Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1918-07-05
THE UNDESIRABLE
By MILDRED WHITE.

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 the elder sister labored, as the women said, from morning till night. Not only was the great old house to be 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 never 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.
 "To sit," as the neighbors sneered, "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 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 the exception of the curate, who had been prevailed upon to talk to her.
 "Some one's got to wake the girl up," the anxious ones insisted.
 The young minister was baffled. 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.
 His commendatiOn was silently re- ceived by Martha, while his tactful re- 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 1t was after one of these lengthy calls that he awoke to the alarming realiza- 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- triton, he decided to spend the entire time of his next visit with Martha. and to renew the offer of his services in 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 expres- sion as of subdued happiness. She smiled with 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 a mortgage. and we feared lately that 1t would have to be taken from us. The fear, and thought of change, 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. ; 4
 "'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 butterfly on wing, or the shadows of a trees fo- liage, for her children's 'Fairyland pie tunes.' And they have been accepted as Mollle knew they would! You will see them in the magazines, the chil- dren will be wild over the picture-play things. and Mollie-" Martha laughed shakily. "Well. there will be more than enough money to pay off the mort. gage," she said.
 The minister grasped her hands. "I have fn moko omouHo ho ccid