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

4 when the conversation was resumed
my quick ears (Which have not al
ways added to my happiness) caught
the half smothered words:
Getting a 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 num-" and carried me off to the
/ hall.
There we sat about the big open
FIRE, and after while the talk be
came as free as it often is among
fashionable ladies' OF certain class
%Ir Eastcliff's Camilla told a slight
/ lv indicate anecdote Of dresser
she had had at the theater, and then
another young woman (the same VINO
adored the men who went to the
deuce for a woman') repeated the
terms OF an advertisement she had
seen in a church newspa per: "a par
lormaid wants situation in a fam
I lily where a footman is kept"
The laughter, which followed this
story was loud enough, but it was
redoubled when Almas mother, from
1 the depths Of an armchair, said with
| her usual soiemnity that she didn't
see nothing to laugh at" in that, and
the pore girl hadn't no such thought
as they had"
Again ! was choking with indigna-
4 ton, and in order to assert myself
once for all said
Ladies, | will ask you to discon-
tinue this kind OF conversation.
don't like IT,"
At last the climax came.
About ten days after Martin left
me I received a telegram, which had
been put ashore at Southampton. say
/ ing, Good bye, God bless you'll" and
! the next day there came a newspaper
| containing an account Of his last
night at Tnbury.
He had given a dinner TO number
of his friends, including his old COM
mander and his wife, several other
1 explorers who happened to be in
London, a Cabinet Minister, and the
proprietor Of the journal which had
promoted his expedition
They mad dined in the saloon Of the
scotia chow vividly l remembered
it,D, finishing up the evening with a
dance on deck in the moonlight: ana
when the time came to break up,
Martin had made one OF his Senti-
mental little speeches Gall heart and
not too much grammar in which he
! said that In starting out for another
siege Of the South Pole "he couldn't
help thinking with bit OF a pain
under the third button of his double
breasted waistcoat. Of the dear ones
they We're 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 mis-
chance left the paper which con-
tanned it on the table in the draw
ing room. and on going downstairs
after breakfast next morning found
Alma stretched out in rocking
chair before the fire in the hail. smok-
ing q cigarette and reading the re-
port aloud in mock heroic tone to a
number of the men, including my
husband, whose fat body Che was
growing corpulenD was shaking with
laughter,
It was az much as I could do to
control an impulse to jump down and
Hare 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 insiucere Of her smiles, we
were lust enjoying the beautiful ac-
count of your friends last night in
England
SO / see" said. and boiling with
anger underneath, | quietly took the