The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1907-02-05
Der Brilliant
failure
BY Katherine LesOis
Copyright, 1905, by NJ. M. Cunningham

Copyright, 1905, by NJ. NJ. Cunningham
With chin uplifted and lips firmly
compressed, Margaret advanced to
meet fate.
Fate in this particular instance was
represented by Margaret's father,
self opinionated, self made man with
a grievance. Margaret realized fully
that she was a factor in the grievance.
Her three sisters constituted the re-
naming factors.
John Leckie felt that he had been
played a scurvy trick when, having
| proved that he could surmOunt obsta-
cles before which the average man fell
back dismayed and could rise from
nameless, penniless obscurity to a posi-
ton of power if not popularity among
men and affairs, nature had sent him
daughters instead of sons. His wife
had died of very shame for having
failed so signally to fulfill her duty in
this respect.
The eldest daughter had tried to ex-
plate her mothers offenses by enter
ing her fathers Office as bookkeeper
Today she ranked as his right hand
man. She wore mannish clothes, too.
and talked shop with her father from
soup to coffee and was tremendously
bored when her sisters proposed enter
tanning few friends at dinner
The second daughter had chosen art
aHd mas opened small studio in
western city. Anything, In her estima-
ton, was preferable to being told
whenever she met her father that If
she had been a man she might have
built iron bridges instead of air castles
in art.
One thing John Leckie had done-he
had given them the best educational
advantages money could buy, and then
he had said, Now go out and do
things"
Margaret, fresh from the trip abroad
which Leckie considered the essential
finishing touch of girls education,
knew that she would be expected to
"do things" Her father had given her
time to unpack her trunks, to call on
her few relatives and the intimate fam
lily friends and to recover her equiIib-
| rum, so to speak Now, when he sent
| for her to join him in the library, she
knew what his question would be. Nor
was her surmise incorrect.
John Leckie leaned back in his UNI
tufted leather chair and stared frankly
at the tall, slender girl, who from some
unknown and far distant ancestor had
inherited grace almost patrician.
"Sit down, Margaret. I've spent a
good many thousand dollars on your
education. What d'you expect to do
with it?"
II think l shall take charge of the
house, she said, calm, without quak-
ing within.
Take charge of the house?' echoed
her father harshly II pay Mrs. Jen-
kins to do that
"And the whole house looks as If 1t |
were handled by hireling," replied
Margaret, meeting his angry gaze
without f1inching. Bought! Hired
The words are stamped all over the |
place. We have no home life, no home
atmosphere and 1 want to make things
more pleasant, more like some of the
homes in which have visited think
that is my forte"
A deep purple flush mounted to Lee
kie's forehead, and his fist came down |
on the table with ringing thump.
$50, after all the money I've spent |
on you, after all the plans I've made |
for my girls to take a place in the
world as good as their father made for |
himself, you have no bigger ambition
than to mend socks and bake pies |
That will add to the luster of our fam
lily name, won't it?"
Margaret bit her lip. Leckie had |
spoken as If the name had been handed |
down through ten generations instead |
of-one.
"Now, see here! That gag doesn't go.
You're going to do something! Think
of your sister Harriet
Margaret did think, and then she al
most shuddered. She remembered |
Harriet's untldy room, some cigarette
stubs she had seen lying on the unpol |
ished brass tray Harriet had said that |
after the long day in the Office she
simply had to smoke to quiet her |
nerves
Harriet is credit to her father.
Men down street call her wonder. |
And you want to mend socks! Good |
heavens! Say, do you think you could |
sell goods? I'll start you in millinery
shop-a lot of society women are going |
in for that sort of thing-or tea |
room, if you like. But you've got to
do something
Margaret rose and half timidly laid |
her arm around her fathers thick neck.
Father, dear, I'd so much rather
just make tea for you and your few
friends. Perhaps we might have more
friends IT,
He flung aside the encircling arm.
"Now, see here, you're not going to
sit back on your launches and do moth |
ing just because | have money. You've |
got to make name for yourself at |
something" He was brutal now in his |
disappointment IF you can't do any |
thing else you can teach. | know |
man; helped him out of tight place |
about three months ago; name is Gray |
don. He lives somewhere out in West |
chester county and Is on the school |
board. He has pull enough to get you
job at teaching out there and you
can try your hand at that. If you
can't earn five hundred a year giving |
out some of the education that | paid |
about five thousand a year for, you
you're disgrace to the family. I'll |
see Graydon In the morning. School /
must open out there in week or So
He bent over his desk as if the sub |
ject were closed. Margaret paused in |
the doorway Her face was very |
white. Her eyes burned like red stars |
In the gloom of the curtained doorway. |
"I'll do what you say of course, ia |
ther but | warn you in advance that |
| will be failure. l was not meant |
for that sort of thing
Her father flung back his big head |
and stared at her.
perhaps you think you were born
10 play a lady, but will fool you. You /
don't come from that sort of stock"
And so it happened that Margaret |
Leckie was placed in charge of dis
trict school No. 16 The one redeem
Ing feature of her new position was I
the long walk to and from the depot, |
for she committed daily rather than
take board In the small village |
around which homes of milllonaires |
were clustered. These long walks |