Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1918-08-20
THE UNDESIRABLE
By MILDRED WHITE.

o$%%$H%%<$S%SH%S%S %%S%%]H%I]]1 1 All day long, it seemed, she sat in
 the low wicker chair, far back in the garden, humming over a book in her
 lap, or gazing, arms clasped above her 1 head, into the distance. Her white frock showed daintily amid the green 1 and her high-heeled slippers idly
 tapped the grass.
 The new curate sighed as the pie
 ture daily met his sight; no doubt the neighbors were right. Accustomed as
 he was becoming to their village gos- sip, he was forced to admit in this
 case some Justification. For indoors
 tho elder sister labored, as the women
 said, from morning till night. Not
 only was the great old house to b.
 kept clean and provided, but there was the added duty of the querulOus in.
 valid grandmother. It was this grand mother who had taken her daughters orphaned children to raise, Mary and Martha, they were named, and the naming appeared to grow more fitting, as years passed.
 Mollie, they caressingly called the younger sister in her golden haired childhood, and Mollie she remained, but Martha was nevar anything but Martha.
 While Martha accepted naturally the duties at hand, glowing reports came to them in the country town of
 Mollie's progress at school. Her
 achievement was their ruling joy. ITO sit," as the neighbors sncered,
 ''in the garden while Martha slaved."
 "Seems as if Mary there might help you some,' one of these said to Mar
 tha. But the elder sister regarded her
 sympathizer coldly, and turned away.
 Don't seem fair for Martha to
 have to do all the work while you lounge here in the garden" another 1 sharply 'reproved the vision in white. So the mothers warned their mar.
 riageable sons, "Keep away from that girl," they said, "she's heartless and
 she's useless" so they kept away, with l the exception of the curate, who had been prevailed upon to talk to her. "Some one's got to wake the girl I up," the anxious ones insisted. The young minister was baff1cd. The accusations appeared to be true. Mar tha, wan, and warm from her kitchen,
 led him to the invalid's bedside, Mol lie, cool and bending over her book,
 welcomed him in the garden. 1 His commendation was silently re-
 ceived by Martha, while his tactful re- l monstrance was met with apparent
 smiling indifference, by the younger | sister.
 The curate was obliged to content himself with frequent calls in the pursuance of pastoral duty. And it was after one of these lengthy calls 1 that he awoke to the alarming realiza- i tion that his sympathies and interest had inexplicably gone over to the one
 undesirable.
 Distressed, he recalled the fact that not more than ten minutes of his stay had been spent indoors, and that his
 lasting impression had been the blue
 ness of Mollie's. eyes. Filled with con- i triton, he decided to spend the entire l time of his next visit with Martha,
 and to renew the offer of his services
 tn any way that might be helpful to | her. It was difficult to pass the low
 wicker chair among the flowers. More | difficult to respond to Mollie's wave ] of greeting, with bow bespeaking dis ] approval.
 The curate accomplished both, much : to his own dissatisfaction. But in
 Martha's patient face was an express l sion as of subdued happiness. She | smiled with a resemblance to Mollie's
 radiating smile as he led the way to the sick room. Grandmother put out
 her hand warmly, the querulousness
 seemed to have disappeared.
 "You have been so kind to us," she
 said. "The assurance of your sympa-
 thy was comforting through our anx- iety, but now all will be different.
 Shall we tell him. Martha?" And Mar.
 tha leaned eagerly forward.
 "This has always been grandmoth-
 CTS home," she said, but there was
 mortgage. and we feared lately that 1t would have to be taken from us.
 The fear, and thought of change, I
 think, helped to make grandmother i'll,
 and her savings were almost gone. I
 could not leave her to earn money you see, and we really did not know what to do. Any situation Mollie might
 have been able to find away from
 home could not more than have cared
 for herself, but" Martha went to the
 window looking toward the white-clad
 girl in the garden-"she was so sure
 of herself. was Mollie, so bright and
 brave. we caught her courage. "'Just wait she would tell us as she went out beneath the trees in the
 morning. Patience my dears, and you
 shall see.' There with her drawing
 board upon her knees she labored.
 catching the shade of a butterfly on
 wing, or the shadows of trees flo.
 liage, for her children's 'Fairyland pic. I