Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-07-28


involuntary as it immediate. She did not
reason her instructive revulsion from the hot damp
air and bhstering pavements; from the clangor OF
the surface car bells; from the heavy runblng of
wilderness of trucks; the ncessant coarse callings
of the cabmen and the shr shrieks of newsboys,-
any more than one pases to consider why he starts
back at the opening of furnace door.
That she would feel strangely confused and help
less arriving in New York with neither her husband
nor her son to meet her, or her maid to guide and
minister to her wants, she had realized before she
had got as far from Narragansett Pier as Wexford
Junction. But the of the morning had so be-
nunbed her, in its sudden shock, that every thought
of comfort convenience had been swept into lnslg
nlhCanCe by the one vital purpose: to reach New
York at the earliest moment and discover what
could be done for Arthur. Her head was throbbing.
1t had seemed to beat time to the chugging of the
train. Soon, to the tune of the rolling rumble,
words had seemed to form sort of hdeous song
that had hundred verses, each disheartening re-
petition of the one before Only twice had her one
great thought broken into minor thoughts. And
the deviations had resulted rather from unthnking
impulses than deliberate intentions.
At Wexford with the same vague instinct that
had made her feel rather than see that of her
Narragansett friends was on the train, she lowered
her veil lest some from Newport might enter the
car and speak to her. Then when the train had
started again she laughed to herself at the absurdity
of the thought that anyone of her acquaintance
might be going toward town on Friday afternoon
in August She put back her veil to refresh herself
with Whit of the fresh country breeze AS she
raised the chiffon, she was shocked to in the
little, narrow mirror set in the side of the car how
old she looked. A misty procession passed before
her of women of her set from whom great grief or
a shock like hers had stripped the mask of youth,
long deity preserved and foStered She startled
at the realization that of sudden she looked the
full fifty years of her life. But it not separate
thought, leading to plans for restoration by rest
and prudent artihce of the marvelously youthful
appearance that had been her pride; but rather
part of the great whole of her sudden sorrow and
disgrace.
chiffon, although she realized, in numb throbbing
sort OF way that there was even less for the
precaution than at Wexford 1t was the conductors
calling of the college cltys name that had startled
her into the action. New Haven meant Yale to Mrs.
Morton, and impulse to avoid possible recognition
by friend of Arthur surpri sed her into the rdicu
lous concealment. The impulse too sudden and
unreasoning to consider the vacation season, any
than included thought of the two years since
Arthur graduation His classmates were, of course,
scattered far and wide the roads of their several
llves,-and to what had her sons led hn
The first shock, upon reading in the morning paper
of Arthurs marriage, to her again and again,
but with dimnuton of its bitterness through re-
petition, The first thought had been that the
paper must be hidden; and then that her daughter
should be fastened across the bay to jamestown,
where secluson in her aunts cottage would keep her
from knowledge of the scandal and from the eyes of
gossiplng observers. That done, nothing but the
thought occupied the mother. That her son had
married girl from a comic opera chorus the
fact; that he must be extricated from the alliance
was the purpose The newspaper had given her little
information when she had felt able to remove
her eyes from the appalling heading to the subse-
quent account That the girl very young and
a novice to the stage was mentioned; that Arthur
Maturin Morton had watched her in The Belle of
Broadway" from the seat in the front
every evening since the Extravaganza first night
in June, was dwelt upon with relish Her parentage
was not referred to; but full half column given
to his ancestry and opulent expectations, to his
fathers prominence in the business world, and his
mothers influence in fashionable society;
reference included to the dinner dance at which
his sister had made her debut, in the preceding
January.
The jostlng stream of tired men, Fastening to the
traI To he and tbec