The Washington herald., 1913-11-16
Fables of Everyday Life
The woman-who-Is-A

thusiasm, for every guest present had
been soreIy tried by The-Woman-who-
| Is-Always-Late. In addition to which
| each guest expressed the very firm de-
termination Of leaving her out when they
gave a party during the winter.
And so it was that one avenue to the
social pleasures of -Who-Is-
Always-Late was closed, not because her
friends are not exceedingly ford OF her,
but because her reconsideration of them
is intolerable.
The Successful -Business-Man came
home one night with a glad surprise
: for The-Little- Woman who companions
him along Hfe's way. The drama which
she had most wanted to see was at
last announced for a local engage
hutter of pleasurable excitement they
took a mental inventory of their
closest friends in an effort to decide
who should be their guests for the
| evening.
I'D like mighty well to invite Nor
rison," he told The-Little-woman with
hesitancy in his tone which she quite
well understood. do you think Nan
could be persuaded to be on timer" he
questioned.
! Have you ever known II to happen?''
came the answer.
1t did not take a deal of thinking
| to bring to his remembrance the sew
eral times when he and The-Little-
Woman had included the Morrisons in
| their theater parties, and he had to
confess that each time The-woman-
| Who Is-Always-Late (known to her
friends as Nan Morrison), had kept the
entire party waiting in the lobby of
the theater until the first act of the
play was half over.
And this was the memory which de-
cided the Successful -Business-Ma and
The-Little-Woman never again to in
vite The-Woman-Who-I -Is-Always-Late
to anything in which she would have a
chance to mar the pleasure of other
guests by her tardiness.
1t was late in the season. The
Woman Who Is s-Always-Late had grad
ually awakened to a realization that
her invitations were few and far be-
tween. She had not been invited to a
single bridge party; seldom been given
| theater invitation and more rarely
been included in dinner party, and
she was much depressed.
OF course il never occurred to her to
attribute the cause of her ostracism to
any fault in herself. Folk who are in
considerate of the rights of others are
more than passing dense concerning the
! quality Of their own great selfishness,
and so 1t was that The-Woman-Who-Is-
Always-Late wondered, and wondered,
and wondered what could be the matter.
1t came about that an out-of-town
! friend came to visit her. and The-Woman-
Who-Is-Always-Late put her pride in her
pocket and invited the young matrons
of her set, especially those OF the one
time card club, to a luncheon at the
| Country Club in honor of the visitor. As
fate would have it the hostess was de-
layed en- route by an accident to her auto
mobile, and. having as usual allowed
| herself no margin of time for possible
detentions, she was the last to arrive
at her own party. Stopping for a mo-
ment on the broad veranda OF the club
house voices came to her through an
open window.
1T seems that even a winter Of point
ed snubs has not been enough to teach
her that her everlasting lateness will not
| be tolerated" the speaker was saying in
voice whose pitch was raised to the
clear carrying point by the impatience
of its owner.
OF course The-woman- Who Always
Late was very profuse in her apologies,
and her some time friends accepted the
excuses graciously because they were
her guests, but the luncheon dragged
nevertheless, principally because OF the
hostess abstraction.
When, at last, the day was done, and
e-Woman-Who-Is-A could al
last be done alone, she lay through the
deep still hours of the night wondering
not so much that she had lost her one
| time popularity, but how she could re-
trieve the loss; how she could let her
one-time friends know that she was at
last wide awake to her intolerable fault.
and meant to correct it.
But as she lay thinking the matter
over no comforting solution of the ques-
tion came to her, because it is such a
difficult thing to regain the place in
affections of friends which has been lost
through such an irritating and inexcu-
sable fault as hers.