The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1907-01-08
A GLORIFIED
AUNT JULIA.
By Carroll Watson Rankin.

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,
listless countenance, and Mrs. Biddle,
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 r." began Aunt
Julia, with sudden eagerness, but she
got no further.
Imagine Aunt Julia in an Alice
blue suiti" 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. l 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 ship
without rudder.
Yet now that she was approaching
forty she sometimes rebelled inward
ly against her sister-in-laws 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 well. She did
not dream that she had not done we'll
Even in her cradle Aunt Julia had
been contradiction. All her life
afterward she had been curious
combination of youth and old age.
Her body seemed old for her years.
her mind seemed young. The bash
fitness that should have vanished
with Aunt Julia's girlhood fingered
to middle age, and sat unbecomingly
on her large, stout frame. Late in
the eighties Hannah Dyson, the viii
lage seamstress, had drafted a nat
tern to fit Miss Biddle, and the fru-
gal, unprogressives eamstress was still
using notifications of the same pat
tern.
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 a
waist from one of them - they're
good quality for the money-but I
don't know which would"
II you like" offered Mrs. Biddle.
who was pinning on her hat, 1.-The
girls and ! will go right down with
you now, while the silks still there,
to help you pick it out"
Il like this lavender said Aunt
Julia, when the quartet had reached
Fuller's. Eve always liked that
brightest shade"
Mercy" cried Claudia. 'You d
look like a 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"
~ suppose it is, admitted Aunt
Julia, gazing with meek eyes, from
which the hopeful, lavender loving
lustre had faded, but it does seem
as If I had worn browns forever
But at your age and with your
figure" said Mrs, Biddle, there ism 4
much else.
A boy with telegram was ringing
the Biddle doorbell when Aunt Julia'
with the brown silk in 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"
It's fortunate that the telegram
came during banking hours" said
Mrs. Biddle. You'd better go after
what moneyNyou need while 1 pack
your trunk. II 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
alone in city of shops? noticed
that she pinned some bank bills in
side her bodice. With no one to head
her in the right direction she'll prob
ably buy herself some outrageous
clothes. I've notice lately that she
leans toward gorgeousness."
Large persons" said Louise, with
the wisdom of sixteen, have to dress
quietly or they look like rights.
She'll probably come home with
green naras0ts and rrrr,la s,lo.,,, ),