Evening star., 1918-08-18

lady who Inhabited the cover
\ of q magazine. There was a
hat with a stick feather that
pierced the top of the page. and the
scarf into which her waist melted
wriggled it's chiffony green ends into
the blue-lettered announcement that
she was Miss August" And In the
beauteous face of her was the moth
irgness that belongs to magazine
ladies. dolls and humans here and
there.
The woman who held the magazine
looked like the last rose of summer.
If you are not acquainted with the
type, 1t means shabbiness. crowfeet
drum tight skin and the general
dreariness of an oldish woman who
has never known the fun of being
young. And she was saying to the
fair, fat and forty woman with her;
"Ain't she grand? A girl like that
could get everything she wanted In
this world, And SO many others has
nothing"
"Oh. beauty amt everything! My
husband thinks just as much of me
since l took on fat. And you know
how the fellerS uster run after me
whep\I worked at the bureau"
Apparently the plain woman was
short OF memory. for she failed to in
dorse the "reminiscences:
IF l could look like her I wouldn't
care what I got to eat or wear"
"Well, you wouldn't want much, Sc e.
ing she's only on the half shell"
"And I'd gone to, my death for a
hat like that when I was young. OF
course. 1t wouldn't q looked like that
e,,1Si on me. but y, o.. It would become Maggie
Say, you'd oughter stop wasting
your good money on that girl. She
ainter going to think a snap more of
you for doing 1t, You take my adyice
and save little for your old age
you know you ainter getting any
younger"
II know. But you can't be young
but once. and then only for an awful
short time-and II somebody didn't
give the poor child a little something
now and then she'd be as bad off as
l was when I was girl-and I
like that, I don't believe any woman
was ever as grand looking as this
one, though, In the flesh"
The fat woman gave snfffy glance
at Miss August, and her dismissal of
the subject was streaked with per-
sonal pride.
"Or. 1 don't know. You'd oughter
remember how l looked before l took
on fat
Truly, Buddha knew his little book
when he sat under his Sacred bo tree
and told the bird in the bough above
him that:
SELF satisfaction feedeth on the
vanity OF man. Add. also. woman.
THEY. were on a car-Cabin john
= .ning--and she was telling him about
a day in. a deserted house-soinething
like this:
:. "It' Is. an old-fashioned home on the
shady side. Of fifty. and Nell came over
to the fiat to tell me that she was rum
ring over to Baltimore and that 1t would
be a. good change for day. anyhow,
from one room and !bathedness. and
give me . chance to. practice on the
piano without driving my next fiatters
wild. a..
by o'clock. had. my solitude to
myself and was feeling as contented as a
lctus eater In Greek 'canto when
dinner. got notice that the United
Daughters of the Gall.lean Fishermen
were going to have a purying and she
had to turn out. She turned out early
in the morning and I owe my expert.
ences to- the. fact that she failed to
turn in before dusk. When she had
cluttered OF in a .regRlia that maoe
her look more like a black hen with
gay hackle than anything else can
think Of just now. locked myself in
and proceeded to. make the drama tic
most .of my isolationi Yesterday I
was soldier in the red glare of lies
: Battle. Today was as absolutely dead
to the world IS though I had Teen
showed off the earth into the everlAst-
ing nowhere. For ten splendid hours
1 would be as dumb as a convict In
Joliet and as shut in as a. leper of
Molokai! In my Sahara. Of. silence
there would. .be only tha music OF.
Tho basement bell!'
'Its jingling reminded me that Gym
dy had apologized for turning out be-
fore the Ice man turned in, and
rushed down to sever the one link
that bound me to the sounds OF life.
But 1t wasn't the ice4nan. II was an
other united daughter of the CALI
leans who wanted. to know II Sister
Lucindy had started-and did she go
in hack?
~ went upstairs into tie library and
stretched out my arms In the abandon
Of hushed relief. but before I could
lower them the bell rang again. This
time 1t was woman in black with
suitcase.
"Have You furnished rooms?