The Watertown news. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1917-1919, 1918-12-13
side her unlacing her wet shoes

Wishing the SnOeS were different
| less clumsy In build, in shaping.
Until then he had not noted how
fiat was Maria's foot. Moreover,
there were actually holes in her
stockings, not such as mornings
tramp would explain and excuse, but
big, generous gaps at both heels and
toe. The wearer surveyed them tram
| gully, as she stretched her foot to-
ward the fire. zone more wear will
finish them," she said 81 never darn
! stOcbings-it is such waste of time
| and eyesight"
"Let me lend you dry stockings"
! Elena said, coming in with a heavily
laden tray.
Hubert sprang up to relieve her,
smothering a grin as he turned his
back to the fireside.
| Maria looked up doubtfully. 81 don't
know that I can get on yours" she
said. 'You have such little feet. Don't
you hate to feel they would incapaci-
tate you in any great emergencyW
I'm unlikely to encounter emergen-
cies greater than the present" Elena
said gravely, dropping her lids to veil
the satisfaction in her eyes. 1t was
bred by what she had surprised in
| Dicks speaking face-a rueful dis
| gust that made her heart leap. ''Be
| off to wash your hands and face, sir"
she said to him in her manner of Is
years back. "You are smudge all
| down behind one ear-and have snip
|
one tiny bit of anything while you
keep dirty face"
'Tm going to have something
stockings can wait" Maria said,
| reaching for bread and butter and
| taking slice at two bites. Maybe
you've never been real hungry" to
Elena. Il could eat my grandmother
| right now-if there were nothing
else
'How about your husband? The
way Madame Spider does?" Hubert
| asked, his eyes twinkling
Dick had vanished obediently Elena
was busy pouring tea.
"Three Jumps, please-and make 1t
half cream at least" Maria said un-
| asked
Elena obeyed, with little lowering
smile
Maria had wheeled so far about the
holey-stocking was in full evidence.
Dick, coming back much freshened,
was aghaSt at the parade of them.
You'd better go change" he said with
a touch of authority. You don't
| ind Of
| may drop in."
''What If they do?" Maria answered
with the least shrug, instantly setting
her beautiful white teeth deep in a
chicken wing, held between finger and
thumb 'Fm not deceitful-anybody
may know all about me. And /
couldn't get three toes in Miss Gary's
slippers"
"How about mine?" Hubert broke in,
rushing to his bedroom and return
ing with a pair Of handsome soft
| sandals.
Maria slipped her feet in them with
the air of one who submits to sense
less prejudice for the sake of peace.
Surveying her extremities she ran
along acft1ly: "You see I was right
we really ought to have gone on home
| THERE am understood"
"How fortunate?" Edna made haste
to say. "Also how uncommon. Most
geniuses have had to contend with
their nearest and dearest"
"That was because they went about
things wrong" Maria interrupted con-
| 1u ok
way, if you make people actually know
you won't put up with less"
Dick looked away-sick and cold
with the peril he had so narrowly es-
capped. He had never seen this side
of Maria-she could be, when she
chose. whimsically charming, even
brilliant. She had made a creditable
beginning in literature-her success
lost nothing in the telling either by
herself or her subdued but adoring
family. He had been fascinated-on
the verge Of proposing, never noting
things now so patent, hurt and angry
because Elena had decried his choice.
Still he was not quite free of the
tolls. Suddenly she turned on him
a battery of telling glances, smiled at
him in piquant provocatiOn and began
a gay narrative Of their day together,
which made even Elena laugh aloud.
Then, in the midst Of it came carful
of folk outside, the very cream of the
summer colony. Their advent melted
Maria to further display-she retold
her tale, then went On to relate pi-
quaint happenings Of her literary
career, winding up by reciting, unask-
ed, seven stanzas Of verse that were,
to say the least, highly colored.
She would have remained to dinner
but that Dick peremptorily took her
home. He came back much subdued.
Elena was too wise to take verbal no
tice of his mood, but in her diary that
night she wrote: IT have won
thanks to Fate. In the cause Of tenn
permanent against temper, temperament
has lost"