNUED
The Diversion of Young Multi Mllllon-
Mrs Akemit was not only like st. Paul,
''all things to all men,, but she had gone |
a step beyond that excellent theologue.
She could be all things to one man. She
was light-heartedly frivolous, soberly re-
Elective, shallow, profound, cynical or
naive, ingenious or inscrutable. She priced
dearly the ecclesiastical background pro-
yided by her uncle. the bishop, and had him
to dine with the same unerrlng sense OF
artistry that led her to select swiftly the
becoming shade of sofa to put
her blond head back upon.
The good bishop believed she had jeop-
ardized her soul with divorce. He feared
now she meant to lose it irrevocably
thru remarriage. AS a foil to his aus
terity, therefore, she would be audaciously
gay in his presence.
''Hell,'' she said to him one evening,
'is given up so reluctantly by those who
don't expect to go there" And while the
bishop frowned into his salad, she IN
vited Percival to drink with her in the
manner Of woman who Is mad to invite
perdition. If the good man could have
beheld her before a background OF frivol-
ity he might have suffered less anxiety.
For there her sense of contrast-values led
her to be grave and deep, to express dis
taste for society with it's hollowness. and
to expose timidly the cruel scars on a soul
meant for higher things.
Many afternoons Percival drank tea
with her in the little red drawing-room
Of her dainty apartment up the avenue.
Here in the half light which she had pre-
ferred since 80, in a soft corner with
whichc she harmonized faultlessly and
where the blaze from the open fire col
ored her animated face just enough, she
oil e5 the glow a
conceit with himself. When she dwelt
upon the shortcomings Of man, she did 1t
with the air of frankly presum1ng him to
be different from all Others one who could
sympathize with her thur knowing the
frailties of her sex, yet one UNNECESSARILY
superior to them. When he was led to
talk of hinlself-of whom, it seemed, she
could never learn enough-he at once
came to take high views Of himself; to
gaze, thru her tactful prompting, with a
gentle purring appreciation upon the
manifest spectacle of his own worth.
Sometimes, away from her, he Won
dered how she did it. Sometimes, in her
very presence, his sense Of humor be-
came alert and suspicious. Part
of the time he decided her to be a
charming woman with depth
and quality of sweetness unguessed
by the world The rest of the time he
remembered a saying about alfalfa made
by Uncle Peter: Its an innocent lookin
trifin' vegetable, but it's roots go right
down into the ground hundred feet
s'My dear" Mrs Akemit had once con-
fided to an intimate in an hour of negligee,
''to meet a man, any man, from a red
checked butcher boy to a bloodless monk.
and not make him feel something new
for you-something he never before felt
for any other woman-really it's as Grim
inal as a wrinkled stocking, or for blondes
to wear shiny things. Every woman can
do it, if she'll study a little how to reduce
them to their least common derominator
how to make them primitive.
OF another member of Mrs. Akemit's
household Percival acknowledged the sway
with never a misgiving. He had been
the devoted lover of Baby Akemit from
the afternoon when he had first cajoled
her into autobiography vivid, fire.
tipped little thing with her mothers piqu.
ancy He CLEANED that day that she was
"a quarter to four years old;'' that SHE
was mama's girl. but papa was a friend o
Santa Claus: that she went to ''ball
dances every day clad in 'dest stir
cause big ladies don't ever wear WASTES
at night that she had once ridden in
homesick right here patting he
stomach; and that elephants are horrid
y but you mustn't be cruel to them and Gu
their eyes out. Oh, no!''
Her Percival courted with results tina
left nothing to be desired. She fell to tn
uOOT III nelDeSS, SnTlGklIlS 'lduSnLeT Wnel
he came. In his honor she composed an
sang songs to an improvsed and spirite
accompaniment upon her top piano. Hi
favorites among these were ''Cause VIII
II Love YOU and Darling, Ask Myself
Come to YOU She rendered them wit
much feeling. If he were present whe
her bedtime came she refused to slice
until he had consented to an interview
Il Avice Milbrey had the fortune to wit
ness one Of these bedtime causeries. On
late afternoon the young mans summon
came while he was one of a group the
fingered late about Mrs. Akemit's lit
ea-table, Miss Milbrey being Of the nun
Der.
He followed the maid dutifuily out thr
the hall to the door of the bedroom, an
entered on all-fours with what they tN
had agreed was the growl of a famishe
bear.
The familiar. performance was viewed /
the mother and by Miss Milbrey, who
the mother had urged to follow. Bal
Akemit in her crib. n1odestly arrayed
blue pajamas. after Stimulating the e,
IRENE terror required by the situatio
fell to chatting, while her mother and Mi
Milbrey looked ON from the doorway. S
Miss Akenait had once been out in tt
woods 1t appeared, and biting vol
shased her, and she ran and ran until 81
81 came to a river all full of pigs and fish
and berries, so she jumped in and HI
supper, and it wasn't a 'biting- wolf''
sg all-and then
But the narrative was cut short by h
mother.
"Come, Pet! Mr.. Bines wishes to {
oovUl''