Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1913-12-19

that's why I'm afraid the school-board
will condemn you: just on account of
appearances. For these past three
years, the church has meant to Mrs.
Gregory a building plus Grace Noir.
I don't mean that Mrs. Gregory got
jealous of Grace Noir@ don't know
how to explain-you can't handle cob
webs without marring them" She
paused.
Jealous of Miss Grace!" exclaimed
Abbott ~reprovingly.
Let's go back. and take a running
jump right into the thick of 1t. When
Mr.. Gregory came to L~ittleburg, a COM
plete stranger-and when he mar
ried, she was a devoted church-mem-
ber-always went, and took great in.
terest in all his schemes to help folks
folks at a distance, you understand
She just devoured that relig-
ious magazine he edits-yes, I'll ad-
NIT, his religion shows up beautifully
in print; the pictures of it are good,
too. Old Mrs. Jefferson took pride
in being wheeled to church where she
could see her son-in-law leading the
music, and where she'd watch every
gesture of the minister and catch the
sound of his voice at the high places,
where he cried and, or nevertheless.
Sometimes Mrs. Jefferson could get a
1ozen ands and butts out of one dis
course. Then comes your Grace Noir."
Abbott listened with absorbed atten-
ton. 1t was impossible not to be in
fiuenced by the voice that had grown
to mean SO much to him.
Grace Noir is a person that's SUI
perhumanly good, but she's lot happy
in her goodness; it hurts her, all the
time, because other folks are not as
good a she. You can't live in the
house with her without wishing she'd
make a mistake to show herself hui
man, but she neyer does, she's always
right. She's so fixed on being a mar
tyr, that if nobody crosses her, she
just makes herself a martyr out of
the shortcomings of others"
CAS- for instance"
A for instance, she suffered mar
tyrdom every time Mrs. Gregory
nestled in an armchair beside the coy
hearth, when a Ladies' Aid, or a Rally
was beating its way through snow
drifts to the Walnut Street church. Mr..
Gregory was like everybody else
about Grace-he took her at her own
value, and that gave the equation: to
him, religion meant Walnut Street
church plus Grace Noir. For a while,
Mrs. Gregory chung to church-going
with grim determination, but it wasn't
any use. The Sunday-school would
have button contests, or the Ladies'
Aid would give chicken pie dinners
downtown, and Mrs. Gregory would
be a red button or a blue button, and
she would have her pie; but she was
always third-in her home, or at
church, she was the third. 1t was her
husband and his secretary that under
stood the Lord. Somehow she seemed
to disturb conditions, merely by being
present"
Fran, you do not realize that our
words-they intimate"
"She disturbed conditions. Abbott.
She was like a ~turned-up light at a
n Mr.. Gregory was appalled, be-
cause his wife quit attending church.
Grace sympathized in his sorrow. 1t
made him feel toward Grace Noir-
but I'm up against a stone wall. Alb
bott, ! haven't the word to describe
his feeling, maybe there isn't any.
Fran Nonpareil! Such wisdom
terrifies me . such suspicions!"
In this moment of hesitancy between
conviction and rejection, Abbott felt
oddly out of harmony with his little
friend. She realized the effect she
must necessarily be producing, yet
she must continue; she had counted
the cost and the danger. If she did
not convince him, his thought of her
could never be the same.
Abbott, you may think / am talk
ing from jealousy, and that l tried to
get rid of Grace Noir SO l could better
my condition at her expense. / don't
know how to make you see that my
story is true. 1t tells itself. Oughtn't
that to prove 1t? Mrs. Gregory has
the doves nature; she'd let the enemy
have the spoils rather than come to
blows. She let's him take his choice
here is she, yonder's the secretary.
He isn't worthy of her II he chooses
Grace-but his hesitation has proved
him unworthy, anyhow. The old lady
her mother-is a fighter; she'd have
driven out the secretary long ago. But
Mrs. Gregory's idea seems to be-Tf
he a want her, after I've given him
myself. I'll not make a movement to
Interfere"
Abbott played ~delicately with the
mere husk of this astounding revela-
ton: Have you talked with old Mrs.
Jefferson about-about it?"
She's too proud-wou1dn't admit 1t.
But I've shyly limited however,
It's not the sort Of story you could
pour through the funnel of an ear
trumpet without getting wheat mixed