The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1912-11-02
Continued from Page 5
WE.

z. +
not arise; my wedding trousseau will
last good while. We shall not give
big dinners, because that would be
impossible in the little house we shall
take, with one servant to do all the
work, except washing. But we shall
ask people to dine by twos, perhaps
tours, so that we shall not be heavily
under dinner obligations. We shall
serve simple little dinners, of course,
with the cook as waitress-just soup,
roast, salad, and dessert, but it will
| be precisely within our means and
everybody will know it, and it will
be a good little dinner, we'll cooked
daintily served. | mean to make it
so home-like, so merry, that our guests
will remember it as the pleasantest
dinner of the year. Mother, everybody
is dead tired of the careless round of
functions I'm perfectly sure that if
some of us who can afford to live
complexly would have the courage of
right, and honestly give our friends
the simple kindness we could afford
not only the entertainers but the en-
tertained would be happier We are
going to give little parties, and are
going to serve the prettiest little
dainties we can devise, just handed
around, you know, as one waitress
and the hostess can manage them
not a supper, but delicious things.
And I'm sure everybody will vote our
parties delightful. If I know anything
about human nature, people are going
to applaud me as a sort of Marie An
toinnette at LIE Petit Trianon! | feel
talent for cooking sprouting in me
do talents sprout, wonder? 1t is to
be the right sort of life, the honest
one, motherums, and it will be in
teresting I want to see if girl that
has been made accomplished trained
to shine socially, can't hold her own
on small income and make an honest
little home a success, even from the
guests point of view Of course, that
isn't the main issue; the important
thing is that shall have Fred and he
will have me, and if we had to shut
out the whole world to gain each other
it would be the world we'll lost
Needless to say jeans mother
yielded, shaking her head over the
visionary folly, yet inwardly half con-
vinced that it was wisdom. And Jean
and I were married.
a prophetic chance that gave me the
name of Leavenworth to bestow upon
Jean, for if ever a girl proved in
marrying the worth of leaven it was
my wife We took a small house, and
we had this much advantage
jeans father paid the rent. Other
wise we might have had harder work
to triumph, though I have faith in
Jeans power to accomplish almost
anything. My father held to his word,
(but I knew jeans charm), and was
watching our experiment from the out
side with a pride in her and respect
for her that made it hard to keep.
The sense of his love and sympathy
was comforting.
When we returned from our October
wedding-journey we found numberless
invitations awaiting us. Jean decided
which of these to refuse, which to
accept; there were so many in the
1 first class that we both gloated over
the rare evenings that we were free
to spend together. But Jean pointed
out that we owed it to her mother
that we should be gay, like other
bridal pairs, and owed it to ourselves
and Jeans old friends not to drop out
selfishly.
In January Jean began entertaining
in her turn. She had been practicing
cooking, I discovered, in the mean
time, under the tuition of our accom-
plished colored woman, who admired
Jean while she treated her as the
best joke she had ever heard, and
petted her with that respectful free
dom which is combined only by the
good negro servant. Our house was
beautiful, as Jeans home would be
sure to be, and Jean had been clever
enough to choose the smaller house
out of the two offered us at the same
rent.
''It explains at once our asking few
at time, and it makes our little en-
tertainments in harmonious good
taste. They would look for1orn and
poverty-stricken in a big house. said
this clever young manager when we
rented the house.
Then Jean began to show the world
how honestly and prettily one could
live within small income. We had
small dinners of never more than
four guests, at which Jean would serve
one principal dish-for instance, a
perfect steak with mushrooms-fol.
lowed by cool salad and her mar
velous sherbets, with Violet's coffee
for dessert There was no mistaking
the pleasure of our guests in the
meal, seated in the dining-room with
it's browns and colds, and the old
mahogany which had been jeans
grandmother's. But most of all in the
beautiful hostess, radiant with joy
sparkling with wit, overdowing with
: pleasure in the home she was sharing
with people who rarely got as close
to the heart of life as our friends did
in this new household.
| When Jean asked people to spend
an evening it was not to play bridge
still less to dance, but she contrived
all sorts of games and frolics, and
the satiated people, young and old
whom she asked, enjoyed them az
4 4hor n1ain1u oni0vod 4he