The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-03-16
EVENING STORY
The Fifth Intermarriage.
BY JANE OSBORN.
pyright, 1918. by Mcclure Newsp


because every one was always sure Oh
finding a congenial companion at her
house that the younger members u
her kindred and acquaintance always
accepted her invitations. For IL truth
were to be told there was nothing
luxurious in her hospitality, and there
was little amusement or entertainment
save what the guests and the hostess
could provide by their own wits, LOT
the fine old Stewart mansion con-
tanned none of those short cuts 10
hospitality and amusement III one
wished to dance there was no phono-
graph to provide music-and the
dancing could not progress unless one
of the guests happened TO know some
dance tunes to be played on the OLD
piano. There was no nearby country
club and there were no automobiles
in the Stewart sta bles. But despite
these shortcomings Mrs. Stewart never
wearied of getting up little parties and
thought nothing of filling her eight
guest rooms at a time, and the guests
always came with enthusiasm. The
secret of her success was that she was
at heart a ma tchmaker. and tho she
did not think of every girl at her
parties as a possible wife for one or
the other guests, she always did think
of them as partners for a country
walk. She never in yited a girl unless
she was sure she could provide some
nice young man who would find her
society delightful. ard never invited
the least prepossessing of young men
without making sure that there was
one young woman in the number gift
| ed enough to appreciate the hne
points of his personality.
Mrs. Stewart even went so far as
Ito make little lists of her guests on
| the backs of discarded envelopes-for
| she was instilled with the spirit of
| old-time thrift as we'll as with the
| Law iST IF or a nd
| in these lists she would pair her
guests off, making sure. of course,
/ that they would pair, and that there
| would be no three-handed affairs-no
| two men hanging at the feet of one
| young belle while one of the young
| girls went partnerless.
| For the first party of the season she
| had planned to have all the guest
| rooms filled, and as four of them
contained large double beds, this
| meant that she would have twelve
guests. Most of them were young peo-
pie who had already met at similar
parties-some of them already en-
gagged as the result of her careful
planning, The only names on her lists
| that she had not been able to link up
with any other names were those of
Miss Nancy Marbury and Mr.. Ma
thaniel Stobridge.
There really isn't anything they
can have in common" sighed Mrs
/
| girl, keen about suffrage and a tennis
shark, and perfect dance fan-and
poor Nathaniel can't abide college
women, is an anti at heart and the
breath. He could lie all day in a
hammock under a shady tree, with a
dusty book of family records in his
| hands and an occasional renewal of
| cooling beverage at his side and think
h m elf delightfully."- entertained
while to keep up with Nancy a man
would have to take cross-country
| tramps. play tennis madly and know
all the new dance steps,
| Mrs. Stewart tried to revise her list
SO as to pair some one off with Mr..
Stobridge and have some one left
| over that would be congenial with
other guests was perfect. The affinity
| between each of the other two couples
was inevitable. So Mrs. Stewart took
the most recent letter she had re-
ceived from Nancy and the letter she
had from Mr.. Stobridge accepting her
| invitation from her desk and read
| them thru in search of some sympathy
| in common.
Il shall be mighty glad of a little
rest" said Nancy in her letter, for 1
have been working night and day for a
month or more on the Marbury Fam
| lily Record. Our family association
| commissioned me to get the data to-
gether and put them in shape for publi-
H. gu q De surprised now inter-
esting it has been and of course my
| work in college fitted me for that sort
of research. What we were most anx-
ious to show was that the Marbury
family is one of the Stobridge-Cla-
ridge connection. You have heard Of
them 1 am sure. 1t is an alliance of
a group of the most distin guiShed col
onial families in the state and to prove
our connection we have to show at
least five intermarriages with either of
this country. Well. 1 have at last
been able to find the fifth intermar-
riage, tho it was not easy, the Mar
bury records are fragnentary. Now
that the Record is practically COM
plete I shall be delighted to come to
your house party and take a little re-
Taxation before sending the copy to
the printer"
Mrs. Stewart had on first reading
the letter glanced but hastily over this
passage. she was not herself par
ticularly interested in genealogical
matters. But now the mention of the
Stobridge family-that to which the
indolent Nathaniel belonged-caught
her attention and then she recalled
that Nathaniel himself had dabbled
more than casually in the study of his
own and allied family records.
We'll, I'll get them started on gem
ealogy and perhaps they can find
enough in common to keep them
amused for the weekend" And rath-
er reluctantly, for she still felt that
the temperaments of Nancy and Ma
thaniel would be no more sympathetic
than oil and water, she turned her at
tention to ordering the wherewithal to
keep her large family abundantly pro-
visioned, seeing that the old-fashioned
four-poster beds in her guest rooms
were newly made up with linen sheets
and otherwise making ready for the
house party.
Nathaniel had at first shown only a
polite attention to Nancy when, on the
first day of the party Mrs. Stewart
proposed that they be partners for one
of her nice little woodland strolls that
were so important a part of the pro-
gram for the other members of the
party.
!, She could not fail to notice that