Evening star., 1921-01-23

q handful of letters. Seeing him pass
Mrs. Overton darted out OF Miss vii.
merding's and led him forthwith into
the shop. Mr.. Glendenning was still
at the window when Doane and the
Overtons reappeared. He assumed
| that they had been partaking of re-
freshments and their high spirits
spoke eloQuently for the cheering
quality OF Miss Wilmerding's brand OF
| tea.
| A MOTHER shock was in store TO,
Mr.. Glendenning. For three sum-
mers he had taken his meals at a
boarding house conducted by Mrs
Adoniram Sharpe, the widow of a
| clergyman who had served long as
| a missionary to the scattered lumber
camps of the region. Mrs. Sharpe
accommodated only few boarders in
| the summer, and these were chosen
with careful regard to their social
standing. Mr.. GIendenning had been
] among those fortunate enough to gain
admittance to her table, and he looked
! upon Mrs. Sharpe as an old friend
! When he presented himself at the
mouse at the supper hour and re-
| celVed Mrs. Sharpes cordial greeting
what was his CONSERVATION to find
Miss Wilmerding already in the par
| lor.
! Miss Wilmerding, Mr.. Glenden-
ming"
! The appearance of the maid to an
nounce supper alone saved Mr.. Glen
denning from collapse as Mrs. Sharpe
pronounced this Introduction. Miss
Wilmerding nodded quick little
nod-and said she was. glad to meet
him. AT least, this seemed to be the
burden OF her remark, but Mr.. Glen
denning was more interested in the
| mlrth that danrad fnr -,
the girls blue eyes. They were very
hne eyes. just such eyes as self-re-
| Spectlng young gentleman prefers
| shall not laugh at him.
| II hope the rains over for a while"
| Miss Wilmerding remarked, casually,
and glancing down at her he won
| dered whether, after all, there had
been any menace in that flash of
mirth in her eyes.
Mrs. Sharpe's table seated ten
never more-and her. guests-she
two sisters, the Misses Palmer. mid
! dle-aged ladies, who had been gener-
Gus contributors to the late minis
! ters missionary work and the mana
| ger OF the electric light plant. Mr..
| GIendenning knew most of them from
previous seasons. The principal of a
| Milwaukee high school required at
once to the proper Interpretation of a
| line In Browning, which seemed to
| nave been debated the previous sum-
mer; Mr.: Glendenning shamefacedly
confessed that he had gathered no
| new light on the subject. Whereupon
the principal charged him with hav-
ing gone over to the imagists, ex-
| pressed her low opinion Of that cult,
| and deplored the recent epidemic
OF vers libre. Miss wilmerding.
Tended vers libre: she thought it time
the American spirit was finding a new
medium in which to express itself.
The milwaukee, l:dy declared that
forms that had been sacred to Shake
speare. Milton and Keats ought to be
pealed to Mr.. Glendenning to sustain
her. This he did. but only half
heartedly. feeling the blue eyes bent
upon him with disconcerting direct
ness.
The young engineer. whose Joyian
lightnings were concealed in the elec.
trio light plant. was bored by the dis
cussion. and announced that Lewis
Carroll. was the only poet who had
ever interested him particularly.
Soup OF the evening. beautiful
SOUP" quoted Miss Wilmerding. zest-
iuiiy. Myself when young did de-
! light In nonsense verse, but I find
Walt Whitman better reading nova
days"
The mention Of Whitman caused the
more austerer Miss Palmer to sniff
disdatnfully. and to avert war Mr..
Glendenning asked, hastily, il she
still clung to her rule Of reading at
least two of Jane Austen's novels
very winter.
Miss Wilmerding waited politely for
miss Palmer to affirm this, which she
did with proud lifting of the head;
| then she remarked:
That seems an awful waste of time,
when there's SO much that's vital
all the great Russians, the real mas
tiers! Dostoyefsky's novels are the
Bibles Of fiction"
! As with one voice, the Misses Pal
mer attacked Miss Wilmerding, who
vigorously but with perfect good ma
ture defended her Russians. Mr. Glen
denning. whose face rarely betrayed
surprise. seemed startled; then humor
glinted for an instant in his usually
expressionless eyes. This passed
quickly when he found the more COM
bative Miss Palmer eyeing him Sc
verely.
"Mr. Glendenning. what do you think
of these attempts of many of our
critics to destroy the confidence of
the new generation in the sanctity of
the old ideals?"
| Really, of course. I share many of
your prejudices. Miss Palmer" he fall
tered, with his sade smile. II should
deplore-greatly deplore-the pass
ing Of the old ideals. It would be
really-a grave loss to mankind"
There must have been something
truly funnk in the world-weary air
with which he uttered this. for Miss
iWilmerding. in the act Of raising a
spoonful of ice cream to her mouth,
laughed so suddenly that the spoon
fell into her plate with most dis
turbing clatter.
noyed by this lamentable occurrence
and shifted the line of attack
IT have an anti-suffrage pamphlet
I'd like to hand you, Miss Wilmer
ding: Til bring it down after supper"
remarked the more combative Miss
Palmer. IT hope you may find time to
peruse it carefully. 1t seems to me
quite unanswerable"'
| A frightened look that crossed Mrs.
Sharpe's face recalled to the obser-
want Mr.. Glendenning that suffrage
I had been a bone Of contention at pre-
vious suppers.
| ANY argument against equal suf-
Jfage," remarked Miss Wilmerdine
,concisely. that refuses to recognize
women as an economic factor, is
ridiculous. Tons Of pamphlets can't
get away from that. II your tract ia
this old home-with-t the babies stun ]
don't care to see it."
'Well. I'm for It" said the engineer,
anxious to precipitate another battle.
"Then, why don't you do something
to help it on?" asked Miss Wilmer
ding. severely. There are a lot of
men who talk like you. but who
never turn up when there's q chance
to help"
This effectually silenced the enei-