Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1917-10-04
Behind The Wells.

mite more," declared Miss Ann Tenney
"but after yesterday afternoon she can't
20 home and say folks in Morley don't
know how to do things properly. Minnie
Wimble just laid herself out on that tea,
| can tell you, and if il wasn't stylish
don't know what is %
81 hear that one Of the guests was sty-
lish, too," suggested Mrs. Peters.
"Most everybody who's been in has
something 10 say about Luella Pressey
and what she wore. Lucretia Odlin says
her dress was Paris, every line Of it, and
must have cost PaPressey pretty penny.
But then, OF course, Lucretia Odlin-"
"Of course" assented Ann Tenney.
Take off half, and trim the other half a
quarter, and be sure to shrink the rest
when it's one OF Lucretia's yarns. Lu-
elias dress was pretty, though, and GER
tainly did have an air-I shouldn't won
der if il really was Boston-she went
through, you know, when she visited
Henry's folks in Connecticut. And il
wasn't so much the dress after all; il was
the little touches"
"TheY said she wore two wells" said
Mrs. Peters; both of 'em down over
her face, too."
"She did. II must be the very latest
fashionable dodge, | suppose she had
'em pinned just so, and couldn't push
'em up, and didn't darSt take the pins out.
She managed 10 work the edge OF sand
wich up under enough TO nibble it mite
for the sake OF politenesS; but when it
came TO teacups, she didn't even pretend.
She just declined TO take any tea at all
and sat smiling sweetly through two
thicknesses the whole afternoon. The
top one was black Chantilly, and made
circular. must say if was beauty"
"Lucretia said the underneath one was
pink-or else LuelIa'd done something TO
touch up her complexion"
at wasn't pink-itwas white. And as
TO Luella's complexion"
"Of course made allowances for Luz
cretia Odlin-"
"Of course. But, really, if we didn't
know Luella too well, III admit might
have thought-onlY, if she was in. the
habit of doing il at all, she'd have dore il
better. 1t wasn't on even; | mean, II
didn't look even."
"Ann TenneYl You don'tmeanto TO say
that you really believe"
81 don't know what | believe, and
that's the truth. Luella's naturally the
clear, pale kind, and how she got a color
bright enough to show rosy through two
wells, unless she-and yet | can't believe
she would, either"
"She didn't, Ann" remarked Mrs.
Susan BesseY as she trundled puffily into
the room, nodded a greeting and dropped
into an easy-char. "Have you both for
gotten that LuelIa is PreSsey? Queer
things happen TO the Presseys as natural
as three meals day 10 the rest of us.
Poor Luella had TO wear those wells if
she was going TO show herself in public. J"
81 remember when her sister MYra
most choked on frozen egg" said Ann
Tenney reminiscently. "ADd there was
Dorabel, stained her hands blue with
something that took three weeks TO wear
off; and little Flo fell into barrel head
down, and couldn't get out and Lauretta
swallowed needle, and il worked out
at her elbow, didn't it ? And"
"lf you start telling the things that
have happened in the Pressey family,
we shan't get round TO what's happened
to Luella till sundown," protested Mrs.
Peters. "What was it, Susan ?"
"Only that she was reaching up TO a
high shelf and brought sheet OF fly pa
per tumbling right down on her iace. II
all wrapped round and stuck,-it was
old, and the sticky part had grown gum
my and thick most like tar,-and it most
pulled the skin off in patches when
she tore it away, and poisoned her
some besides. She'd got over the worst
of il; but she want looking right yet,
and if she was TO go to Minnie Wimble's
tea at all, why, she needed wells SO she
wore 'em. That's all. ."
"If that wasn't real Pressey perform
ance p cried Ann Tenney.
Mrs. Peters smiled grlmy. I'm
looking forward TO my next meeting with
Lucretia Odlin," she observed. "lth
be pleasure to see her lace when ex-
plain those extry elegant wells and what
was behind 'eml"
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