Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1914-04-04


this unexpected pronouncement, and
when the conversation was resumed
my quick ears (Which have not al
ways added to my happiness) caught
the half smothered words:
Getting bit sidey, isn't she?"
Nevertheless, when rose to leave
the dining room. Alma wound her arm
round my wrist, called me her dear
little nun. and carried me off to the
hall.
There We sat about the big open
fire, and after a while the talk be-
came as free a it often is among
fashionable ladies' OF certain class
Mr.. Eastcliff's Camilla told a slight
ly indicate anecdote OF dresser"
she had had al the theater, and then
another young woman (the same who
"adored the men who went to the
deuce for womanD repeated the
terms OF an advertisement she had
seen in a church newspaper: "a par
| lormaid wants a situation in a fam
lily where a footman is kept"
The laughter. which followed this
story was loud enough, but it was
redoubled when Almas mother from
the depths of an armchair, said with
her usual solemnity that she didn't
see nothing to laugh at" in that, and
the pore girl hadn't no such thought
as they had.
Again I was choking With indigna
ton, and in order to assert myself
once for all said:
Ladies, | will ask you to diseon-
tinue this kind of conversation. [
don't like it,"
At last the climax came.
About ten days after Martin left
tme | received a telegram, which had
been put ashore at southampton. say
ing. Good bye. God bless you." and
the next day there came newspa per
containing an account of his last
night at Tilbury.
He had given a dinner to a number
of his friends, including his old COM
mander and his wife. several other
| explorers who happened to be in
! London, Cabinet Minister, and the
| proprietor of the journal which had
! promoted his expedition,
They mad dlned n the saloon Of the
scotia chow ViVidly | remembered
/ itD. finishing UP the evening with a
| dance on deck in the moonlight; and
when the time came to break up,
/ Martin had made one of his senti-
mental little speeches Gall heart and
not too much grammar. i'm which he
said that in starting out for another
siege of the South Pole "he couldn't
| help thinking with 2 bit of a pain
under the third button of his double
breasted waistcoat Of the dear ones
they were leaving behind. and of the
unknown regions whittier they We're
tending where dancing would be for
gotten
need not say how this moved me.
| being where ! was, in that uncon-
/ genial company; but by some ms
/ chance / left the paper which con-
! tanned it on the table in the draw
| ing room. ard on going downstairs
/ after breakfast next morning ! found
! Alma stretched out in rocking
| chair before the fire in the hall smok-
/ ing a cigarette and reading the re-
/ port aloud in a mock heroic tone to a
number of the men, including my
| husband, whose fat body Che was
growing corpulenD was shaking with
| laughter
1t was as much as ! could do to
! control an impulse to jump down and
fare out at them. but, being lightly
shod. ! was standing quietly in their
midst before they were aware of my
presence.
All" said Alma, with the sweetest
and most insincere OF her smiles, we
were lust enjoying the beautiful ac-
count of your friends last night in