The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-10-12
THE NEW
GENERATION
MARGARET BECOMES ACQUAINT-
ED WITH MRS. WALTERS.
By JANE PHELPS
CHAPTER SO

GI1<AL
/. A few days after the ball Margaret
brought about thru Joan and Ted.
Afterward Mrs. Walters laughingly
remarked:
"A child or dog is an open ses-
anne to acquaintance"
You have been a --idow some
time? ?" she then asked Margaret.
Fifteen years. Joan was only a
tiny babe when Mr.. Hayden died"
you couldn't have been much more
yourself" Mrs. Walters laughed. Then:
How coura geous you must be to have
remained alone so long
Il was only 90, and does it require
especial courage to resist companion
ship?''
For an attractive woman like your
self-yes.''
THE children are having a. gay
time" Margaret changed the subject.
What would this popular woman think
if she knew that until the advent of
Craig Forester now nearly year
before, she had had absolutely no at
tention from any man. Margaret Hay
Mrs. Walters know how entirely aleof
from anything of the sort her life had
been.
aren't they?" Mrs. Walters said in
response to Margaret's remark regard
ing the children. 81 am SO glad to
nave GU hnOW d EAIl line JOQI Juan.
She is SO naive, and yet has so much
common sense-an unusual combina-
ton nowadays"
Joan is very trustworthy" her
mother said.
Il saw that at once. You recall the
night the children had the beach fire.
think you had only been here day
or two"
"Only one day"
ST was near the children WHEN it
was proposed. Someone said there
would be no grown person, that they
could do as they like. Then your Joan
spoke up and said: Unless an older
person is with us I shall not come;
One of the other girls ask: Won
your mother let you out unless you
are chaperoned? Joan replied: MY
mother hasn't anything to do with it.
to be common or vulgar, or act IN
a common manner They all sub
sided. Then offered to see they were
properly chaperoned. But l have
wanted to know you ever since That
I do as I please!' of your daughter
was delicious. An actress couldn't
have spoken her lines with more eff
feet"
Joan told the truth. 1 never in
"You mean that you let that young
girl, that child. decide things for her
self?"
Everything"
Tell me how you ever happened te
bring her up that way, WON'T you
please?"
Margaret told her simple story
Told it more in detail than she had
told it to Forester, yet Mrs. Walters
perceived nothing of the Loneliness
which had been Margaret's; nothing
| of the longing now hers. True to hei
determination, Margaret would not al
| low this stranger, this woman so pop
ular with the other sex, to know any
thing of her life that would call forth
pity.
After this the time went swiftly, al
| tho Craig Forester had left the day
after the ball. But it seemed that
| Mrs. Walters knew everyone; at Least
everyone worth knowing. and she in
| troduced Margaret to many charming
and interesting people.
| 1t was what Margaret needed.
| This unaccustomed meeting witt
people of the world, this rubbing Of
! wits, this urge to dress and look hel
| best, all walked something long dor
| mant in Margaret, and at times sht
fairly scintillated.
Forrester's departure had so pleased
Joan that on the few occasions wher
| her mother wore the rose and graz
| dress, or did her hair in the manner
he had admired, she made no com
| menU- But also she never IalleQ TO TEL
| Margaret how well she looked wheI
she wore her simple black or white
| gowns, and combed her hair severely
| Yet Margaret could see that joan
| ideas of her, of her age, of what wa
right and proper for her to do wert
| fast undergoing a slight change, and
| that without friction.
Often Margaret looked into III,
1 mirror.
| Forty years old-if Joan married
! at 10 as she had done, she would b,
| free-to do-as she liked-in Iittl,
! over four years. But did she wan
| Joan to marry?
Forty years old
81 should be almost 40, not as oil,
as Mrs. Walters" she told the reflec
ton in the mirror.
CTomorrow-Sweet sixteen.)