The Newark star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1909, 1909-07-02
Copyright 1908.
The Bobbs-Merrill Company.
CHAPTER |.
1 Take a Country House.

TT HIS is the story of how a mldaie-
aged spinster lost her mind, de-
serted her domestic gods in the
city, took a furnished house for the
summer out of town, and oun herself
involved in one of those mysterious
crimes that keep our newspapers and
detective agencies happy and pros
porous. Fol twenty years l had been
perfectly comfortable; for twenty years
I had had the window-boxes fill d in
the spring, the carpets lifted, the
awnings put up and the furniture COW
cred with brown linen; for as many
summers l had said good-by to my
friends, and, after watching their per-
spring hegira, had settled down to a
delicious quiet in town, where the mail
comes three times a day and the water
supply does not depend on q IN Oh
the roof.
And then-the madness seized me.
When l look back over the months l
spent at Sunnyside, l wonder that 1
survived at all. AS it is, I show the
wea- and tear of my narrowing expert
ences. l have turned very gray-Liddy
reminded me of it only yesterday by
saying that a little bluing in the rinse
water would make my hair silvery, in
stead of>yellowish white. I hate to be
reminded of unpleasant things, and I
snapped her off.
NO" / said sharply, I'm not going
to use bluing at my time of life, or
starch, either
Liddy's nerves are gone, she says,
since that awful summer, but she has
enough left, goodness lnows! And
: When she begins TO go around with a
lump in her throat, all J. have to do Is
20 threaten to return to .Sunnyside, and
n Is frightened into a semblance OF
cheerfulness- from which YOU : may
q that the summer there was. any
thing but a success.
me newspaper accounts have been so
Aarpied ard incomplete-one of them
inentloned ME but once, and Their only
os the tenant at the time the thing han
pchsa-lnat l feel it my due to roll
what l know. Mr.. Jameson. the de-
.eetlVe, said himself he could never
nave lone without me, although he
gave me little enough credit In print.
shaI have to go back several wear PC
Nlhifteen, to be exactAto start NV
s'ory. AT that time my brother died
ieaVing me his two children. Halsey
was eievcn then, and Gertrude was
seven All the responsibilities of ma
ternify were thrust upon me suddenly.
10 perfect the profession of mother
mood requires precisely as many years
as the child has lived, like the man
VINO started, to carry the calf and end
ed oy walking along With the bull on
MS shoulders. However, / did the
best l could. When Gertrude got past
n hair-ribbon age and Halsey
asked for a scarfpin and put on long
.trousers1ia and a wonderful help that
was to the darninglAI sent them away
to good schools. After that my re-
sponsibility was chiefly postal. with
three months every summer In which
to replenish their wardrobes, look over
their lists of ac~quaintances and GEN
orally to take my foster-motherhood
out OF It's nine months retirement in
camphor.
I missed the summers with them
= when, somewhat later, at boarding
school and colleges the children spent
much of their vacations with friends.
Gradually I found that my name signed
to a check was even more welcome
than when signed to a letter. though I
wrote them at stated intervals. But
AiutSCy AdQ llillSIeQ HIS ELECTRICAL
course and Gertrude her. boarding
school and both came home to stay
things were suddenly changed. The
winter Gertrude came out was nothing
but a succession of sitting up late at
night to bring her home from things,
taking her to the. dressmaker's be-
tween laps the next day, and dis
c~ouraging ineligible youths withaeither
mora ~, ~, ~ flar .o&-. ----
brains thar money. Also, I acquired
a great many things: to say lingerie
for under-garments, ''frocks' and
gowns" instead of dresses, and that
beardless sophomores are not college
boys, but college men. Halsey re-
CURED less personal, supervision, and
as they both got their mothers fortune
that winter, my responsibility became
purely moral. Halsey bought q car,
Of course, and 1 learned how to tie over
Z my bonnet a gray baize veil, and after
a time, never to stop to look at the
dogs one has run down. People are
apt to be so unpleasant about their
dogs.
The additions to my education made
me a properly equipped maiden aunt,
and. by spring l was quite tractable.
So when Halsey suggested camping in
the Adirondacks and Gertrude wanted
Bar Harbor we compromised on a good
country house with inks near, within
motor distance of town and telephone
distance Of the doctor. That was how
we went II S~nnIyside.
We wentfout to inspect the property
and it seeraed. to deserve its name, It's
cheerful aiPearan ce gave no indication
txx,6 q faxes II 49, ~ hipn oft lof the or