The San Francisco call., 1906-06-10

go, for these friends, the Atterburys,
were very dear ones, and they were
going far away, and this would be
the last chance for long to spend an
Cutting says, dinner party in the
city is to the suburbsnite one of the
superlative blisses
SO Anita hurried and fiurried caught
the later train and crossed the ferry.
AS bad luck would have it, she was
again delayed, and her husband and
their friends had ceased to wait for
her, believing she was not coming.
Then. in her distress she meets some
seInicold and wholly naughty ac-
quaintances, the Worthin gtons, who
agree to escort her to the restaurant
where she believes she will find her
friends dining They are not at the
place, and Anita. in her excitement.
repeats so often that she "is 1ookin g
for her husband some smiling suspi-
cion is created by her eager hunt for
her consort 40 that time of the night.
And this is only the beginning of en-
barrassments.
The author tells it so that we can al
most feel the flush in the face of the
distracted lady, and her rapidly null
tiplying worries actually almost get
on our own nerves as vexation is
added to yexation. The Worthingtons
invite Anita to go with them to the
theater, and> she accepts, as there
seems no sensible alternative. The
only thing she enjoys at the play is
the last fall of the curtain, which is
the hoped signal for her to hurry
home to her husband and her baby
Harold, before the night grows out
rageously late. But the Worthing-
tons meet friends at the theater door
who invite them, to supper and they
accept, and Anita must go with them
At last they hurry for their boat
Again calamity. THE supreme stroke
of suburban fate had befallen them
they had missed the last boat
The story closes prettily and anus
ingly with the account of the hus-
bands combination of love and happi-
ness and rage when. at an awful hour
of the night. he finds his wife. In the
confusion of changing cars she had
lost track of her escorts, the Worth
ingtons, and, the last car gone. she
was left alone in front of a gin shor
at three O'Clock in the morning. There
her husband finds her.
"He took a swift look up and dowr
| the empty, lifeless street, laid out
straight and stiff in the cold. fainf
/ glimmer of the dawn. and then his lipi
edgment of the joy, and of the sor-
row, to which all love is boFn--one OF
4 those moments stolen in its beautiful
! ness from the life to come"
A very pretty tale is "The Madonna
/ of the Toys We see~a group of girls
! planning Christmas for their father
| in-law, an old and much-loved mem
| Der of the family. 1t is difficult to ge
him something both suitable and diff
ferent this Christmas, and the young
/ women are at their wits end. Violet
the youngest of these, she who is tn,
Madonna of the Toys"-a girl witt
reddish hair and pretty. long-lashe,
/ eves"-has to hurry away before th
! discussion was ended.
She ran down the hall. looking il
at an open doorway to call an auda
! cious last tag!' to tall old mar
who sat there reading. and receive hi
| quick, amused RESPONSE before sh
went swiftly homeward.
"Violet's appointment with the bab.
was very important indeed. As sh
I sat there afterward in the darkeneS
nursery. with the infants little down.
/ head against her warm breast, he
thoughts went back to grandfather.
She puzzled over the question of
Christmas gift for him. 1T seeme
dreadful to be so old that you werer'
supposed to want anything anybod
else did"
1t is in the toy shop, afterward
I that the suggestion comes to 9Th
Madonna of the Toys as to what {
give grandfather She strikes up a.
acouaintance with little boy of eigh
| who il picking out toys and confide
her trouble to his ear. The little fel
low understands her when she tell
Il him that an old man is also a boy
Then the child cries out, Il like yot