Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-09-14

fectual aunt.
ooh, yes," with an air of resignation, 3tell
Mrs Westfeld to come up"
She pulled the hair over her temples to
conceal the scars of her mornings accident,
and met Mrs. Westfeld at the landing out
side.
Dear Aunt Harriet! So glad!' she said.
3What have been doing now?'
@What haven't you been doing, Child?'
The good lady sank into chair. the severe
lines in her face more than usually acidulous;
but Hernia only smiled sweetly, for Mrs.
Westfeld's forbidding aspect, as she well
knew, concealed the most indulgent of dis
positions.
"Playing polo with men, racing in your
motor, and getting yourself talked about in
the papers! Really, Hernia, what will you
be doing next?'
"Flying," said Hernia.
Mrs. Westfeld hesitated between a gasp
and smile. al don't doubt it. You are
quite capable of anything only your wings
will not be sent from Heaven"
mo: from Paris. I'm going to have
Perrier."
"Do you actually mean that you're going
to Oh, Hernia! Not fyn
The girl nodded. @I-I'm afraid l am,
Aunty It's the sporting thing. You know
never could bear having Reggie Armistead
do anything l couldn't. Everyone will be
doing it soon.'
Il can't believe that you're in earnest"
II am, awfully.'
HBut the danger-you must realize that
II do-that's what attracts me- She got
UP and put her arms round Mrs. Westheld's
neck, ooh, Aunty dear, don't bother. I'm
absolutely impossible, anyway. | can't be
happy doing the things other girls do, and
you might as well let me have my own way"
But flying"
dts as simple as child's play. If you'd
ever done it, you'd wonder how people
would ever be content to motor or ride
you've been up
LAST week at Garden City. I'm crazy
about it."
eyes, Child, crazy-mad I've done
what | could to keep your amusements
within the bounds of reason, and without
avail: but l shouldn't be doing my duty to
your sainted mother if l didn't try to save
you from yourself. / shall do something to
prevent this-this madcap venture don't
know what. l shall see Mr.. Winthrop at the
trust company. There must be some way
The pendents in the good lady's ears trem-
bled in the light, and her hand CROPPED for her
handkerchief. 1You can't, Hernia! Ill not
permit it. I'll get out an injunction-or
something 1t was all very well when you
you're woman, a grown woman, with re-
sponsibilities to the community It's time
that you married, settled down, and took
your proper place in New York. | had hope
that you would have matured and forgotten
the childish pastimes of your girlhood; but
now-now-"
MRS. WESTFIELD, having found her
A'A handkerchief, wept into it; while Her
mia, now really moved, sank at her feet on the
floor, her arms about her aunt's shoulders,
and tried to comfort her.
@I'm not the slightest use in the world,
Aunty dear. | haven't single homely
virtue to recommend me. I'm fit only to
ride and dance and motor and frivol I'm
renegade, if you like, a holden with shrewd
sense of personal morality, but with no other
sense whatever. | was born under mad
moon, with some wild humor in my blood
from an earlier incarnation, and | can't
simply can't be conventional! I've tried
doing as other and nicer girls do; but it
wearies me to the point of distraction. Their
lives are SO pale, SO empty, SO full of pre-
tensions! They have always seemed so.
When l used to romp like boy my elders
told me it was an unnatural way for little
girls to play. But | kept on romping. If it
hadn't been natural, l shouldn't have
romped. Perhaps Lyle Trenchord is natu-
raj, or Caroline Austell? They're conven-
-. Il - ~o~k1 e 10 al