The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1907-01-30
A GLORIFIED
AUNT JULIA.
BY Carroll Watson Rankin.

they expected, it contained two ready
made suits, one blue and one gray.
Eighteen-year-old Claudia seized the
gray jacket and slipped it on. Louise,
two years younger, wriggled into the
blue bolero.
Both garments fitted beautifully.
Aunt Julia Biddle, tall, large boned,
badly dressed woman, with a mild,
Hstless countenance, and Mrs. Biddle,
q small, alert, trinity clad little per-
son, with clear-cut features and sharp
black eyes, looked admiringly at the
two pretty, graceful girls.
why couldn't l." began Aunt
Julia, with sudden eagerness, but she
got no further.
Imagine Aunt Julia in an Alice
blue suit" interrupted Claudia, in
her shrill, thoughtless way.
Mercy" cried Louise. with
your figure, Aunt Julia, you couldn't
wear ready made clothes. They don't
make your kind"
Dear me, Julia" said Mrs. Biddle,
you've just had new dress that is
entirely suited to your age. hope
you're not thinking about another"
Aunt Julia, who had been thinking
about just that, gazed longingly at
the fashionable flare of the long blue
skirt and sighed. Her own skirts
did not flare. But she said nothing;
she never said great deal.
All her life she had been depend
ent on other people. Not for money,
because she had small but certain
income of her own, but for advice.
She had, seemingly, no conceit and
no self-confidence, and it had not oc-
Cured to the Biddles to help her gain
any. The prevalent opinion was that
Aunt Julia alone would be a ship
without a rudder.
Yet now that she was approaching
forty she sometimes rebelled inward
ly against her sister-in-law's vigorous
plotting.
She was realizing more and more
that she had never dressed according
to her own taste, but according to
Charlotte's, and never were tastes
more widely different. Yet Charlotte
was absolutely right in other matters
that it seemed impossible that she
could be wrong about clothes. For
twenty years she had resolutely
warned Julia away from the cheerful
stripes and gay plaids that attracted
that lady's admiring eye, and had
Imposed upon her more sober fab
RIGS. Charlotte meant we'll. She did
not dream that shehad not done we'll.
Even in her cradle Aunt Julia had
been contradiction. All her life
afterward she had been a curious
combination of youth and old age.
Her body seemed old for her years,
her mind seemed young. The bash
iulness that should have vanished
with Aunt Julia's girlhood fingered
10 middle age, and sat unbecomingly
on her large, stout frame. Late in
the eighties Hannah Dyson, the vii
<age seamstress, had drafted a pat
tern to fit Miss Biddle, and the fru-
gal, unprogressives seamstress was still
using notifications of the same pat
bern. e
There are four new pieces of silk
on Fuller's bargain counter" an
nounced Aunt Julia one forenoon on
her return from market "I'd like
waist from one of them - they're
good quality for the money-but l
dnn,f L. xxrhS
IF you like" offered Mrs. Biddle,
who was pinning on her hat, "the
girls and l will go right down with
you now, while the silks still there,
to help you pick it OUT
II like this lavender" said Aunt
Julia, when the quartet had reached
Fuller's. I've always liked that
brightest shade"
Mercy" cried Claudia. you'd
look like bride in it! Why, Aunt
Julia, the only piece that isn't too
young for you is that queer, dull
brown one."
Yes, Julia" said Mrs. Biddle,
firmly, that is certainly the most
suitable one. Brown is your color"
81 suppose it is" admitted Aunt
Julia, gazing with meek eyes, from
which the hopeful, lavender loving
lustre had faded, but it does seem
rs If ] had worn browns forever"
'But at your age and with your
hgure," said Mrs. Biddle, there isn't
much else.
A boy with telegram was ringing
the Biddle doorbell when Aunt Julia.
with the brown silk in a parcel under
her arm, returned home. The mes
sage was addressed to Miss Julia Bid
die.
Its from Cousin Harriet" ex-
planned Aunt Julia, who had torn it
open. "She wants me to stay with
her children while she goes East to
her father-in-law's funeral"
TITS fortunate that the telegram
came during banking hours" said
Mrs. Biddle. You'd better go after
what money you need while / pack
your trunk. If we all hurry we can
get you off on that / o'clock train.
1t goes straight through"
do you suppose it's safe," asked
Claudia, as the O'Clock train pulled
out of sight, Ito trust Aunt Julia