Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1917-06-19

She's got real eye for clothes,
too" said Frederick. "We've been
shopping. Well, then, I'm going to tell
Rodney to go ahead and take the
house."
Rose was consulted about It, of
course, though consulted is perhaps
not the right word to use. She was
taken to see it, anyway, and asked il
she liked it-a question in the nature
OF the superfiuous. One might as well
have asked Cinderella if she liked the
gown the fairy godmother had pro-
vided her with for the princes ball.
1t didn't occur to her to ask how
much the rent would be, nor would
the fact have had any value for her
as an illuminant, because she would
have had no idea whether six thou
sand dollars was a half or a hun
dredth of her future husbands income.
The new house was just a part, as
so many of the other things that had
happened to her since that night when
Rodney had sent her flowers and taken
her to the theater and two restaurants
in Martins biggest limousine had been
parts, of breath-arresting fairy story.
The conclusion Frederick and Violet
had come to about her chance for
social success, was amply justified by
the event, and it is probable that
Violet had put her finger upon the
handspring of it, So it fell out that
what with the Junior league, the wom-
ems auxiliary boards of one or two of
the more respectable charities, the
Thursday club and the Whifflers (this
was the smallest and smartest organi-
cation of the lot), fifteen cor twenty
young women supposed to combine and
reconcile social and intellectual bril-
Iancy on even terms. What with all
this, her days were quite as full as
the evenings were, when she and Rod
ney dined and went to the opera and
paid fabulous prices to queer profess
SIGNALS. to keep themselves abreast
of the minute in all the new dances.
Portia had been quite right In say
ing that she never had to do anything;
the rallying of all her forces under
the spur of necessity was an expert
ence she had never undergone. And
it was also true that her mother, and
for that matter, Portia herself, had
spoiled her a lot-had run about do
ing little things for her, come in
and shut down her windows in the
morning, and opened the register, and,
on any sort of excuse, on a Saturday
morning, for example, had brought her
her breakfast on tray.
But these things had been favors,
not services-never to be asked for,
of course, and always to be accepted
little alphabetically. She had never
before known what it was really to be
served
morning, "a single, blessed mortal
thing TO do all day." Some fixture
scheduled for that morning had been
moved, she went on to explain, and
Eleanor Randolph was feeling seedy
and had called off & little luncheon
and matinee party.
"Oh, that's too bad" he said with
concern. Cant you manage some
thing E. 7"
TOO bad" said Rose in lively dis
sent. "Its too heavenly! I've got a
whole day just to enjoy being myself !;
being" she reached for his hand,
and, getting it, stroked her cheek with
it being my new self. Portia used
to think 1 faxed pretty well. But l
never waS-don't you know?-right.
So, you see. it's a real adventure just
to say-well, that 1 want the car at
a quarter to eleven and to tell Otto
exactly where l want him to drive me
to. I always feel as if 1 ought to say
that if he'll just stop the car at the
corner of Diversey street, 1 can walk"
He laughed out at that and asked
her how long she thought this blissful
state of things would last.
Forever" she said.
But presently she looked at him
rather thoughtfully. "Of course its
none of it new to you" she said,
not the silly little things, nor the
things We do together-oh, the dinners.
and the dances, and the operas. Do
you sort of-wiSh I'd get tired of it?
Is it a dreadful bore to you?"
$50 long as it doesn't bore you" he
said; $50 long as you go on-shining
| the way you do over 1t. and I am
where l can see you shine"-he took
hold Of both her hands. $50 long as
/ it's like that, you wonder" he said,
well. the dinners and the operas and
all that may be piffle, but l shall he
blind TO the fact"
She kissed both his hands and told
/ him contentedly that he was darling.
/ But, after a moments silence, little
/ frown puckered her eyebrows and she
asked him what he was so solemn
about
I Well, he had told her the truth.
But precisely as he said it, he felt that
/ he was not the same man he had been
/ six months ago. Not the man who had
/ tramped impatiently back and forth
/ across Frederica's drawing-room. ex-
pounding his ideals of space and lei
sure. Not the man who despiSed the
/ clutter OF expensive junk. That man
would have derided the possibility
that he could ever say this thing that
he, still Rodney Aldrich, had just said
TO RoSe-and meant. And the terrify-
ing thing was that he hadn't resisted
the change-hadn't wanted TO resist
didn't want to now. as he sat there
looking AT the slumbrous glory of her
eyes.
So. when she asked him what he
was looking so solemn about. he said