The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-12-10
The Story of Julia Page
 By Kathleen Norris

longer m these days; he had been given a larger territory to cover-and Eneline naturally turned for society toward her women neignbors. There were one or two very congenia1 mar same house, p1easure-loving, excitable young women; one, a Mrs. Garter, with two children in school, the other, Mrs. Palmer, trumphantly ch1ldleSs. These introduced her to others. some times half dozen of them would go to a matinee together, a noisy, chat tering group. During the matinee Julia would sit on her mothers lap, a small awed figure in a brief red silk dress and @ deep lace collar. Julia always had several chocolates from the boxes that circulated among her elders, and usually went to sleep dur ing the last act, and was dragged home, blinking and whining and wretched, by one aching little arm.
 George was passionately devoted to his little girl, and no toy was too expensive for Julia to demand. Elm cline loved the baby, too, although she accepted as a mart tyrdom the re- sponsibility of supplying Ju1ia's needs. But the Pages themselves rather drifted apart with the years. Both were selfish, and each accused the other of selfishness. although, as Elm cline said stOrmily, no one had ever called her that before she was mar he himself had always been popular ity's self amonS the Fellows
 In all her life Emeline had never felt anything but a resentfuI impa- tisnce for whatever curtailed her Eb- eTty or disturbed her comfort in the slightest degree. She had never settled
 down to do cheerfully anything that she did not want to do. She had sha.k-
 en off the claims of her own home as
 lightly as she had stepped from 'Del- phine's'' to the more tempting posi-
 tion of Georges wife. Now she could
 not believe that she was destined to
 ing a, confirmed dyspeptic, who thought she was a poor housekeeper,
 an extravagant shopper, a wretched
 cook, and worse than all, sloVen
 about her personal appearance. Fine
 line really was all these things at live on with a man who was becom-
 times, and suspected it, but she had else, and she denied all charges noisly.
 One night when Julia was about four George stamped out of the house, after a tdrade against the pre- Vailing disorder and some insulting remarks about "delicatessen food" Emenne sent a few furious r9rnarks | after him, and then wept over the sliced ham, the potato salad, and the Saratoga chips, all of which she had brought home from a nearby delicacy shop in oily paper bags only an hour ago. She wandered disconsolately through the four rooms that had been her home for nearly six years. The dust lay thick on the polished wood and glass of the sideboa.rd and glass closet in the dintng-room; ashes and l the ends of cigarettes filled half a dozen. little receptacles here and l there; welter of newspape had formed a great drift in a corner of I the rosorn, and the thick velour day cover of the table had been pushed | back to make way for a. doubled and l spotted tab1ecloth and the 6espised | meal. The kitchen was hideous with | confusion of souring bottles of milk, | q irrfU h9 ends leaves | and a sticky jam jar or two; Fine | lines range was spotted and rusty, 1 she never fired it now; 8. three-bur- | ner gas plate sufficed for the fam1ly'S s needs. in the bedroom a dozen gar | mentS were flung over the foot Of the l unmade bed, Julia's toys and clotn- l ing filtered this and the sitting-rooIn. | the silk wool had been worn away on 1 the heavily upholstered furniture l and the strands of the cotton wa-T
 separated to show the white lining
 beneath. On the nlantel was a litter l of medicne bottles and theatre pro- | grams, powder boxes, gloves and slip 1 pers packages of gum and of cig- | arettes, and packs of cards, as well as more ornamental matters: china | statuettes and glass cologne bottles, 8 | palm-1eaI fan with roses painted on it, a pincushfon of redwood bark, and
 Q plush ro1Iing-pin with brass screws 1 in it, hung by satin ribbons. Over al 1 lay a thick coat of dust.
 | Emeline took Julia in her lap, anc
 sat down in one of the patent rockers She remained for a long time starins
 out of the front window: George's l words burned angri1y in her memory l-she felt sick of life.
 | 4 spring twilight was closing dowr
 upon OFarren street. In the row o1
 houses opposite Bmeline could set
 sits of gas light behind lowered
 shades, and could look straight into
 the second floor of the establishment that fourfshed behind a large agT bearing the words, "OConnor Modes.'' This row of bay-windoweC houses had been occupied as home:
 by very good families when the Pages first came to OFarreH street, but si1
 years had seen great changes in the
 block. A grocery and bar now occu 1 pied the corner, facing the satoor above which the Pages lived, and the respectable. middle-class families hat l moved away one by one giving place to all sorts of business enterprises
 first fioors and rented the uppel rooms; one window said Claire l Palmist" and another 'Vtolin Les
 sons,'' one basement was occupied b5
 a dealer in plaster statuary and an
 other by a little restaurant. Mos interesting of all to the stage-lovinf
 Emeline was the second floor, ob
 liquely opposite her own, which oort
 an immense sign, 'Gtottoi, Wigs ane tsorts Designed and on Hand Be tween Gottolis windows were two painted panels representing respec. lively a very angular, noustacnec young man in a dress suit ana a glr in a Spanish dancers costume, with { 1 tanbOurine. Gottoi did not do a yer! f1ourishing business, but EmeHn' watched his doorway by the hour
 and if ever her dreams came bacl ! now, 1t was at these times.
 CContinued Monday
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