New Britain herald., 1917-02-17
REVELATIONS OF A WIFE
What NIadge Did When Left Alone.
BY ADELE GARRISON

What NIadge Did When Left Alone. =,
Don't you think you would better i
lie down awhile? This performance
of mothers cannot but help have
upset YOU If I were in your place
I'll tell katie to bring you up some- ,
thing. And I'll try to have mother
Gained down before dinner"
! Dicky stood in the doorway of my
| room with his hand on the door knob.
! He had come directly up to me when
I had rushed from the living room
after his mothers insulting remarks
concerning Robert Gordon, and had
gently soothed my jaded nerves.
I knew that he must have left his
mother in a towering rage, and l saw
that if it were possible he preferred
that she and I should not meet until
the elder woman had recovered from
the tantrum into which she had been
| thrown by the persistent inquiries OF
Robert Gordon
! l should have acceded to his sug-
gestion under any circumstances, but
I was especially thankful for this un-
Eexpected chance of an uninterrupted
afternoon / wanted an opportunity
to get out a package which was in the
bottom Of a trunk Of my dead
mothers. I had scarcely thought Of
it since her death, but in the course
of my conversation with Dicky I had
been forcibly reminded of it's existence
and I was impatient to see it.
So I smiled cheerfully up at him,
and affected as nonchalant an air as
possible.
"You do have the best ideas, Dicky.
I think I'd rather have four or five
hours rest than anything I know.
I'm going to sport my oak'-isn't
that what they say in English school
boy stories ?-and I shall expect not
to be disturbed. So gcod-by until
dinner"
"You siiant be disturbed but once"
| Dicky retorted; I'm going to send
Katie up with your luncheon"
'@Truly, I. couldn't eat d thing.
Dicky," I protested.
'Throw it out the window then" he
returned, noncllalantly, "but I'm
surely going to send it to YOU. So
long!'
Little Mothers" Lost Request.
He went out of the room quickly,
closing the door behind him. 1 waited
until l heard his footsteps descending
the stairs before turning the key il,
little old trunk which I had always
kept in my own room ever since my
mothers death. and kneeling before
it, unlocked II with reverent fingers,
1t was my mothers own girlhood
trunk, one in which she had kept
her treasures and menentoes all her
life The chief delight Of my child
hood had been sitting by her side when
she took out the different things from
it and showed them to me.
Dear, thoughtful, little mother OF
mine! Almost the last thing she ala
before her strength failed her utterly
was to repack the little trunk, wrap
nirg and labelling each thing 1t con-
famed. and putting into it only the
things which she knew I would not
use but wished to keep as memories
OF her and of my own childhood
Il do not wish you to have to look
over these things while your grief IS
still fresh for me- she had SAID, with
the divine thoughtfulness that mothers
, keen Until the last breath they draw.
"rherc is nothing in it that you will
have to look at for years If you do
not wish to do so-that is, except one
package that ] am going to tell you
about now
She stopped to catch the breath
Wn1Cn was So pllLully SlAolI III 1Aio'S
! torturing days before her death, and
over her face swept the look Of agony
which always accompanied any men
ton by her of my father.
'In the top tray of this trunk she
said. "you will find the inlaid lock
box that was your grandmothers, and
which you have always admired so
much I do not wish to lay any re-
quest or command upon you concern
ing it-you must be the only judge
of your own affairs after leave YOU
but I would not advise YOU not to
open that box unless you are in des-
perate straits, or until the time has
come when you feel that you no longer
harbor the resentment YOU now feel
| toward your father
The last words had come family
through stiffened white lips, for her
| labor at packing and the emotional
! strain of talking to me concerning the
future had brought on one of the
dreaded heart attacks which We're so
terribly frequent in the last weeks Of
her life We had never spoken Of the