The Topeka state journal., 1921-12-10
THE NEW
GENERATION
JOAN KEEPS HER PROMISE.
BIZ JANE PHELPS

JOAN KEEPS HER PROMISE.
Chapter 80.
| Margarets days were crowded but
she always found time to run down
to the studio and help Joan. Often
she took some sweets, or a plate of the
| little cakes she loved just as well as
when Hannah used to make them for
her and her playmates. Then Margaret
/ would remain to lunch with her, and
they would make merry over the
| cooking.
After her first success Joan had two
| disappointments. She had a quaint
way of keeping account OF what she
did. A big sheet of white paper
pinned on the curtain recorded the
article as paid, or as trash.
''It keeps me from becoming stuck
up" she told Margaret when she
| laughed at the short list 1.-TWO fail
ures to one success won't give me a
| swelled head if I have it before me
all the time"
But failure did not mean discourag-
ment with Joan. She realized from
the start that she was in an untried
field and that she must find her way.
She was working very hard-too hard.
Had it not been for the Sunday she
spent with her mother, and the one
evening a week when they invariably
went to see a play, she would have
taken no recreation. But once having
given her promise, nothing would
make her break it-not even her
work.
IF hadn't promised you I wouldn't
come" she said once to Margaret.
But you will"
"Of course I will. always keep
my word"
1t had been characteristic of Joan
when child. She never broke a
promise no matter what the tempta-
ton might be. It had been qualities
of this sort that had given Margaret
such faith in her daughter, tngrained
qualities that seemed as much a part
Of Joan as did her eyes, her hair,
or her teeth.
So Margaret made Joans visit gala
days for her-for them both. All the
things Joan loved to eat were pre-
pared for her by the adoring Han
few people to dinner, not often ana
no one to disturb Joan. Consequently
Craig Forester grumbled.
May I come in to tea on Sunday2"
he begged when Margaret had told
him for the steenth time he was not
there, that she would not go out with
him on what she called 'Joan's days"
'Of course you may drop in Tor tea.
There's always a crowd" Margaret
was very popular in the set IN which
she mingled Her tea hour usually
But if Craig Forrester's coming dis
turbed Joan she did not show it. She
spoke to him frankly, thanked him
for the compliment he had paid her
work by reading the article she had
written, then apparently forgot he was
there. She had forgotten him. She
no longer worried for fear Margaret
would marry him. She reasoned that
had her mother intended to become
Mrs. Forester. it would have hap
pened long before this. Joan had no
slightest idea how her mother felt
about her wish that she remain single.
that she was too old to marry, or that
loving Craig Forester as she had
never loved another, she had deliber-
ately bade her own happiness wait be-
cause of the responsibility that she
felt for Joan'S happiness.
Margaret's position, of course un-
realized by Joan, was quite unlike that
of the usual mother toward the usual
child. OF herself Margaret had made
Joan what she was. She had been
the cause of all that was different
from other girls in her daughter be-
cause of the way she had brought her
up. She felt now that she was re-
sponsible for her, that having done as
she did, she had no right at this late
day to cause Joan to regret that she
hadn't had a. different sort OF a moth
er or been brought up as other girls
had.
You are becoming quite famous,
hear, Miss Hayden" one young man
said to Joan, but. one would not ex-
pect any but a clever daughter of such
mother. am one of her many ad-
mirers. So young, so vivacious-you
look like sisters instead of mother and
daughter"
"Yes?" the rising infection made
the young man uncomfortable. He
had thought to please Joan. Evil
IDENTIFY he had not. So, like many 9TH
ers who find themselves in the same
predicament, he stumbled on: 'I also
hear you are to have a step-father
soon"
your hearing cannot be very acute
It's a lie" Outraged, Joan walked
away, leaving the man in almost a
state Of collapse, innocent of meaning
anything but pleasantries.
"Please never ask that awful man
again. mumsie,' she said when they
were at last alone. HE repeated that
silly gossip about my soon acquiring
step-father. I told him it was a lie"
"Oh, Joan, you never were so rude!
That was Professor Newbury, the
great chemist
(To be continued.)