The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-09-01
EVENING STORY
Genevieve and Georgiana.
(By Osborn Jones.)

breakfast table spat that morning. |
There were no tears in her eyes nor |
tremors in her voice, butts her pulse |
was running high and her cheeks were |
aflame.
Nell, it isn't fair to say things like |
that. OF course don't love her better |
1 love her in an entirely different way. !
And the whole point is that 1 invited
her here for Thanksgiving way last
Fourth of July, and if 1 didn't have
her she would be disappointed. 1t isn't
that it would make any special differ
ence to me personally"
But if you didn't tell me you mad
invited her, how was to know? If you
had told me you had invited your
Il don't see why you always call her
my mother. Why don't you call her
mother the way Dot does Ted's
mother? You act as if she was no re-
lation to you. and. to her face you call
ed her Mrs. Bradford the last time
she was here"
But she isn't my mother and Just
can't say mother to her.
She is your mother" snapped Tom.
''Oh. 1 don't see how you can say SO
at all. Mamma is my mother and it
mother, mother
But you needn't call her Mrs.
Bradford"
We'll, what shall 1 call her then?
You don't call my mother anything.
You just say you when you talk to
her" Then, after a sob, Tom, 1 think
it is just shameful for US to be scrap
ping this way about our mothers"
But how are we going to settle i.
if we don't talk it over? You want
your mother tic come for Thanksgiving
and l want mine
And, of course, we couldn't have
them together" put in Nell, and, as
Tom muttered an ''of course not" she
added with mock cheerfulness and a
smile that was only lip dee-: AT least
we agree on one thing. L. would be
too much to ask them to come to-
gether. They haven't an interest in
common and they would be perfectly
miserable. Tom, if you have any good
reason why your mother should come
instead of mine I'd really nike to hear
it,
I'm the first place, she's d lot older"
began Tom.
"Oh, Tom, how can you say that
Perhaps she is in years. but my poor
mamma isn't as strong as yours is"
Tom snorted. "Frail, and weighs
more than dor
tom, how can you be so horrid ?"
well, 1 suppose the only thing to
do is to draw lots about it," said Tom.
You know, before I was married, I
thought maybe it was going to be so
1 could make a home for mother here
With US, anu TOW L QOIl even letl
free to invite her here for Thanks
giving"
"I am sure I don't see why you
should have your mother here any
more than I should have mamma"
and. of course, we couldn't have
them both,"
"Oh, of course not. They would
never hit it off,
And wisely, as they thought, the
Bradfords stopped here on the one
point on which they agreed and, with
something of an armistice, Tom Brad
ford went to his office.
No, there was nothing at all, in the
common acceptance of the word, con-
genial about Mrs. Bradford, Sr., and
Mrs. Cole. Mrs. Bradford. at sixty,
since her children haG grown up and
| made families for themselves, had
grown so used to playing The role OF
''old lady that, in spite of her active
| body and nimble mind, she felt that
| her proper sphere in life ought to be
| in the inglenook of some sons OF
| daughters fireplace, her task that OF
mending other peoples children's
| stockings or putting patches on theil
| outworn clothes and her proper head
gear a sheer white muslin cap, topped
with ribbons of faded lavender color
Yet, at heart, Mrs. Bradford was still
| the active, energetic womr-n she hac
been when, during the lifetime of Ma
4 1Or BTaQ1OIQ, size Hdu leu soCldl tSllN'
tiles in thriving army posts and, thru
! her tact and more than ordinary dis
| erection, had held her place as socia
arbiter and leader.
Mrs. Cole was of the housewifel,
type She was more interested il
ketchup and mustard pickles than din
ner parties and after-dinner small
talk At sixty-odd she was bette
able than ever to do just what she haC
| to do all her mature years-to keel
| a family of youngsters in health anC
happiness on the maximum income
Her husband had. been a small pro
fessor in a small town, and experience
| had made her expert in the art o
/ thrifty houSewifery. And just wheI
! she felt herself most able, she founC
herself dispossessed of her life job AND
| life interest. She, too, felt the fit
ness of the 1avender-bowed whit,
muslin cap of old womanhood.
So, you SCI, the mothers of the Ton
Bradfords were distinctly different
and one would think that the only tie
that could possibly have drawn then
together were the facts that thei
children had married each other and
that they had happened to live in tn,
same large city.
A week after Tom and Nell had hae
their breakfast table scrap-severa
had followed since then and Nell wa
weight-the mothers CHANGED to NEE
at the counter of a department stor,
in the shopping section of their town
some hundred miles from the plac'
where Tom and Nell made their home
At first they bowed and smiled a.
women whose children have married
usually do--and with more effort a
saccharine politeness than actual cor
diality.
Mrs. Bradford was buying lavende
ribbon and when she saw Mrs. Cole
she. too, was buying lavender ribbon
1t had come to both the women tina
ribbon of that shade would better sui
their roles in life than the pink ant
| yellow and green ribbons that the,
naturally would have chosen as orna
mentation to their white frocks anC
negligees.
| Perhaps it was this that made Mrs
Bradford assume an attitude towart
n IL L.. s<.A. H.. L & =.