The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-11-30
THE NEW
GENERATION
MARGARET GIVES A PARTY FOR

By JANE PHELPS
Chapter 8

JOAN.
Chapter 81.
Margaret also gave a party, a small
dinner and afterward a theater party.
Ted and Joan seemingly had forgotten
any feeling the formers remark had
caused when he talked of Margarets
beauty and youthful looks, and were as
good friends as ever. There were no
Told people" there, as Joan designated
her mothers friends, not even Craig
Forester. 1t was Joans party. Mar
garet had told Craig when he begged
her for an invitation. IF sne wants
you why you may come
II am too much of coward to
ask" he returned, anyway 1 know
she would calmly tell me in that self
possessed manner she has that I really
wasn't wanted"
1T was so sweet, of you, Mumsie,"
Joan said just before the young guests
came.
why shouldn't I give a party for
you? I'm your mother even if you
do prefer to live alene.''
Everyone has to be alone, mother,
if they accomplish anything worth
while. There is a whole lot IN invit-
ing, your own soul, getting acquainted
with yourself as it were. Then all your
friends are on a different orbit and
The bell rang just then and as she
waited for the first guest to appear
Margaret thought rather blankly-an-
other idea, something else she had
taken hold ola different orbit. oh,
dear!
The dinner was a success "in spite
of the high-brow talk of these young
things as Margaret afterward told
Craig Forester. 81 JUST wish you
might have heard them. You surely
would have said not one of them
could possibly be under loo. And to
see them they were like a lot of wise
babies. Bobbed heads, freakish ties
and queer dress clothes You see 1 let
Joan invite whom she liked, and il
ever a dinner party was a nash this
one was. Ted Wallaee's expression
as he met them was perfectly killing.
1t was as if he had unexpectedly been
let loose in a menag erie with lot OF
freaks. But I guess he has what Joan
so insistently calls personality or he
wouldn't have fitted in so we'll. He
wearing an old dress because she said
if she didA't some of them would
think she had gone over to the
enemy Did you ever know such a
girl?"
mot You didn't expect me to say
there was another like Joan did you ?
The pattern was destroyed-the mould
also when she was finished. Yet the
little goose gets by with 1t ALL
ooh, Craig, if only you knew how
L
permanent personality, atmosphere! I
wish it were against the law to use
them-and now she has another. We,
you and I are on a different orbit
Whatever she means by that.
yet can't let her know how 1 dislike
all these words she uses so glibly, her
mistaken idea of their real meaning.
She would be terribly wrought up.
And now it is orbit"
Cheer up, Margaret! Marry me
and L promise not to use one of the
Objectionable words as long as 1 live.
words love you"
For such a mixed affair the party
had really gone off well. Joan was in
high feather over it. and all her
friends seemingly enjoyed themselves.
'They certainly enjoyed the dinner,
Mrs. Hayden. 1 guess some of them
hadn't had such a good one in many a
moon, if one was to judge by their
looks and their appetites," Ted Wal
tefs said when Margaret spoke to him,
asking if he thought they had enjoyed
themselves.
Had she given this party in the old
home she would have thought she
must provide some entertainment for
such young guests. But these self
sufficient. young people who did not
hesitate to talk of the weightiest mat
tiers while they slipped their soup-to
discuss Bolshevism, and the Soviet
over their fish. to talk OF ways and
means to help the unemployed of the
nation over their roast=were a new
species to her. They needed no one
to provide entertainment for them.
They entertained themselves
at was so different than when 1
was their age" she said to Craig.
when mother gave a dinner 1 sat
with my hands in my lap, my eyes on
my plate until someone spoke to me,
then after answering 1 resumed what
had been taught was a ladylike p6se
scarcely ate anything at such times,
I was SO overwhelmed by the idea of
sitting at the table"
And you haven't noticed these
young sprouts of the New Generation
being overwhelmed by anything, have
you ?'
NO. and have ceased to expect
(Tomorrow-Ted compares. Joan with
her new friends)