Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-08-01

dame who only escaped being
/ vampire because Kipling had yet
to write her into existence. Then
she died and served as ancestor for
Washington girl who inherited her
disposition-and even that was back
in the last century when Father Time
was a mere boy in rompers.
The girl went to her first party in
seagreen tulle and water lilies. and
the "Reminiscences of the combine
inspired some reportorial pencil to
paragraph her as "Undine."
1t was a perfectly lovely compli-
ment, and she dressed up to it all that
season in dewdrop tarlatans with
sleeve loops of coral and with sea-
weedy grasses in her hair. which she
crimped-and let flow
Had the girl kept to her role she
would doubtless have developed the
soul of that other Undine and mel
lowed into the blessedness of a wom-
an with no history. but there's never
any telling what an ancestor is going
to hand down.
In this. case it was fiirtatious
talent that so frenzied one devotee
that he banged a bullet into his brain
and blamed the thing on Gree"
The new name sort of peeled OIL
the white paint of her girlishness and
echoes out of her ears-and OF
course, in no time, married an oldish
gentleman who gave her wealth ana
social prestige. One day her portrait
was hung in a gallery-a glamourous
"Cleopatra,' in revealing gauzes. two
breastplates and wriggledy asp.
The husband objected to his painted
lady, and-never mind details-took
to himself divofce.
Then cleopatra" married some
more, and while collecting names to
suit her character changes it sud
denly occurred to her that her merry
go-round was acquiring the heaVlness
of a treadmill and that the lemon yell
low in her hair had turned sheep S
woolly to keep pace with F'ather Ilme'
who was growing long gray beard
That brings her to last year, when
she came back to her home town to
settle down into the cheapest bunga,
low she could find. But the old crowd
had died or drifted--and you know
hat memory VIII do to you ~hen
she keeps company with remorse!
So she said to the one old com
Danion who still hung around--a
widow who had to work-that she
wouldn't stay in this Washington II
she owned the White House to i've
in, and that she was going TO try
Chicago.
The widowy woman went with her
to the station, and as the one who
had been Undine-C Gree Cleopatra ct
al was passing through the gate she
dropped her cane and would nave
fallen except for the agents blue
cloth arm. The near-accldent APP
pealed to a. sympathetic bystander
without rag of tact. who e1acu-
lated loud enough for the whole con-
course to hear:
"Oh, the poor old thing
If it be true that suffering atones
for sin, it may be that One more
powerful than an ancestral vampire
permitted the woman to realize
what she had come to; that the stab
in finding the scarlet Of her trans
gressions might wash them winter
than snow But all she said to her
companion was:
Goodbye, my dear. and some
times say a word Of prayer for this
poor old thing"
Tuesday the death notice of I'm
dine, etc, was published in a Chicago
paper. and today
Today, she may be walking the
meads of eternal joyousness with
those whose sorrows have made
them whole" Who knows? And not
knowing, who dares deny?
All of which serves to show what
a nerve that man Romeo had to tell
his girl that there is nothing in a
name.
\ X X
TIER name was Miss August, and
L she inhabited the cover of a
magazine. And in the beauteous face
of her was the nothingness that be-
longs to magazine ladies, dolls and
humans here and there.
The woman who held the maya
zine looked like Fortunes stepdaugh-
ter. If you are not acquainted with
| the type, it means shabbiness. crow
| feet, drum-tight skin and the general
dreariness of an oldish woman who
has never had the fun of being young
And she was saying to the fair, fat
| and over forty woman with her:
| Amt she grand? A girl like that
could get all she wanted in this
| world"
"Oh. beauty amt everything. My
| husband thinks just as much of me
| since I took on fat And you know
how the fellas used to rush me when
1 worked at the bureau"
Apparently. Fortunes stepdaugh ter
| was short of memory. for she failed
| to indorse the "Reminiscences.
IF l could look like her I wouldn't
care what I got to eat or wear"
well. you wouldn't be wanting
| much of either. seeing she's only a
| half portion all bound around with a
| scarf
Hasn't she the loveliest skin and
! hair? l don't believe any woman was
ever as grand looking as that in the
| f1eSh-'
The fat friend gave a sniffy glance
| at Miss August, and her contradiction
| was streaked with personal pride:
'Oh, dino! You'd oughter remem-
J Der how l looked before l took on
| fat"
Foolish. of course, But if Won hear a
] couple of women pattering along like