The Madison journal. (Tallulah, Madison Parish, La.) 1888-current, 1914-12-05
Underneath the High Cut Vest
4 Business Adventure of Emma McChesne,

By EDNA FERBER
Author of "Down OFiaro. "Butered Side Dopn. e



| ma McChesney, her eyes glowing with
something other than fever. I've
something to say. It's just this. III
I'm going to be sick I'd prefer to be
sick right here, unless it's something
catching. No hospital. Don't ASH me
why. | don't know. We people on
the road are all alike. Wire L. A.
Buck. Jr., of the Featherloom Petticoat
company, New York. You'll find plenty
of clean nightgowns in the left-hand
tray of my trunk, covered with whlte
tissue paper. Get nurse that doesn
snifie, or talk about the palace she
nursed in last, where they treated her
like a queen and waited on her hand
and foot For goodness sake, put my
switch where nothing will happen to
it. and il | die and they run my pic
ture in the Dry Goods Review under
the caption, Veteran Travelling Sales
woman Succumbs at Glen Rock, III
haunt the editor" She paused mo-
ment.
Everything will be all right" said
the housekeeper, soothingly. You'll
think you're right at home, it'll be so
comfortable. Was there anything else,
now?"
YES" said Emma McChesney.
THE most important Of all. My son,
Jock McChesney, is fishing up in the
Canadian woods. A telegram may not
reach him for three weeks. They're
shifting about from camp to camp. Try
to get him, but don't scare him too
much. You'll find the address under
]. in my address book in my handbag.
Poor kid. Perhaps it's just as well he
doesn't know"
Perhaps it was. At any rate 1t was
true that had the tribe of McChesney
been as the leaves of the trees, and
had it held family reunion in Emma
McChesney's little hotel bedroom, it
: would have mattered not at all to her.
For she was Observation-Disclosures
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES bottles-by-the-b bed
i side sick, her head, with its bright hair
rumpled and dry with the fever. toss.
, ing from side to side on the lumpy
hotel pillow, or lying terribly silent
and inert against the gray-white of the
, bed linen. She never quite knew how
narrowly she escaped that picture in
: the Dry Goods Review.
Then one day the fever began to re
cede, slowly, whence fevers come, and
, the indefinable air Of suspense and re
: preston that fingers about a sick
room at such crisis began to lift i'm
: perceptibly. There came time wher
Emma McChesney' asked In a veal
] but sane voice:
t did Jock come? Did they cut of
) my hair?"
/ Not yet. DEAR" the nurse had an
/ swered to the first, but we'll hear II
a day or so. I'm sure" And, "Youl
a lovely hair! Well, not II know it!
;. to the second.
4 The spirit of small-town kindlines'
s took Emma McChesney in its arms
J, The dingy little hotel room gloves
e with flowers. The story of the sicl
+ woman fighting there alone in the tel
rors of delirium had gone up and dow
a about the town. Housewives with
|. fine contempt for hotel soup sen
t broths of chicken and beef. The loca
e members of the U. C. T. sent rose
n enough to tax every vase and wasf
/, pitcher that the hotel could muster
b and asked their wives to call at tn
t hotel and see what they could do. TIL
wives came, obediently. but with SUI
q. picion and distrust in their eyes, an
n remained to pat Emma McChesney'
n arm, ask to read aloud to her, and
q. indulge generally in that process
ID known as cheering her up" Ever
n. travelling man who stopped at the Ii
AZ tie hotel on his way to Minneapol
A. added to the heaped-up offerings &
,r Emma McChesney's shrine. Bool
AT and magazines assumed the propo
70 tons of library. One could see tt
q. hand of T. A. Buck, Jr., in the case
a of mineral water, quarts of wine, GU
m Ling cordials and tiny bottles
"a liQueur that stood in convivial rows {
" the closet shelf and floor. There can
10 letters, too, and kilograms with sue
~. phrases as let nothing be left undon,
a. and spare no expense" under T.
Buck, Jr's., signature.
So Emma McChesney climbed Il
az long, weary hill of illness and pal
=. reached the top. painting and almo
an spent, rested there, and began Il
easy descent on the other side tn
- led to recovery and strength. B
something was lacking. That SUM
optimism that had been Emma M
ID Chesney's most valuable asset was a
re sent. The blue eyes had lost the
u, brave laughter. A respondent dro,
III fingered on the corners Of the mou
that had been such a rare mixture
,er firmness and tenderness. Even d
ne advent of Fat Ed Meyers, her kee
VI est competitor, and representative
k) the Strauss Sanssilk company, fail
"n to awaken in her the proper spirit
antagonism. Fat Ed Meyers sent
ne bunch Of violets that devastated I
violet beds at the local greenhou.
ne Emma McChesney regarded them Ii
on lessly when the nurse lifted them @
of their tissue wrappings. But t
18th name on the card brough a tiny SIN
or to her lips.
GU HE says he'd like to see you, IL y