The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-09-01
THE NEW
GENERATION
By JANE PHELPS
MARGARET Is ABSORBED IN
MOTHERHOOD.
CHAPTER 4.

Margaret Hayden always had been
yielding, SO her child was a constant
joy to her in that she was not.
Il do not want her to yield her
opinion to others!" she declared to
herself.
That child sure has a mind of her
own" Hannah said to her mistress
one day. There amt nobody going
to set on herr
I'm glad of it, Hannah"
so be I. Girl-children has hard
times enough even if they do get their
own way"
Margaret Hayden had passed the
30-year milestone, epochal in every
womans life. Possessed of a dark.
glowing beauty that most men would
have admired had they been given a
chance, she nevertheless held herself
aloof from them-and SO from the
knowledge of her power over them.
If there was romance in Margaret's
nature, it had lain latent SO long that
she was not aware of its existence.
She possessed all the virtues men look
for in a wife, which made it the more
remarkable she had escaped their no
tice. She had physical charm, a won
derfully Womanly disposition; refined,
cultured, charming, she remained sim
ply Joan's mother. free of masculine
attentions, untrammeled of love COM
pIications.
The flight of the years did not
alarm her. Apparently she was salts
fled to go on in her solitary way, un-
shackled by bonds of any sort save
those which bound her to Joan.
Strangely, there was no rift in the
lutte of Margaret's happiness. She de-
sired nothing. longed for nothing save
the happiness of her child, her undis
puted companionship with the little
Joan.
"She sure do have her own way"
Hannah would say over and over when
mother and child were together, Mar
garet as wax in Joan's hands. shes
Z liz imp, that's what she is, sure
enough" but the chuckIe that invatia-
bly, followed, showed that Hannah did
not consider being an imp" altogether
undesirable.
Joan never was refused answers to
her questions, never told to run along
and play as children SO often are.
Margaret never was too busy TO give
her entire attention to. the child, never
too much occupied to answer patiently
all questions Joan asked.
Would it seem that the child were
selfish? Quite the contrary. She was
an impulsiVe, generous, if incense
quential little creature. To do as she
pleased was her inalien2ble right-so
She had been taught; so she believed.
But her impulses we're all toward
the wholesome, the good. Not that
she was perfect, far from it. She had
temper, which she sometimes dis
played-to her mothers horror, but
never to her correction. She was IN
soIent always, but it was the insolence
of being what she was; the outgrowth
of her assurance that she was-as her
mother had taught her-a real hu-
man being with the right to express
herself.
There's more OF the good than the
bad in her." Margaret unused. she
will cona thru all right "
At times Margaret wondered what
her mother would say did she know
of the sort of upbringing her grand
daughter was getting. She smiled
reminiscently as she recalled her own
how every impulse was
curbed as soon as felt, until she ceased
to have any natural emotions of any
sort.
She also recalled how terribly un-
happy she had been in her cAildish
way because she/ was not allo Red to
mingle with boys and girls of her
own age in a free manner.
That gave her rather a shock
Joan was getting to be big girl
She must make friends so that Joan
might have friends. Deliberately she
comm enced to cultivate a few of the
women she had met who had daugh-
tiers of Joan's age. She gave little teas
and simple parties for Joan, to which
she invited both boys and girls. She
watched over them but in such man
ner as not to make them feel her
chaperonage.
your mother is a brick." one of J
the boys told Joan.
"Of course was her answer. She
might have added, isn't she my
mother?"
Those, of the boys and girls she ad-
mired, Joan cultivated to the abso-
lutte neglect of the others.
''They bore me to death. shan't
have them here again." this 12-year-
old girl said to her mother, and went
Then Joan did something that for
the first time made Margaret bite her
lips to hold back a reprimand.
(Tomorrow-Joan has her hair