The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1925-05-08

and clear and flexible and strong! /
like to think of babies mothers say
ing: Now eat your spinach, every
scrap. or you can't have any dessert
1. Carrots make your eyes bright.
4. Tinish your potato. Potatoes
make you strongl'"
Selma laughed, flushed little.
Eyes, but how about hogs? Do you
feel that way about hogs?"
Certainly said Selma, briskly. She
pushed toward him little blue-and-
white platter that lay on the white
cloth near her elbow. Have bit
more bacon, Dirk. One of these nice
curly slivers that are so crisp"
"I've finished my breakfast, Moth
err" He rose.
The following autumn saw him
student Of architecture at Cornell. He
worked hard, studied even during his
vacation.
He would come home to the heat
and humidity of the Illinois summers
and spend hours each day in his own
room that he had fitted up with
long workable and drawing board.
His T-square was at hand; two TRAN
gles-a 40 and 60; his compass;
pair Of dividers. Selma sometimes
stood behind him watching him as he
carefully worked on the tracing paper
His contempt for the local architec-
ture was now complete. Especially
n hn hoI. nrtl,A Nv, tl,n rt.l, loot %
apartment houses that were mush-
rooming on every street in Chicago
from Hyde Park on the south to
Evanston on the north. Chicago was
very elegant in speaking of these;
never called them flats; always
apartments. In front of each of these
(there We're usually six to. building)
was stuck a little glass-enclosed cubi-
Gle, known as Il sun-parlor. In these
sometimes you heard them spoken Of
grandly, as solariums) Chicago dwell
ers took refuge from the leaden skies,
the heavy lake atmosphere. the gray
mist and fog and smoke that so fire.
quently swathed the city in gloom.
They were done in yellow or rose Gre
tonnes. Silk lampshades glOwed there
in. and flower-laden boxes In these
frank little boxes Chicago read its pa
per, sewed, played bridge. even ate
it's breakfast. 1t Eever pulled down
the shades.
"Terrible :" Dirk fumed "Not only
are they hideous in themselves. stuck
No Of 81,
pairs of spectacles: but the lack of
decent privacy. They do everything
but battle in 'em. Have they never
heard the advice given people who live
in glass houses! !"
BY his Junior year he was talking
in large way about the Beaux Arts.
But Selma did not laugh at this. "Per-
haps," she thought "Who can tell
After year or two in an Office here,
why not another year of study in Paris
if he needs it."
Though it was her busiest time on
the farm Selma went to Ithaca for his
graduation in 1913. He was twenty
two and she was calmly sure, the best
looking man in his class. Undeniably
he was a figure to please the eye;
tall. well-bult, as his father had been,
and blond, too, like his father, except
for his eyes. These were brown-not
so dark as Selina's. but with some OF
the soft liquid quality of her glance.
They strengthened his face, somehow;
gave him an ardent look of which he
1at -,
the ardor of that dark glance turned
upon them, were likely to credit him
with feelings toward themselves Of
which he was quite innocent. They
did not know that the glance and its
effect were mere matters of pigmenta-
ton and eye-conformation. Then, too,
the gaze of man who talks little is
always more effective than that of one
who is loquacious.
Selma, in her black silk dress, and
her plain black hat, and her sensible
shoes, was rather a quaint little figure
among all those viyacious, bevoiled,
and beribboned mammals. But q dis
tinctive little figure too. Dirk need
not be ashamed of her. She eyed the
rather paunchy, prosperous, middle
aged fathers and thought. with pang.
how much handsomer Pervus would
have been than any of these, If only
he could have lived to see this day.
Then, involuntarily, she wondered If
this day would ever have occurred,
had Pervus lived. Chided herself for
thinking thus.
When he returned to Chicago, Dirk
went into the office of Hollis &
Sprague. architects. But his work
there was little more than that of
draughtsman, and his weekly stipend
could hardly be dignified by the term
of salary But he had large ideas
about architecture and he found ex-
preston for his suppressed feelings on
his week-ends spent with Selma at the
farm.
"Baroque" was the word with which
he dismissed the new Beachside ho-
tel, north. He said the new Lincoln
park bandstand looked like an igloo.
n A.