The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-12-05
THE NEW
GENERATION
MARGARET AND MRS. WALTERS
CONFER
By JANE PHELPS


Chapter So
1t seemed to Margaret that time
fairly flew; that there were not hours
enough in the day to do all that this
new life of hers gave her to do. To
Janet Walters she said:
Some day I'm going back long
enough to get rested. l don't mean
physically, 1 never felt so well, SO vital
in my life. But to get my poor brain
rested. I do nothing but think of Joan
every minute; no matter what I am
doing, subconsciously she is always in
my thoughts. And when you are
thinking of one thing and another IS
underlying it, you get brain fag. 1t is
as if my brain were a layer cake, and
the thoughts of Joan were the bottom
layer, the last to leave the plate of my
mind. the first to rest upon it,"
What a comparison Mrs. Walters
laughed heartily. you'll soon be say
ing as quaint things as Joan does"
Did Ted-ten you?" Margaret,
we'll as she knew Janet Walters, felt a
little hesitancy in asking if she knew
of Ted's proposal to Joan. If he had
not told his mother, she would feel al
most as if she had betrayed conf
dence.
Eyes, he told me Joan had absolute
ly refused to marry him." Janet broke
off in another peal of laughter. He
said he even promised to commit
suicide when she tired of him, but she
wouldn't allow the sacrifice"
Il know, She told me that she re-
peated what she once said to me-that
she would never marry unless the man
promised to leave her a widow when
she tired of him"
What an original creature she is!
But I must tell you, Margaret, that
Ted didn't seem as utterly cast down
4 h HOY
fling a little longer and she'll be more
willing to listen to me perhaps
80 I think. This Bohemian bust
ness will surely pail on her after a
time. All her instincts, her early life,
are against the free and easy life and
manners of that crowd of people with
whom she has surrounded herself.
Not that there are not clever, perhaps
brilliant and good ones among them.
But their outlook upon life, upon what
it means, is all wrong from my point
of view. OF course 1 am naturally
conventional. Many things have done
since I came to New York have made
me feel almost ashamed of myself
When I think of my mother and her
attitude toward the life even 1 live.
What she would say of Joan and that
crowd I dare not think. 1 want Joan
to see how shallow much OF that life
she is leading is-that it doesn't make
for her future happiness to tread on
all the conventions. She is singularly
pure and almost innocent, and so sure
of herself that she stands aIoof while
one of them, and they scarcely recog-
nize the aloofness she is so much their
leader"
You think that she may yet marry
Ted-to get back to that?" Then,
81 don't know as I should repeat it,
but Ted told me he never has seen a
girl he cared q rap for except Joan,
that she made all the other girls seem
inspired"
7 have always hoped they would
marry. But don't let Ted be too sure
of her. She is horribly uncertain"
Tied is just as horribly determined"
Mrs. Walters returned laughingly II
tell you, Margaret, we shall see them
married yet"
Z wish I had your faith. But you
know Joan-suppose she does some
thing foolish before Ted gets thru coll
Iege? If he were right here on the
ground I wouldn't be so afraid. But
that Dean Tenant hangs around
Joan, ana one or two others like him,
more than worries me"
'You mean that fellow with the
soiled linen?"
''Yes"
"Don't worry one minute about him.
There's psychology in that linen II you
like to dub it that. Should he propose
to a dainty girl like Joan, she would
see that linen and wonder about his
habits even while he was talking of
his love-
'It isn't his love talk am afraid
Of 1t is his talk of needing her to
bring out the best that is in him"
Then, ooh. why are girls so suscep-
tible to that need men talk about be-
fore marriage? It's the stock In trade
of men like Tenant
Tomorrow-Joan Decides She VIII Be
Financially independently